One-size-fits-all ‘livestock less’ measures will not serve some one billion smallholder livestock farmers and herders
Advocacy / Biodiversity / Communications / Crop-Livestock / Environment / Food Security / Nutrition / Opinion piece / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock

One-size-fits-all ‘livestock less’ measures will not serve some one billion smallholder livestock farmers and herders

Once again, the debate on sustainable diets and in particular on (not) eating animal-derived products is resurfacing in the media, as illustrated most recently by an article in The Guardian. The paper reported on a study by J. Poore and T. Nemecek entitled ‘Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers’, published in the latest edition of Science magazine. Continue reading

Win in old ‘real-world’ markets by capturing mind shares (claiming bandwidth) in the new ‘narrative markets’
Advocacy / Communications / Markets / News clipping / Policy

Win in old ‘real-world’ markets by capturing mind shares (claiming bandwidth) in the new ‘narrative markets’

Competing successfully in ‘old’ markets for capital, labour, goods and services no longer suffices. Firms, governments and other actors are compelled to create, contend and collaborate in new markets with distinct features and operating rules—markets for narratives. Continue reading

Livestock fact check – what’s behind the data behind facts on livestock development?
Advocacy / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Animal Production / Communications / Data / Knowledge and Information / Livelihoods / Livestock / Pro-Poor Livestock / Research / Zoonotic Diseases

Livestock fact check – what’s behind the data behind facts on livestock development?

Facts and data on livestock and sustainable development are often hard to pin down. A set of fact sheets from the Supporting Evidence Based Interventions project at the University of Edinburgh aims to inform discussion and decisions by providing robust, up-to-date and appropriately interpreted facts about some of the big questions. Continue reading

Illegal land sales imperil unique treasure—by Jimmy Smith
Communications / Directorate / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Opinion piece / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Research

Illegal land sales imperil unique treasure—by Jimmy Smith

The following opinion piece was written by Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). and published in the Daily Nation (Kenya) on 15 January 2018.
The vibrant and rapidly growing local livestock sector contributes more than 40 per cent of revenues and employs half of the labour force in Kenya’s agriculture industry.
Now, the greedy actions of a few are threatening the future of many millions of people and decades of livestock research.
Also lost in the lawless Kapiti land grab is that the Ilri station is a vital wildlife corridor and dispersal area for Kenya’s Southern Conservancy Area. Continue reading

ILRI and Farm Ink ‘Facebook project’ to track livestock diseases in Kenya among five winners of research grants
Animal Diseases / Award / Communications / Data / Diagnostics / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Event report / Geodata / ILRI / Kenya / Knowledge and Information / LiveGene / News clipping / Pro-Poor Livestock / Research / Zoonotic Diseases

ILRI and Farm Ink ‘Facebook project’ to track livestock diseases in Kenya among five winners of research grants

The CGIAR Platform on Big Data in Agriculture has awarded five research proposals USD100,000 each during its inaugural convention 19–22 Sep 2017. Using Facebook to track the spread of livestock diseases and your smartphone to diagnose crop diseases in realtime, could soon be a reality thanks to a series of research grants awarded by the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture. Continue reading

Measuring greenhouse gas emissions of diverse livestock systems is a first step in shrinking carbon ‘hoofprints’
Advocacy / CCAFS / Climate Change / Communications / Consumption / Directorate / Environment / ILRI / ILRIComms / Opinion piece / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / SLS

Measuring greenhouse gas emissions of diverse livestock systems is a first step in shrinking carbon ‘hoofprints’

We can shrink the carbon footprint of livestock, but we need to properly measure their emissions first. Opinion piece written by Polly Ericksen. Continue reading

Livestock institute leader Jimmy Smith makes the case for sustainable livestock development—Food Tank webinar
Animal Production / Animal Products / Communications / Consumption / Directorate / Event report / Food Security / ILRI / Interview / Livelihoods / Presentation / Pro-Poor Livestock

Livestock institute leader Jimmy Smith makes the case for sustainable livestock development—Food Tank webinar

Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in a webinar today hosted by Food Tank, presented the case for sustainable livestock development in low- and middle-income countries helping the world achieve food and nutritional security. Continue reading