Innovation platforms for development oriented agricultural research

Posted on 26 Apr 2011 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

A central question in African agriculture is how to catalyze a more competitive, equitable and sustainable agricultural growth within the context of smallholder production systems, inefficient agricultural marketing, inefficient investments by private sector, and a degradation-prone natural resources base. Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) is a promising organizing concept that builds on the Innovation … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Production / Livestock Systems / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

Pastoralism ‘alive and well’: Reflections from the Future Agricultures Consortium conference on pastoralism in Africa

Posted on 20 Apr 2011 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

In March this year, the Future Agricultures Consortium and Tufts University organized a conference on the future of pastoralism in Africa. We invited some participants to reflect on the discussions in a short video interview. Ian Scoones from the Institute of Development Studies and the Future Agricultures Consortium concludes that pastoralism is ‘alive and well’ … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Animal Production / Crop-Livestock / Dairying / East Africa / Livestock Systems

Sustainable intensification: increasing productivity in African food and agricultural systems

Posted on 5 Apr 2011 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

The February 2011 issue of the journal International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability contains a series of case studies from Africa on ‘sustainable agricultural intensification’ -“defined as producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts and at the same time increasing contributions to natural capital and the flow of environmental … Continue reading →

Animal Products / Camels / Dairying / Livestock / Middle East

Camelicious … World’s first large scale camel dairy farm

Posted on 4 Apr 2011 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • 5 Comments

Intensive camel farming, mechanised milking, camel milk chocolate, frothy camelcinos and strawberry-flavoured camel milk, all from a 2,000-strong herd of calm, friendly, well-behaved camels? Not quite the picture of Bedouin desert nostalgia you’d expect from a camel farm in the desert. Emirate’s Industry for Camel Milk and Products, better known as Camelicious, does things a … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Asia / Extension / Film and video / India / Knowledge and Information / South Asia

Video with farmers helps to amplify agricultural extension and learning

Posted on 3 Apr 2011 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

In February 2011, Rikin Ghandi spoke to people on the ILRI campus about the work of Digital Green to reinforce agricultural extension through the use of participatory video with farmers. More on Digital Green Continue reading →

Animal Products / Asia / Emerging Diseases / Food Safety / India / South Asia / Zoonotic Diseases

Safety of animal source foods with an emphasis on the informal sector in India

Posted on 27 Mar 2011 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

Animal source foods, such as milk, dairy products, eggs, fish and meat, are important sources of nutrition and their production and processing supports the livelihoods of millions of poor farmers, traders, retailers and other value chain actors (many of them women) while providing cheap and nutritious food to large numbers of poor consumers. In India … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Production / East Africa / Livestock / Livestock Systems / Pro-Poor Livestock

Focus of livestock policies in Horn of Africa can be sharpened

Posted on 20 Mar 2011 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

The IGAD Livestock Policy Initiative just published a working paper on “Livestock and Livelihoods in the IGAD Region: A Policy and Institutional Analysis.” The paper recommends that first and foremost, the dominant ‘production and market access’ narrative should be enhanced by a development paradigm that also appreciates the many livelihoods services provided by livestock, including … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Central America / Directorate / ILRI / ILRIComms / Research

Dialogue on Ethiopian Agricultural Development

Posted on 11 Mar 2011 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • 3 Comments

This Proceeding by ILRI on Dialogue on Ethiopian Agricultural Development was released on 1 March, 2011. The dialogue on Ethiopian Agricultural Development was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to honour Professor Gebisa Ejeta, winner of the … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / Emerging Diseases / Livestock / Wildlife / Zoonotic Diseases

A conceptual framework to support one-health research for policy on emerging zoonoses

Posted on 6 Mar 2011 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

From The Lancet: “In the past two decades there has been a growing realisation that the livestock sector was in a process of change, resulting from an expansion of intensive animal production systems and trade to meet a globalised world’s increasing demand for livestock products. One unintended consequence has been the emergence and spread of … Continue reading →