The Guardian newspaper, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, hosts an interesting ‘Poverty Matters Blog’. Food for thought by 2050 Leading scientists say meat grown in vats may be necessary to feed 9 billion people expected to be alive by middle of century This blog posted an article two months ago on … Continue reading
‘Kenya’s livestock farmers were hardest hit as a result of the death of their animals from the Rift Valley fever disease outbreak in 2006/2007, with total economic losses from livestock deaths valued at over 7.6 million US dollars, researchers revealed. ‘According to the researchers at the Market Opportunities Theme of the International Livestock Research Institute … Continue reading
Even though global warming is not increasing temperatures in the tropics as much as in the northern temperate zone and the Arctic, the metabolic effects on cold-blooded creatures that live there, such as this caiman lizard, will be greater than on creatures living farther north. (Credit: Tim Vickers/Wikimedia Commons) Newswise and the University of Washington … Continue reading
Milk from a dairy cow kept by a household in the highland farming community of Embu, Kenya, generates a regular income that helps this family pay for their children’s school fees (photo by CGIAR/Mann). Agricultural systems analyst Mario Herrero, of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), takes issue this week with a paper published 4 … Continue reading
Widowed farmer Maria Ngove feeds a goat at her home in Lhate Village, in Gurue District, Zambezia Province, in Mozambique (photo ILRI/Mann). The UN Wire reports on 30 September 2010 the following among take-away messages from last week’s UN Millennium Development Goals Review Summit, the Clinton Global Initiative and the UN Week Digital Media Lounge: > … Continue reading
‘Like millions of other farmers across Pakistan, Abdur Razzaq of district Kot Addu lost the majority of his crops and livestock to the floodwaters that swept through the country in August. He estimates his financial loss this year around $3,000 – a huge blow given the poverty in rural Pakistan. ‘But his problems are compounded … Continue reading
Dairy cows, buffaloes and other livestock are kept in India’s urban as well as rural areas (photo by ILRI/MacMillan). ‘. . . Urban agriculture can . . . have important benefits for food security. Although the impact might be small, it can be crucial for some groups of society, such as the urban poor as … Continue reading
Andrew Revkin responds to a reader in Dot Earth who says moral responsibility to help people stops at one’s national borders. ‘Toward the end of a week focused on how the world’s rich can foster progress at the other end of the Slinky of social and economic progress, a reader here posted a provocative comment. … Continue reading
US President Barack Obama delivered a speech this week (21 September 2010) at the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development goals that ‘mixed soaring rhetoric with ground-level truths’. Obama said that providing aid to the poorest countries can directly contribute to the security and prosperity of the wealthiest countries–a framework for a new policy … Continue reading
Cattle and other livestock being trekked north in a great annual transhumance that takes place during the cropping season in Niger (photo by ILRI/Mann). Over at Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog, Luigi Guarino has this to say about a new paper in Evolutionary Anthropology summarizing the history of domestic cattle, based on the latest molecular marker data. … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 