Nairobi, 27-30 October 2014 hosts the 6th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture. The theme of the conference, ‘Africa’s Animal Agriculture: Macro-trends and future opportunities’ will be addressed in several sessions: Future of smallholder livestock systems in Africa Market access: domestic and regional trade for livestock and their products Market access: high value international markets … Continue reading
Livestock farmers in Africa struggle to access good quality inputs, effective knowledge and fair markets. Regulation of the livestock input sector is very weak in Kenya, allowing unqualified people to open shops selling veterinary pharmaceuticals; many of which are counterfeit or under-strength. This leads to extensive misuse of drugs through poor diagnosis and administration of products. … Continue reading
Livestock farmers and herders in Kenya’s northern Isiolo District will soon be able to insure their animals against drought using an index-based insurance product (photo credit: Raimond Duijsens/NLRC). Three institutions have agreed to a Sh1.15-billion deal to reduce the effects of drought on pastoralists in Isiolo, in northern Kenya, where livestock farmers and herders have … Continue reading
Climate change is a wicked problem, it requires wicked solutions, not business-as-usual. The CGIAR research program on climate change, agriculture and food security (CCAFS) recognised this when they joined up with International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and other partners to look at the potential of social learning and communication approaches to support decision-making on climate change adaptation … Continue reading
Florence Chepkirui, a blind dairy farmer in Saoset village in Kenya’s Bomet District (photo credit: ILRI/Paul Karaimu). The director general of the International Livestock Institute (ILRI) has called for significant investments in the development of Africa’s livestock sector, which he said is rapidly growing. Jimmy Smith told the told participants of a recent three-day Africa … Continue reading
A failed maize crop in Ghana. A report by CCAFS is advising Africa’s farmers and policymakers to adapt to climate shifts now to ensure communities are protected from climate change devastations (photo credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT). The many adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture—from increasing droughts and floods, to more unpredictable and extreme weather patterns, … Continue reading
On Wednesday 26 Jun 2013, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) hosts a ‘livestock live talk’ on Dairy hubs in East Africa: Lessons from the East Africa Dairy Development project. The talk by Isabelle Baltenweck, an agricultural economist at ILRI, and Gerald Mutinda, the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project’s regional manager in charge of … Continue reading
A dairy cow on a smallholder farm in Ol Kalou, near Nairobi, Kenya (photo credit: ILRI/Paul Karaimu). Should farm animals share our cityscapes with us? While policies are often based on the prejudice that urban livestock keeping is unsafe, scientific evidence shows that poor people continue to benefit more than be harmed by raising livestock … Continue reading
Goat in Nairobi slum (photo on Flickr by The Advocacy Project). ‘. . . [L]et’s consider what it means to raise urban livestock in the developing world, where people are poorer and hungrier, and cities are much more densely populated. It’s a starkly different picture of people and animals living together, and the question of … Continue reading
Kenyan children weed a maize plot (photo on Flickr by Care of Creation). ‘A senior Kenyan government official has dismissed last year’s ban on the import of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the country—calling it ill-advised and lacking the backing of law. ‘Romano Kiome, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, says the ban cannot … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 