Category Archives: Countries

Agriculture / Asia / Extension / ILRI / ILRIComms / India / Knowledge and Information / South Asia

m-Kisan: Using mobile technologies to strengthen farmer-extension-expert-linkages in India

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This week, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) joins partners in India for the launch of the m-kisan project, part of an mFarmer Initiative funded by GSMA (the worldwide association of mobile operators). In partnership with Handygo Technologies, a mobile value adding service provider for major network operators, ILRI will provide quality content mainly for small … Continue reading →

Dairying / East Africa / ILRI / LIVESTOCKFISH / Markets / PIM / Presentation / Tanzania / Uganda / Value Chains

Interpreting trader networks as value chains: Experience with Business Development Services in smallholder dairy in Tanzania and Uganda

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Today in Nairobi, Derek Baker, Amos Omore and David Guillemois reported on a project to analyze the impact of business development services. It took a preliminary look at the use of network approaches to trade in smallholder livestock systems, and some initial results using data collected in Uganda and Tanzania. View the presentation: 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 →

East Africa / Germany / ILRI / Research / Scholarship

German Academic Exchange Service offers PostDoc positions at ILRI

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Through ILRI/DAAD partnership, DAAD is currently offering up to 4 in-region fellowships for postdoctoral training and research at ILRI.  DAAD is a publicly funded, self-governing organization of the institutions of higher education in Germany. The organization promotes international academic exchange as well as educational co-operation with developing countries through a variety of funding and scholarship … Continue reading →

Animal Production / Animal Products / Asia / Dairying / Pakistan / South Asia

Pakistan launches online dairy guide

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The Punjab Livestock and Dairy Development Board (PLDDB) has launched Pakistan’s first online dairy farming guide. ‘Pak Dairy Info’ gives information on Pakistan’s livestock and dairy sector, breeds suitable for dairy farming, selection of animals, modern dairy farm housing, management of animals at different stages, record keeping, farm sanitation and hygiene, feed and nutrition, reproduction, … 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 →