Animal Health / Central Africa / Congo-DR / Disease Control / Goats / ILRI / PPR / Sheep / Small Ruminants

A livestock plague is killing Congo’s goats and sheep

Goat and people share a road in Goma, DRC (photo on Flickr by Robert Guerra). Voice of America is reporting on a new livestock epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The highly contagious viral disease is known as ‘peste des petits ruminants’, or PPR for short, sometimes as ‘ovine rinderpest’, and more … Continue reading

Dairying / Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Human Health / Nutrition / Pastoralism / Report / Vulnerability

Dry-season milk supplies to pastoral children improves their nutrition, development and health

Fresh camel milk from Somali youths (photo on Flickr by G A Hussein). The Feinstein International Center, at Tufts University (USA), has published a report of a study on the impact of dry-season livestock support on milk supply and child nutrition in Somali Region, Ethiopia. Ethiopia’s Somali Region is the easternmost of Ethiopia’s 9 ethnically … Continue reading

Agriculture / Ethiopia / Food Security / Ghana / Nutrition / Presentation / Tanzania

President Obama: Sustaining commitments, speeding things up, for African food security

Last week at the 2012 G8 Summit in the USA, Oxfam International asked world leaders to join smallholder farmers and developing countries to fight hunger by delivering on their previous pledges and recommitting for the future by joining its Grow Campaign (image credit: Oxfam International). Last week, on 18 May and the eve of the 2012 … Continue reading

Agriculture / Kenya / Rwanda / Uganda

Small milk producers, hawkers and service providers turn handsome profits as Kenya’s dairy sector continues to expand

Milk, the ‘white gold’ of Kenya (photo on Flickr by eadairy, East African Dairy Development project). A booming market in milk in Kenya is enhancing the livelihoods of many poor people—from dairy farmers to milk processors to milk hawkers to the country’s tens of millions of daily consumers of fresh milk. ‘In recent months, milk … Continue reading

Agriculture / Dairying / East Africa / Ethiopia / Extension / ILRI / Interview / IPMS / Markets

Market-oriented agricultural extension important for Ethiopia – ILRI tells BBC

The Ethiopian economy is currently witnessing strong growth; however agricultural productivity in the smallholder sector, in dairying for example, is not as high as it could be. The BBC reports on developments in the country, including from a dairy development project of the Dutch development organization SNV. As part of the report, Berhanu Gebremedhin of … Continue reading

ILRI / India / Intensification / Pigs / South Asia

India’s northeast recommends a ‘mission on pig production’

Pigs at the Drestry Farm Industry commercial pig farm, in India’s northeast state of Assam (Sonapur, Karchia Village; photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). In view of the pig production potential in . . . [India’s] Northeast and eastern states, a mission on pig production with focus on strengthening large pig-breeding farms and other infrastructure, incentives for producing … Continue reading

Drought / Drylands / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Markets / Pastoralism

Meat exports and livestock jobs could transform Kenya’s drought-stricken northern lands

The main road running north to Ethiopia from Samburu land, in northern Kenya (photo on Flickr by meaduva). ‘Livestock could turn Kenya’s drought-stricken northern lands into an engine of job creation, rather than a sinkhole for emergency aid, the minister for the region has said. ‘Almost 4 million Kenyans needed food aid in early 2012 … Continue reading

Africa / Animal Production / Climate Change / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Environment / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Livestock / Pastoralism / Project / Research

Coping with drought: Assessing the impacts of livestock insurance in Kenya

In January 2010 the index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) pilot project was launched in Marsabit District of northern Kenya as an effort to help pastoralists manage drought risk, and its pernicious ex ante and ex post effects. A Brief from the I4 Index Insurance Innovation Initiative reports results based on the impact of insurance on households’ … Continue reading

Africa / BecA / Cameroon / Congo-DR / Food Security / ILRI / Nutrition / South America / Tanzania

Guinea pigs for African tables? A ‘Cavy Innovation Platform’ is set up in Cameroon

Cavies (aka guinea pigs) in a special pig pantry off the side of a kitchen in Peru (photo on Flickr by Emile Hardman/QuintanaRoo). Could guinea pigs be a new protein source in Africa? In a special report  on ‘Solutions for a hungry world’ by AlertNet, Emma Batha describes how the raising of guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus), also called … Continue reading

Biodiversity / East Africa / Environment / ILRI / Kenya / NRM / Pastoralism

Lasst die Wildnis leben (Let the wilderness live)

Kenya safari (photo on Flickr by Shawna Nelles). ‘Afrikas Bevölkerung wächst rasch. Das bedroht einzigartige Ökosysteme. Sind Löwe, Gnu & Co. noch zu retten? ‘Doch außerhalb der Schutzgebiete, und das ist der größte Teil der Mara-Region, verschwinden die großen Wildtiere beängstigend rasch. Besonders betroffen sind die Büffel, Warzenschweine und Wasserböcke, Elen-, Topi- und Kongoni-Antilopen, Gnus, … Continue reading