Category Archives: Agriculture

A4NH / Agri-Health / Agriculture / Animal Diseases / Bird flu / Emerging Diseases / ILRI / North America / Pigs / Poultry / Zoonotic Diseases

The looming danger of diseases spread from farm animals to people–CNN

Posted on by • Leave a comment

A CNN report this week on ‘The looming zoonotic danger’ makes use of some astounding figures developed by veterinary epidemiologist Delia Grace and her team at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), based in Kenya. ‘We’ve seen an unprecedented rise in infectious diseases in recent decades, 75 percent of which are “zoonotic,” meaning they come … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Brazil / Food Security / Malawi / Opinion piece / Soils

African agriculture: Basket case or bread basket?

Posted on by • 1 Comment

(Illustration on Flickr by Vintaga Posters.) Is Africa an agricultural basket case, or a potential bread basket? Michael Moran, in the GlobalPost, argues the case for the latter. ‘. . . Food security remains a problem in Malawi, as elsewhere in the so-called Guinea Savannah—a huge belt of arable (and largely untilled) land with unpredictable … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Books and chapters / CGIAR / CRPs / Impact Assessment / Research

40-year CGIAR history published: Lots of lessons for the ‘New CGIAR’

Posted on by • Leave a comment

From CGIAR comes a new ‘look back’ at its evolution over 40 years. The book is titled The CGIAR at 40: Institutional Evolution of the World’s Premier Agricultural Research Network. It was written by Selçuk Özgediz, a Turkish national who was affiliated with CGIAR for 27 years, the last several years as management adviser to the CGIAR Secretariat … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Award / BecA / ILRI

ILRI-BecA student Samuel Mutiga receives Norman E. Borlaug ‘Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Fellowship’

Posted on by • 2 Comments

Samuel Mutiga has been selected as a Fellow for the Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Program (LEAP) of the Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows Program. Samuel, a PhD student at the Cornell University, USA, is currently attached to the BecA-ILRI Hub’s Capacity and Action for Aflatoxin Reduction in Eastern Africa (CAAREA) project. … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Article / Award / BecA / ILRI / Staff / Women

Segenet Kelemu receives prestigious TWAS award in Tianjin, China

Posted on by • 1 Comment

The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) awarded Segenet Kelemu the 2011 TWAS Prize for Agricultural Sciences during the 23rd TWAS General Meeting in Tianjin during the 23rd TWAS General Meeting in Tianjin on Tuesday 18 September. Read more about this on the BecA-ILRI Hub website Watch a video clip of the award ceremony … Continue reading →

Agriculture / CCAFS / Climate Change / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Livelihoods / Report

East Africans are taking up new farming practices to cope with climate change—but change too risky for hungry households – Survey

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Dairy farmers in Tanzania. Farmers in East Africa are embracing climate-resilient farming practices but food insecurity prevents many of them from doing more to cope with a changing climate (photo credit: ILRI/Nils Teufel). Smallholder farmers across East Africa have started embracing climate-resilient farming approaches and technologies according to new research recently published by the CGIAR … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Extension / Research

The ‘new extensionist’: Roles, capacities, and strategies to reduce hunger and poverty

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Recognizing the chronic need for strengthening of advisory services around the world, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) was a founding member and co-funder of the recently established GFRAS – the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services.  GFAR and GFRAS need your input! They are preparing an important paper called “The New Extensionist”, proposing … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Dairying / East Africa / Ethiopia / IPMS / Markets / Participation / Value Chains

Participatory smallholder dairy value chain development in Ethiopia

Posted on by • Leave a comment

This case study on Participatory smallholder dairy value chain development in Fogera woreda, Ethiopia: Experiences from IPMS project interventions by Tilahun Gebey, Tesfaye Lemma, Dirk Hoekstra, Azage Tegegne and Bogale Alemu was released by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in July 2012. Market-oriented smallholder dairy in Fogera has an opportunity for growth because of … Continue reading →

A4NH / Agri-Health / Agriculture / Animal Production / Asia / Event / ILRI / Livestock / Zoonotic Diseases

Livestock challenges and opportunities in Asia discussed at regional policy forum

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Increasing livestock production to meet rapidly growing demands in a socially equitable and ecologically sustainable manner has become major challenge for the Asia-Pacific region. To discuss these challenges and to outline elements of a response, FAO, together with ILRI, IFPRI and other partners organized a Regional Policy Forum in Bangkok on 16-17 August 2012. Asia … Continue reading →

Agriculture / CCAFS / CGIAR / Climate Change / Environment / ILRI / Livestock / Livestock Systems / Report

Greening livestock

Posted on by • Leave a comment

This report on Greening livestock: Assessing the potential of payment for environmental services in livestock inclusive agricultural production systems in developing countries was released by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in July 2012. Livestock serve as pathways out of poverty for poor smallholder farmers in the developing world. The production of livestock in mixed extensive and intensive … Continue reading →