Boran cattle in Yabello, Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/ Camille Hanotte). By Thumbi Mwangi, Washington State University A majority of rural households in Africa keep different livestock species. But only a small proportion can afford to keep good quality livestock. This is mainly due to a combination of low government funding and the poor policies of external … Continue reading
Category Archives: Kenya
AGRF session on transforming dairy value chains in Africa: Pathways to prosperity
Originally posted on ILRI policies, instititions and livelihoods program:
On 8 September 2016, the International Livestock Research Institute and partners hold a working session at the 2016 African Green Revolution Forum on transforming dairy value chains in Africa: Pathways to prosperity. Speakers from ILRI, GALVmed, Land O’Lakes and Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries…
The journal ‘Science’ publishes Q&A with Borlaug Field Award winner Andrew Mude
The journal ‘Science’ publishes Q&A with Borlaug Field Award winner Andrew Mude Continue reading
Food prize puts Kenyan researcher on global map—Kenya’s ‘Business Daily’ newspaper
Even with the Tuesday announcement that he had won the award, Andrew Mude, who holds a doctorate in economics, remains a modest man committed to resolving the dilemma that pastoral communities, especially in northern Kenya, have endured for decades. When he was named winner of the 2016 World Food Prize’s Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application this week, he could barely hold back his emotions, as the reality of his achievement hit home. Continue reading
Breaking the devastating impacts of drought in the Horn of Africa—Kenyan wins global agricultural research award
Kenyan scientist Andrew Mude won the 2016 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application on Tuesday for developing livestock insurance, using state-of-the-art technologies, for herders in East Africa’s drylands. Continue reading
Africa’s indigenous land grabs—African middle-aged public-sector urbanites in rush to buy farmland
The popular obsession with foreign land grabs is wrong-headed, says Isaac Minde of Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro. If there is a land grab in Africa, it is being done by African urbanites. Continue reading
Greenhouse gas emissions from African cattle excreta less than estimated
Using the state-of-the-art laboratory established in 2015 in Nairobi called the Mazingira Center, scientists are measuring greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in Africa, key to improving the accuracy of emissions data for both national reporting and mitigation. Already, scientists found that Tier 1 emission factors established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) overestimate both methane and nitrous oxide emissions from cattle excreta, given typical smallhoder practices in Eastern Africa. Continue reading
Protecting cattle against East Coast fever to boost dairy production in western Kenya
Since early 2016, AVCD dairy has been working to facilitate farmers’ awareness on the availability and access to ECF vaccines. ILRI has partnered with the county government to expand the distributional reach of the vaccine and improve vaccine delivery. Continue reading
Easing bottlenecks to uptake of dairy farming in western Kenya
Through the recently launched Feed the Future Kenya Accelerating Value Chain Development (AVCD) Program, ILRI has partnered with county governments and other actors to promote dairy production in western Kenya. Continue reading
Brachiaria: The ‘wonder grass’ that could transform African dairy
Sourcing fodder poses a big headache to many dairy farmers. Brachiaria, a grass repatriated to Africa from Brazil, is good for grazing, can be baled as hay, and increases milk production. Continue reading