Category Archives: Countries

Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Uganda / Vulnerability

Early famine warnings in Horn not enough: Early action also needed–Economist

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The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) reports on emerging food security conditions related to drought and other climate crises (image on the ReliefWeb website by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United States Agency for International Development Famine Early Warning Systems). The first food to arrive in famine-struck Mogadishu, … Continue reading →

East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Resilience / Somalia / Uganda / Vulnerability

Long-term ‘food aid-plus’ has helped avert famine in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda–Economist

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Children in Kenya’s Watamu District with milk (photo on Flickr by Thomas Blower). An article in this week’s Economist describes the value of helping communities in the Horn of Africa’s to build resilience to recurrent drought. It is this ‘Food Aid-Plus,’ argues the Economist, that has helped avert famine in southern Ethiopia (seeds), northeastern Kenya (school milk … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / Europe / Food Security / Ireland / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

Ireland’s longstanding support for Somalia’s poor and its current fight against another ‘Great Hunger’

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Statue commemorating The Great Hunger in 18th-century Ireland (photo on Flickr by munksynz). Carl O’Brian in the Irish Times yesterday (26 Jul 2011) asks: ‘When does a food crisis become a famine?’ Irish journalists, people, government officials and aid agents have a particular passion for fighting famine, which so devastated their country in the mid-1800s, killing … Continue reading →

Animal Breeding / ILRI / India / Intensification / Poultry / South Asia

India-developed poultry breed increases incomes in the country’s northeast state of Nagaland

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‘A Hyderabad-developed poultry breed has brought about a sea change in the lives of farmers in Mon district of Nagaland. ‘Reduced mortality rates of Vanaraja-bred birds, developed by the project directorate on poultry, Hyderabad, and increased income, has resulted in farmers asking for more supplies of the breed from the Nairobi-headquartered International Livestock Research Institute … Continue reading →

Bangladesh / India / Indigenous Breeds / PIM / Policy / Poultry / Pro-Poor Livestock / Report / South Asia

Backyard poultry keeping and poverty reduction in South Asia: Good practices and good returns

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A chicken forages beneath a farm cart in Brahampur (Arwa Village), in West Bengal, India, near drying patties of cow dung that will be used as cooking fuel (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). A South Asia Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Programme, a joint initiative of the National Dairy Development Board of India and the United Nations Food and … Continue reading →

Climate Change / Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

United Nations upgrades drought in southern Somalia to famine status

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An elderly Somali woman arrives at Dadaab refugee camp, in northern Kenya; despite the dangers, thousands of refugees every week are making the journey south from Somalia into Kenya, walking for weeks across the desert and braving attacks by armed robbers and wild animals; Dadaab is now the world’s largest refugee camp, supporting more than 370,000 … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

Drought bites harder in pastoral regions of Africa’s Horn

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Map of drought-afflicted areas in the Horn of Africa as of 28 June 2011 (map credit: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, web-posted on the ReliefWeb website). ‘. . . [A]fter the worst drought in 60 years, more than 10m people in the Horn of Africa need emergency food aid. Livestock have … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Kenya / Somalia / Vulnerability

‘I never thought I’d lose all my cattle; I never thought I’d be a refugee’–Abdi Farah Hassan

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A kilometre outside Waridaad village, in Somalia, carcasses of dead sheep and goats stretch across the landscape; this and other regions of the Horn of Africa are suffering from one of the driest years in memory; severe shortages of food and water, along with spiralling food prices and the deaths of livestock, have plunged many … Continue reading →

Drought / East Africa / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

Exodus from rural Somalia; long drought depletes families of last crops, animals, food

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Despite the dangers, thousands of refugees every week are making the journey to Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp, walking for weeks across the desert and braving attacks by armed robbers and wild animals; Dadaab is now the world’s largest refugee complex, currently supporting more than 370,000 people (11 July 2011) (photo on Flickr by Oxfam International). In … Continue reading →

Animal Breeding / Animal Diseases / Cattle / East Africa / Film and video / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Kenya / Sheep / Small Ruminants

Australian TV program highlights research in race against time to save Africa’s ‘hairless sheep’ and other native breeds

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Worm-resistant red Masai sheep, an indigenous ‘hairless’ sheep kept by Maasai herders, in Kenya (photo credit: ILRI). Catalyst, the Australian Broadcasting Company’s well-regarded science television program, yesterday (14 Jul 2011) broadcast an episode on research being conducted in Kenya to conserve the native livestock of Africa. Okeyo Mwai, an animal geneticist working at the International … Continue reading →