Seyoum Leta, Bio-Innovate Program Manager, at the First Bio-Innovate Regional Scientific Conference at the United Nations Conference Centre, Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 25–27 Feb 2013 (photo credit: ILRI/Apollo Habtamu). ‘Capacities in biosciences in various sectors are scarce and scattered in Africa, Bio-Innovate Program Manager Dr. Seyoum Leta said Monday in Addis Ababa at … Continue reading
Category Archives: Ethiopia
Third Dialogue on Ethiopian agriculture to discuss agricultural research in the face of climate change and food security
The third Dialogue on Ethiopian Agriculture with the theme “Agricultural Research for National Development in the Face of Climate Change and Food Security” will take place on March 9 and 10, 2013 at Haramaya University. The Dialogue aims to provide a platform to deliberate on policy issues and strategies pertaining to agricultural education, research, technology … Continue reading
Livestock herders in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia insured against drought for first time
Cattle herders at Goraye in Ethiopia’s lowland Oromiya region (photo on Flickr by Andrew Heavens). ‘The drylands of East Africa are home to millions of pastoralists, herders who move from place to place in search of water and pasture for their livestock. Drought years are tough for these families, who depend on their animals—cows, goats, … Continue reading
An old-fashioned disease threatens ancient culture / emerging economy: TB in Ethiopia
ILRI’s ‘A disease called poverty’ poster: An old-fashioned deadly disease is emerging from an ancient culture and an emerging economy (poster credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). ‘Ethiopia has the largest cattle population in Africa. The vast majority of the national herd is of indigenous zebu cattle maintained in rural areas under extensive husbandry systems. However, in response … Continue reading
New project promises better ‘LIVES’ for Ethiopia’s livestock and irrigation farmers
A baseline survey was conducted for the Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project in Sidama (Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region), Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Kettema Yilma). ‘The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) have launched a new project called “Livestock and [Irrigation] Value Chains for … Continue reading
Refining livestock feed assessment tools – ILRI’s work in 2012
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
The ‘happy strategies’ game: Matching land and water interventions with community and landscape needs
In mid 2011, Catherine Pfeifer, ILRI/IWMI researcher in the Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC), posed us a challenge: What kind of exercise could we do that would combine ‘expert’ knowledge of land and water practices with the needs of ‘landscapes’ and communities where these could be applied. The result should be some validated ‘best bet’ … Continue reading
Investing in rural knowledge: IPMS helps build Arbisi primary school in Ethiopia
Over the past six years, the Improving productivity and market success (IPMS) project has touched the lives of many Ethiopians at different levels, in different ways and times. For some, it was a stepping stone to the next level in life, or a means to find a purpose, or a way to achieve the greatest … Continue reading
Ethiopia TV broadcasts series on the empowerment of rural women
The Improving the Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian Farmers project was recently approached by the producers of ‘Egna’ TV program, one of the well-known evening Ethiopian TV shows, to document the project’s work on rural women empowerment. Egna’s producer, Gelila Media and Advertisement PLC produce and broadcast TV shows focusing on ways that … Continue reading
Crop-livestock farmers in Ethiopia’s Blue Nile Basin supported in climate adaptation
Last week a project to ‘enhance communities’ adaptive capacity to climate-change-induced water scarcity in drought-prone hotspots of the Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia’ held a farmers’ field day at Kabe Watershed. More than 90 farmers, researchers, extension experts, staff of non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders met to share lessons on what farmers have practiced and benefited … Continue reading