Declan McKeever was a highly gifted and productive veterinary scientist, who made major contributions to our knowledge of a number of diseases that continue to impair livestock production in Africa. Continue reading
Category Archives: Countries
Women, livestock ownership and markets: Bridging the gender gap in eastern and southern Africa
Authored by Jemimah Njuki and Pascal Sanginga, this book provides empirical evidence from Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique and from different production systems of the importance of livestock as an asset to women and their participation in livestock and livestock product markets. It explores the issues of intra-household income management and economic benefits of livestock markets … Continue reading
Improved dairy cows in Uganda: Pathways to poverty alleviation and improved child nutrition
The introduction and dissemination of improved dairy cow breeds in Uganda is arguably the most significant step taken to develop a modern and commercial dairy industry in the country over the last two decades. This IFPRI study uses a nationally representative sample of Ugandan households to rigorously examine the impact of adoption of improved dairy … Continue reading
Cows, missing milk markets and nutrition in rural Ethiopia
In rural economies encumbered by significant market imperfections, farming decisions may partly be motivated by nutritional considerations, in addition to income and risk factors. These imperfections create the potential for farm assets to have direct dietary impacts on nutrition in addition to any indirect effects via income. This working paper from IFPRI tests this hypothesis for the dairy sector in rural Ethiopia, a context in which markets are very thin, own-consumption shares are very high, and milk is an important source of animal-based proteins and micronutrients for young children. Continue reading
Improving the N’Dama cattle breeding program of The Gambia
This document by Karen Marshall and Leo Dempfle was released by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in December 2013. The document is designed to assist countries involved in the project ‘Sustainable Management of Globally Significant Endemic Ruminant Livestock in West Africa’ (PROGEBE)’ to develop plans for N’Dama cattle within their breed improvement programs, following the 3-tier … Continue reading
AgInvest Africa web tool launched to map and track agricultural interventions in Africa
On 27 January 2014, the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System for Eastern and Central Africa (ReSAKSS-ECA) based at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya, launched a web portal on mapping and tracking of agriculture investments in Africa (see http://www.aginvestafrica.org). Continue reading
Understanding power dynamics essential to ensure impact of innovation platforms
Innovation platforms are widely used in agricultural research to connect different stakeholders to achieve common goals. To help document recent experiences and insights, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently published a series of short innovation platform ‘practice briefs’ to help guide the design and implementation of innovation platforms in agricultural research for development. This … Continue reading
Apply for DAAD Africa postdoctoral fellowships and staff exchanges in 2014
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), as a publicly funded, self-governing organization of the institutions of higher education in Germany, promotes international academic exchange as well as educational cooperation with developing countries through a variety of funding and scholarship programs. The purpose is to provide opportunities to post-doctoral researchers and university staff from sub-Sahara Africa to … Continue reading
Vaccine cliff-hanger (‘parasite page-turner’) on Gates’ blog
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation blog, Impatient Optimists, is running a piece about ‘an unusual story . . . unfolding in Africa, where the battle against a cattle-killing disease called East Coast fever is quickly becoming a cliff-hanger.’ The article is written by Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), … Continue reading
New battle starts up against the ‘cancer/malaria’ of cattle in Africa
‘The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has launched the project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the fight against the disease that the agency says kills an animal every 30 seconds in East and Central Africa. Continue reading