Author Archives: Susan MacMillan

Africa / Animal Diseases / ASF / Asia / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Europe / Event / ILRI / North America / Pigs / Vaccines

African swine fever is growing threat to poor and rich countries alike

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Participants of an African swine fever workshop held in July 2011 at ILRI’s Nairobi headquarters: (From left) Raymond Rowland (Kansas State University), David Odongo (ILRI), Richard Bishop (ILRI), Maria-Jesus Munoz (Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal-Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias) and Jose-Manuel Vizcaino (head of the World Animal Health Organisation’s African Swine Fever World Reference … Continue reading →

CCAFS / CGIAR / Climate Change / Environment / Food Security / ILRI / NRM / Opinion piece

Move our global food systems into a ‘safe space’–Memo to G8 from CGIAR’s Bruce Campbell

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Watch this elegant 6-minute film: How to fed the world by 2050: Actions in a changing climate. Film summary: To achieve food security in a changing climate, the global community must operate within three limits: the quantity of food that can be produced under a given climate; the quantity needed by a growing and changing … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Kenya / Rwanda / Uganda

Small milk producers, hawkers and service providers turn handsome profits as Kenya’s dairy sector continues to expand

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Milk, the ‘white gold’ of Kenya (photo on Flickr by eadairy, East African Dairy Development project). A booming market in milk in Kenya is enhancing the livelihoods of many poor people—from dairy farmers to milk processors to milk hawkers to the country’s tens of millions of daily consumers of fresh milk. ‘In recent months, milk … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Diseases / Article / Cattle / CBPP / Genetics / Geodata / Goats / ILRI

Lethal family tree: ILRI research shows livestock bacterium is as old as the livestock it kills

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Aurochs were the ancestors of domestic cattle (photo on Flickr by Marcus Sümnick). Lucas Brouwers, in a blog on Scientific American, has picked up on an interesting genetics study conducted at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, which targets a cattle disease known as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (or CBPP for short). The study … Continue reading →

ILRI / India / Intensification / Pigs / South Asia

India’s northeast recommends a ‘mission on pig production’

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Pigs at the Drestry Farm Industry commercial pig farm, in India’s northeast state of Assam (Sonapur, Karchia Village; photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). In view of the pig production potential in . . . [India’s] Northeast and eastern states, a mission on pig production with focus on strengthening large pig-breeding farms and other infrastructure, incentives for producing … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Climate Change / Geodata

Climate change: Is geoengineering the answer? The danger? Or the necessary fall back?

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This image, from an article on the Explain That Stuff website about geoengineering, is a derivative work based on NASA’s 1972 (public domain) photo Full Earth, courtesy of NASA Johnson Space Center. An article in the New Yorker this month explores our (risky) options for ‘geoengineering’ our ways out of climate change. Will such novel approaches be endorsed … Continue reading →

Event / Intensification / Pro-Poor Livestock

Getting the clever benefits of kinder livestock farming on the ‘Rio+20’ agenda

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A Gloucestershire Old Spots pig rescued from a ‘pastured pork’ operation that kills runty piglets (photo on Flickr by Marji Beach). ‘Human development and biodiversity will not be the only focus of the Rio+20 Earth Summit in June, for which representatives of hundreds of states and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will gather to discuss sustainable development. … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Markets / Pastoralism

Meat exports and livestock jobs could transform Kenya’s drought-stricken northern lands

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The main road running north to Ethiopia from Samburu land, in northern Kenya (photo on Flickr by meaduva). ‘Livestock could turn Kenya’s drought-stricken northern lands into an engine of job creation, rather than a sinkhole for emergency aid, the minister for the region has said. ‘Almost 4 million Kenyans needed food aid in early 2012 … Continue reading →

Animal Breeding / Biotechnology / Cattle / Dairying / Genetics

Dairy scientists of the genomics age: How big data transformed the dairy industry

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Holstein-Friesian cow, Biggle cow book, Philadelphia, W Atkinson Co., 1898 (photo on Flickr by Biodiversity Heritage Library). Dairy scientists are the Gregor Mendels of the genomics age, developing new methods for understanding the link between genes and living things, all while quadrupling the average cow’s milk production since your parents were born. ‘While there are … Continue reading →

Directorate / Event / ILRI / Intensification / Staff / West Africa

IITA and ILRI join forces to ‘unleash the power of crop-livestock synergies’

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A village woman in Niger feeds her sheep with forage she has collected (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) announced last week that they are building a closer crop and livestock partnership  to better address poverty and malnutrition in Africa. The agreement and … Continue reading →