Category Archives: Animal Feeding

Animal Feeding / Crop residues / Crop-Livestock / FFD / ILRIComms / India / Intensification / LIVESTOCKFISH / MAIZECRP / South Asia / Trade

Underused maize stover could (should) replace popular sorghum stover as livestock feed in parts of rainfed India

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Maize harvest in the village home of Jashvir Singh Tomar, in northern India, which ILRI scientists visited during a field day held as part of a workshop to develop a tool for feed technology screening and prioritization in Dehradun, India (photo credit: ILRI/Peter Ballantyne). New research by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the the International … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Feeding / ASSP / Capacity Strengthening / CapDev / Drylands / Event report / Farming Systems / Film and video / Fodder / ILRI / Innovation Systems / Intensification / Interview / Nigeria / Uganda / Vulnerability / Zimbabwe

Voices from the sixth Africa Agriculture Science Week 2013

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Change mindsets, embed policymaking, make efficient use of declining biomass, engage the private sector. These and other recommendations of four participants attending the ongoing sixth Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW6) are captured in this short (2:40-minute) video. This science week, organized by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), is being held in Accra, … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Animal Feeding / Animal Production / CGIAR / Food Security / ILRI / Opinion piece / Research / USA

World Bank president on chicken wings, chicken feed, Super Bowl Sunday (and, ahem, CGIAR)

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Chicken wings cooked with honey and soy (photo on Flickr by TheDeliciousLife). World Bank President Jim Yong Kim became a champion and (sort of) celebrity spokesperson for agricultural-research-for-development this week to the delight of those of us in that (not so celebrity) world. The added bonus for the 700 or so staff of the International … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Animal Feeding / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Ethiopia / Feeds / Fodder / Forages / HUMIDTROPICS / LIVESTOCKFISH / Project / Value Chains

Refining livestock feed assessment tools – ILRI’s work in 2012

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Feed is often cited as the first limiting constraint to livestock intensification in smallholder mixed-crop farming systems in developing countries. However attempts to deal with the feed constraint tend to focus on promotion of a fairly standard set of feed technologies with often disappointing results. Our experience is that feed intervention failures can be traced … Continue reading →

Animal Feeding / China / Indonesia / Kenya / Rwanda / Tanzania / Vietnam

Sweet potato roots and leaves for ‘cow cafeterias’ and ‘pig pantries’ in East Africa

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An East African researcher holds handfuls of sweet potato roots and leaves, to be used as animal feed (photo credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT). ‘Pressures from climate change and population growth are increasing the competition for grains as food or livestock feed in countries like Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda. But sweet potato, which can grow in harsh … Continue reading →

Animal Feeding / Crop residues / Dairying / East Africa / Goats / ILRI / Intensification / Kenya / Pigs / Project / Rwanda / Tanzania

Sweet potato–sweet solution: Food for people, feed for animals

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Cassava, potato and sweet potato  trials at high altitude in Rwanda (photo credit: ILRI/Albert Mwangi). ‘Pressures from climate change and population growth are increasing the competition for grains as food or livestock feed in countries like Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda. But sweet potato, which can grow in harsh climatic conditions with minimal inputs, can provide … Continue reading →

Animal Feeding / Asia / Crop residues / Crop-Livestock / Event / Feeds / Fodder / Research / South Asia

Using crop by-products to intensify and sustain food production: Livestock live talk at ILRI on 26 September 2012

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On  26 September 2012, animal nutritionist Michael Blümmel with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) presented an ‘livestock live talk’ on Using crop by-products to intensify and sustain food production at the ILRI campus in Nairobi. View the presentation:   ‘Livestock live talks’ is a seminar series at ILRI that aims to address livestock-related issues, mobilize … Continue reading →

Animal Feeding / Article / Crop residues / Crop-Livestock / ILRI / Soils

Stuck on stubble: Why ‘no-till agriculture’ is a ‘no can do’ on many small farms

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 Rice residues in southeast Punjab, India, prior to the wheat season (photo on Flickr by Neil Palmer). Why are most poor farmers in developing countries not adopting ‘no-till agriculture’ (also called ‘conservation agriculture’)—an eco-friendly, natural-resource-conserving technology that helps conserve soil fertility by eliminating ploughing and keeping the remains of crops on the ground after harvest? The … Continue reading →

Animal Feeding / Climate Change / Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya / Markets / Pastoralism / Project / Vulnerability / Women

New EU-funded project to support Kenya dryland livestock markets and women camel milk traders

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Women herding camels in Kenya (photo on Flickr by Curt Carnemark/World Bank Photo Collection). Polly Ericksen, a senior scientist with the People, Livestock and Environment Theme at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), announced to the ILRI community last Friday new funding from the European Union that will finance a three-year food security project that … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Animal Feeding / Cattle / Climate Change / Forages / Report / Southeast Asia

Improving forage crops in livestock systems shows potential for reducing climate change

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Vietnamese farmers with cattle fodder. A report by CIAT says livestock systems that use improved forage crops reduce the effects of climate change (photo credit: ILRI/Werner Stür). Last week, AlertNet published an opinion piece highlighting recent research by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) on how forage-based systems, which dominate agriculture in the tropics, … Continue reading →