The development of the financial services sector is emerging as potential boon to agriculture in East Africa, with up to 40,000 farmers in Kenya and Rwanda set to gain from a new insurance scheme targeting losses to bad weather. The scheme comes at a time when Kenya is recovering from a prolonged drought in 2009 … Continue reading
Now men may be able to make babies without women, through a technology that could for the first time allow same sex couples to have their own genetic children. In a technology developed to help in preserving endangered species and improving livestock breeds, scientists have, for the first time, developed an offspring from two males. … Continue reading
In this short (4 minutes 30 seconds) audio interview, the director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Carlos Seré, speaks on why Africa must, and how it can, adapt to climate change. Listen to the podcast Seré says Africa must learn to adapt to shorter growing seasons following findings of a new ILRI study … Continue reading
Head north from nairobi toward Mount Kenya and almost invariably you’ll hit weather. Fog, rain, hail, even snow, all unusual for the equator but a blessing for Mount Kenya’s farmers, who export coffee, roses, green beans and peas to Europe. Once you pass the mountain and descend onto the dusty Samburu plain, however, the weather … Continue reading
Farmer Celeste Sitoe tends to her maize and chickens on her subsistence farm in Lhate Village, Chokwe, Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). ‘Africa will be amongst the hardest hit regions of the world as the climate heats up, threatening the continent’s food security, experts agree. If global temperatures rise 2.0 degrees C, southern Africa will warm … Continue reading
‘If average global temperatures keep rising prices for vital food resources could rise by more than 130 percent, an analysis released in Mexico finds. . . . ‘A study by the International Livestock Research Institute concludes that if temperatures continue to rise, maize prices could increase by 131 percent within the next 40 years. ‘Philip … Continue reading
Inger Andersen, chair of the Fund Council of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and vice president of Sustainable Development at the World Bank during her opening speech at Agriculture and Rural Development Day, a side event at the United Nations climate change conference (COP16), being held in Cancún, Mexico (photo credit: Neil … Continue reading
The 12th Ordinary Summit of the Heads of State of the East African Community is taking place today, 3 December 2010, at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge, Arusha, Tanzania. President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and current chairman of the summit, as well as presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, … Continue reading
Farmer Celeste Sitoe with her maize harvest in Lhate Village, outside Chokwe, in Gaza Province, southern Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). The Associated Press today broke a story that researchers are predicting a ‘gloomy’ future for agriculture in the face of greater and faster warming of the world than expected. ‘. . . [O]n our current … Continue reading
With the rising fuel costs, farmers in Kenya have come up with ways of generating power locally and cheaply. Biogas is increasing becoming a viable alternative to many farmers and especially those in high potential Central Highlands where dairying is common. Read more … (Kenya Agriculture Stories) Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 