Category Archives: Kenya

A4NH / Africa / Agri-Health / Animal Diseases / Emerging Diseases / Environment / Epidemiology / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / Opinion piece / RVF / Zoonotic Diseases

Animal-to-human diseases spreading with environmental changes–ILRI’s Delia Grace in The Guardian

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Villagers watch on as a team restrains a small pig for blood sampling in Luang Prabang, Laos (photo credit: ILRI/Kate Blaszak). Delia Grace, an Irish veterinary epidemiologist and public health expert at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), says shifts in forest cover, agricultural practices, mining and reservoirs are thought to be affecting the transmission … Continue reading →

Books and chapters / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Sudan / Tanzania / Vulnerability / Wildlife

Dynamic pastoral change: A new look at the Horn’s resourceful, innovative livestock peoples

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(Left) water gourd, Kenya, Northern Frontier District, Boran or Gubbra tribe, on loan from Gary K Clarke, Cowabunga Safaris; (right) calabash, Kenya, Maasai, on loan from Gary K Clarke, Cowabunga Safaris (photo credit: Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library / Betsy Roe). A new book from the STEPS Centre, in the UK, takes a fresh look at … 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 →

Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / Film and video / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

CNN publishes major story and video about livestock insurance project helping herders in northern Kenya

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ILRI is working with insurance companies to train livestock herders in Kenya’s northern drylands in the benefits and costs of a new index-based livestock insurance first made available in Marsabit District in 2010 (photo credit: ILRI/Andrew Mude). CNN has published a major story on a major breakthrough—a project that is insuring never-before-insured livestock herders in … Continue reading →

Burkina Faso / Climate Change / Directorate / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Eritrea / Ethiopia / Food Security / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Mali / Niger / Nigeria / Pastoralism / Policy / Senegal / Somalia / Sudan / Uganda / Vulnerability / West Africa

Hunger in Sahel worsens as ‘lean season’ begins: ‘The worst is yet to come’

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Football legend Raul Gonzalez, Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), learns while speaking to goat herders in Chad that protecting people’s livestock is essential for preventing them from falling into the danger zone during the current food crisis. Livestock will also be essential, the people say, for helping them to … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Film and video / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

Livestock insurance for the Horn: Looking back in anger, forward in hope–CNN video

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A new CNN video—Protecting farmers against drought—describes the benefits of ILRI’s Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) scheme in Kenya’s Marsabit District, runtime: 5:44, 11 Jun 2012 (CNN Marketplace Africa). Watch the video     Read the transcript Some half a year after the drought that devastated large parts of the Horn of Africa broke towards the end … Continue reading →

Camels / Cattle / Climate Change / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Ethiopia / Goats / ILRI / Kenya / Markets / Pastoralism / Project / Sheep / Somalia / Trade / Vulnerability

Foolhardy? Or just hardy? New project tackles climate change and livestock markets in the Horn

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If only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the tropical midday sun, what shall we say of Americans in Alabama and Kenya setting out to learn from, and support, sales of livestock in the hot and drying badlands extending across the Horn of Africa? This is what Peter Little, of Emory University, and Polly … Continue reading →

Supporting dryland pastoralism with eco-conservancies, livestock insurance and livestock-based drought interventions
Biodiversity / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Event / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Research / Southern Africa / Vulnerability

Supporting dryland pastoralism with eco-conservancies, livestock insurance and livestock-based drought interventions

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The wildlfie-rich rangelands of Kitengela, outside Nairobi, Kenya (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). Scientists at the Nairobi, Kenya, headquarters of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) are this week hosting a regional inception workshop on a new CGIAR Research Program on dryland agriculture. Three livestock-based models likely to be discussed at this week’s dryland agriculture workshop … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Kenya / Rwanda / Uganda

Small milk producers, hawkers and service providers turn handsome profits as Kenya’s dairy sector continues to expand

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Milk, the ‘white gold’ of Kenya (photo on Flickr by eadairy, East African Dairy Development project). A booming market in milk in Kenya is enhancing the livelihoods of many poor people—from dairy farmers to milk processors to milk hawkers to the country’s tens of millions of daily consumers of fresh milk. ‘In recent months, milk … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Markets / Pastoralism

Meat exports and livestock jobs could transform Kenya’s drought-stricken northern lands

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The main road running north to Ethiopia from Samburu land, in northern Kenya (photo on Flickr by meaduva). ‘Livestock could turn Kenya’s drought-stricken northern lands into an engine of job creation, rather than a sinkhole for emergency aid, the minister for the region has said. ‘Almost 4 million Kenyans needed food aid in early 2012 … Continue reading →