Author Archives: Susan MacMillan

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Capacity Strengthening / Farming Systems / Fish / Food Security / Innovation Systems / Knowledge and Information / Latin America / Livelihoods / Women

‘Give a woman a fish and she eats for a day, teach her to fish and she eats her for a lifetime’ goes the proverb (sort of); but give her access to markets and she earns a living, and give her community resources to fish sustainably and she can feed the world

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Demetria Solomon, 54-year-old farmer growing maize, potato, sota, green beans (and former secretary of the local irrigation scheme) in Khulungira Village, central Malawi (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). Over at SciDev.Net, David Dickson is making the case for joined-up thinking in development work. ‘A holistic approach is also essential for building the solid infrastructure and social systems … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Farming Systems / Intensification / Livelihoods / NRM / WLE

Intensify–not expand–tropical croplands where you can, new study recommends

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A small-scale mixed crop-and-livestock farmer in Oyo State, Nigeria (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). From the University of Minnesota come this news yesterday of a new scientific paper showing the environmental importance of intensifying rather than expanding tropical farmlands to feed the world’s growing human populations and to provide poor people with livelihoods. ‘According to a study … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Production / Asia / Climate Change / Environment / Latin America / Livestock Systems / Pro-Poor Livestock

Simple livestock production changes could help both farmers and the environment

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Typical smallholder livestock household in Berhampore Village, West Bengal, India (photo credit: ILRI/MacMillan). The following excerpts are from an article by Philip Thornton published yesterday (1 November 2010) in a Global Food Security Blog. Thornton cites a new paper he and his colleague Mario Herrero have published in a prestigious scientific journal that outlines how … Continue reading →

Africa / Asia / Biodiversity / CGIAR / Environment / Indigenous Breeds / Latin America

Crop and livestock agricultural research centres welcome Nagoya Protocol

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A herdsboy rides one of his small native mountain buffaloes in northern Viet Nam (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). Bioversity International and the other 14 centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), including the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), welcome the Nagoya Protocol that was hammered out at the eleventh hour in the central … Continue reading →

Africa / Biodiversity / East Africa / Environment / NRM / Tanzania / Wildlife / WLE

‘Great Migration’ or ‘Great Poverty’: Can wildlife and humans both thrive in the Greater Serengeti ecosystem?

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Savanna grasslands of East Africa (photo credit: ILRI/Elsworth). The New York Times reports on the new road the Tanzanian government is planning on building through the northern Serengeti. Is this road, which could disrupt one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on earth, an economic imperative and an ecological disaster? An environmental imperative and an economic … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Latin America

With Clinton and Shah, will USAID regain its leadership role in development assistance?

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US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton with women from AWARD—African Women in Agricultural Research and Development—during a tour of the headquarters of the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute, in Nairobi, Kenya, 5 August 2009; Sheila Ommeh, a Kenyan AWARD Fellow and geneticist studying Kenya’s native chicken breeds at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), is … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Impact Assessment / Knowledge and Information / Latin America / Research / Women

Find out what’s new at the new Consortium of Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

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Home page of the website of the Consortium of CGIAR Centers. You’ll find news of the new Consortium of Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), to which the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) belongs,  posted by the consortium’s communications officer, Elizabeth Clarke, in the What’s New section of the Consortium website. … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Climate Change / Food Security / Latin America / Livelihoods

Smallholder agriculture key to ‘climate-smart’ growth–Nwanze

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A young woman tends the goats she is fattening for sale in a village near Fakara, in Niger (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). The International Fund for Agricultural Development is arguing for support for smallholder agriculture at the forthcoming week-long Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, which starts today (31 October 2010). The conference … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Food Security

One-third of sub-Saharan Africa, and half a billion Asians, are hungry this year–Africa Progress Panel and FAO

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According to the FAO, the percentage of people living with very high or high undernourishment is 32% in sub-Saharan Africa and 15% in Asia & Pacific (graphic credit: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Two stats leap at at you, fighting for your attention, in the figure above, by the Food and Agriculture … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Breeding / Dairying / East Africa / Kenya / Knowledge and Information

‘Moo-bile’ innovation that tracks cow fertility for small farmers in Kenya wins Apps4Africa competition

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A dairy cow on one of Kenya’s many smallholder farms consumes maize stover, an important supplementary feed in East Africa (photo credit: ILRI). Apropos the recently concluded AgKnowledge Africa Share Fair, held at the Addis Ababa campus of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which highlighted local innovations and how to share them, is this … Continue reading →