Category Archives: Countries

Australia / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Event / ILRI / ILRIComms / Insurance / Kenya / Launch / PIL / UK

Of cows, camels and ‘charity insurance’ on Kenya’s Somali frontier–The Economist

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Insuring animals who range with semi-nomadic herders across some of the harshest terrain on earth had defeated all previous efforts. Eventually he came across the work of a Kenyan economist, Andrew Mude of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), based in Nairobi. Mr Mude has developed an insurance model that uses satellite images to assess the impact of drought on the vegetation that camels, cows and goats need to survive. . . . Continue reading →

Asia / HUMIDTROPICS / Markets / PIL / Southeast Asia / Value Chains / Vietnam

Linking smallholder farmers to markets in Northwest Vietnam

Posted on by • Leave a comment

A value chain assessment on four agricultural products in Son La Province of Vietnam provides insights into business models linking smallholder farmers to dynamic markets. These are helping us suggest future Humidtropics research-for-development interventions on policies, institutions and markets. Continue reading →

Australia / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Event / ILRI / ILRIComms / Insurance / Kenya / Launch / Pastoralism / PIL / UK / USA

Shelter from the storm (literally): As remote herders get drought-related insurance payments, the heaven’s open

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Livestock market in Wajir, where Kenya’s remote, never-before-insured livestock herders are getting their first protection from drought (photo credit: ILRI/Riccardo Gangale). ‘It was almost inevitable that the day chosen to make the first drought insurance payments in Wajir, in the arid north-east of Kenya, would be the same day the rains came. ‘Herders who lost sheep, cattle … Continue reading →

A4NH / East Africa / Feeds / Finland / Food Safety / FSZ / Human Health / ILRI / ILRIComms / Kenya / Project

Kenya is hotspot for alfatoxin-related deaths–Report

Posted on by • Leave a comment

‘The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has commissioned a research project that will ascertain the levels of aflatoxins in the milk consumed in Kenya. ‘Kenyans consume more than 145 litres of milk per person annually increasing the risks associated with milk-related aflatoxins. Because of the higher milk consumption, especially by young children, pregnant and nursing … Continue reading →

Australia / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Event / ILRI / ILRIComms / Insurance / Kenya / Launch / Pastoralism / PIL / UK

Africa’s first Islamic insurance for herders

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Hassan Bashir is an astute entrepreneur, developing Africa’s first livestock insurance scheme to make payouts compliant with Islamic law, by bringing together Muslim scholars and number-crunching agricultural experts using NASA weather satellites. Continue reading →

Burundi / Cattle / Dairying / East Africa / Ethiopia / Event / ILRI / ILRIComms / Kenya / PIL / Rwanda / Tanzania / Uganda / Value Chains

East African dairy: Donors and stakeholders meet this week in Uganda to better coordinate their development work

Posted on by • 1 Comment

ILRI scientist Steve Staal (in blue) and Gregg Bevier (right) of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), take a close look at a cowshed typical of Kenya’s smallholder dairy sector (photo credit: BMGF/Lee Klejtnot). In its wisdom, an Inter-Agency Donor Group (IADG) on pro-poor livestock research and development agreed in 2013 to explore ways … Continue reading →

A4NH / Agri-Health / Animal Feeding / Animal Health / Animal Products / BecA / Burkina Faso / CGIAR / Dairying / Disease Control / Epidemiology / Film and video / Food Safety / FSZ / Ghana / Human Health / ILRI / ILRIComms / Kenya / Launch / Mali / Nigeria / Project / Senegal / Tanzania

Aflatoxins: New briefs disclose the threat to people and livestock and what research is doing about it

Posted on by • Leave a comment

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 →

A4NH / ASSP / East Africa / Food Safety / FSZ / ILRI / ILRIComms / LIVESTOCKFISH / Pigs / Uganda / Value Chains

Uganda: Where a pig in the backyard is a piggybank for one million households–and rising

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Uganda is the leading consumer of pork in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Over 2.3 million pigs are kept by one million households in Uganda for consumption, says the institute which further indicates that the majority of pigs are kept by women in smallholder households. Continue reading →

CCAFS / Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Event / ILRI / ILRIComms / Insurance / Kenya / Launch / Pastoralism / PIL

Takaful, ILRI payout ‘sharia-compliant’ insurance to drought-suffering livestock herders in Wajir

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Shamsa Kosar, a beneficiary of Takaful livestock insurance payouts made in Wajir, northern Kenya, in March 2014. This novel insurance was made possible by an ILRI index-based livestock insurance research project in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Riccardo Gangale). ‘Takaful Insurance will pay livestock farmers about Sh500,000 for losses incurred during the December … Continue reading →