A newly published Malabo Montpellier Panel report, Meat, Milk & More: Policy innovations to shepherd inclusive and sustainable livestock systems in Africa, ‘highlights options for sustainably promoting growth in the livestock sector, drawing from what four African countries—Ethiopia, Mali, South Africa, and Uganda—have done successfully in terms of institutional and policy innovation as well as programmatic interventions. Continue reading
Category Archives: Mali
New analyses highlight the extent of livestock production in Africa’s drylands
Typical long-horned goats of Abergelle Amhara, Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Zerihun Sewunet). ‘Quantitative information on the importance of livestock systems in African drylands is scarce. A new study by Tim Robinson, of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and Giulia Conchedda, of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), helps to redress this. The study … Continue reading
African drylands: Livestock demand and supply
ILRI’s Tim Robinson maps the changing demand for livestock products and associated changes in production that will be required to meet future demand in African drylands. Continue reading
Assessing the efficiency of extensive livestock systems in harsh environments
The livestock sector will need to provide meat and milk for a growing population, while at the same time limiting its environmental impacts. A recent policy brief from CIRAD shows that extensive dairy systems in Mali can be more efficient than intensive systems in Reunion Island, and just as efficient as semi-intensive systems in western France. Continue reading
Aflatoxins: New briefs disclose the threat to people and livestock and what research is doing about it
A damaged maize cob that, if harvested with clean cobs, can contaminate all the cobs with aflatoxins (photo credit: Joseph Atehnkeng/IITA). ‘The UN World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that billions of people in the developing world are chronically exposed to aflatoxin, a natural poison on food crops which causes cancer, impairs the immune system, inhibits … Continue reading
It can be done: Perfecting the art of survival in the Sahel
Fishermen and Sahelian goats by the Niger River, in Segou, Mali (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). ‘The Sahel region, a vast arid stretch of land linking six countries in West Africa—Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal—is home to some of the most productive pastoralist communities in the world. And yet, assailed by a host … Continue reading
Of platforms and tables, cows and chillies: Scrutinizing numbers in Togo opens worlds of new ideas to explore
Early this month, Jo Cadilhon, an agricultural economist with ILRI’s research program on Policy, Trade and Value Chains, spent four days in Lomé, Togo, facilitating a workshop for a project on ‘Resilience of smallholder agriculture through dairy and market gardening value chains’. In this blog post, he tells how the analysis of data during the … Continue reading
ILRI publie un guide pour l’animation, le suivi et l’évaluation des plateformes d’innovation pour la gestion du bétail endémique
Un manuel intitulé les «Directives pour les plateformes d’Innovation: Facilitation, suivi et evaluation» a été publié par l’Institut international de recherche sur le bétail (ILRI) en mars 2013, en français comme en anglais. Ce manuel est le fruit du travail de Pamela Pali et Kees Swaans, en collaboration avec Jemimah Njuki, Ranjitha Puskur, Abdou Fall, Nancy Johnson, Ndèye Djigal et … Continue reading
Innovation platform facilitation and assessment the focus of guidelines from ILRI
A manual by Pamela Pali and Kees Swaans on ‘Guidelines for innovation platforms: Facilitation, monitoring and evaluation’ was recently published by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Innovation platforms have recently gained ground as a mechanism to help stimulate and support multi stakeholder collaboration in agricultural research for development. Generally, they are a mechanism to enhance communication … Continue reading
Management of globally significant endemic ruminant livestock in Guinea and Mali
Although livestock play a central role in rural development in West Africa, traditional livestock systems are in general characterized by high mortality rates, low reproductive rates and low offtake rates. Furthermore, the presence of trypanosome-infected tsetse flies in the subhumid and humid areas seriously holds back the potential for livestock production. The region’s endemic ruminant … Continue reading