How viable are schemes to give poor people making and selling ‘informal’ milk greater market access?
A4NH / AHH / Buffalo / Cattle / Consumption / Dairying / East Africa / Food Safety / Food Security / Human Health / ILRI / India / Kenya / Livelihoods / Markets / Nutrition / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Report / South Asia / Tanzania / Trade / Value Chains

How viable are schemes to give poor people making and selling ‘informal’ milk greater market access?

A new report from ILRI and IIED reviews the effectiveness of training and certification schemes designed to give small-scale ‘informal’ sellers of ‘raw’ and/or boiled or informally pasteurized milk and (in India) milk sweets greater market access in East Africa and South Asia. The report reviews such schemes in Kenya and Tanzania and in the state of Assam, in northwestern India. In all three countries, the informal sector dominates dairy marketing and trade and informal milk production and trade contribute significantly to the employment, livelihoods and nutrition of many millions of poor people. Continue reading

ILRI and its partners celebrate World Milk Day at Tanzania’s first Livestock Expo and Milk Week
A4NH / ACGG / ADGG / AHH / Animal Products / Cattle / Consumption / Dairying / Directorate / East Africa / Event report / Food Security / Human Health / ILRI / LIVESTOCKCRP / Nutrition / Pastoralism / PIL / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Rangelands / Tanzania

ILRI and its partners celebrate World Milk Day at Tanzania’s first Livestock Expo and Milk Week

ILRI participated in Tanzania’s first National Livestock Expo and Milk Week, held in Arusha 31 May to 1 Jun 2018. ILRI Deputy Director General Iain Wright gave a keynote speech and ILRI’s Country Representative Amos Omore organized an ILRI booth, where participants celebrate World Milk Day on 1 Jun. Continue reading

Irrigation boosts food security for Africa’s smallholder households
Africa / Article / Crop-Livestock / Ethiopia / FFD / Fodder / Food Security / Ghana / Irrigation / Livelihoods / Research / Tanzania / Water

Irrigation boosts food security for Africa’s smallholder households

Findings from a review of a five-year irrigation project in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania show that all the men and women farmers who had adopted irrigation practices ‘were financially better off, more food secure and had more diverse diets’. Continue reading

New research initiative to boost the health and productivity of farmed animals in Africa
Africa / Animal Diseases / Dairying / Data / Ethiopia / Niger / Tanzania

New research initiative to boost the health and productivity of farmed animals in Africa

The Supporting Evidence Based Interventions initiative (SEBI) has received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The scheme aims to boost the livelihoods of livestock farmers by delivering evidence-based technologies that offer sustainable solutions to the challenges they face. Continue reading

Africa / Article / Ethiopia / Intensification / Markets / Nigeria / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Tanzania

Where wealth and opportunity walk on four legs—AFKInsider

with a growing number of firms gobbling up arable land in Africa—not solely for crop production but also for livestock and cattle—investment shops are slowly redirecting capital to this agricultural subsector. Investing in this segment of African economies can be transformative, as a significant portion of African wealth and growth opportunity is walking on four legs on the African continent. Continue reading

Local wars and bad water—the real killers threatening 20 million people in not 1 but 4 drought-hit countries
Burundi / Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Human Health / Kenya / Middle East / News clipping / Nigeria / Rwanda / Somalia / South Sudan / Tanzania / Uganda / West Africa

Local wars and bad water—the real killers threatening 20 million people in not 1 but 4 drought-hit countries

For the first time since anyone can remember, there is a very real possibility of four famines—in Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen—breaking out at once, endangering more than 20 million lives. Continue reading

Beef fattening ready for take-off in southern Africa with new financing made available to smallholders
Animal Feeding / Botswana / Cattle / Event report / Feeds / ILRI / Intensification / Malawi / Mozambique / News clipping / PIL / PIM / Pro-Poor Livestock / Scaling / Southern Africa / Tanzania / Value Chains / Zimbabwe

Beef fattening ready for take-off in southern Africa with new financing made available to smallholders

Rural farmers in Zimbabwe and the whole of Southern Africa are set to receive a major boost in their livestock production through the expected launch of the beef value chain finance initiative this year. The initiative, whose pilot project was successfully undertaken in Swaziland, includes a loan scheme for smallholder farmers who want to take up beef fattening for the market. This came out during the on-going International Conference on Livestock Value Chain and Access to Credit being held in Ezulwini, Swaziland. Continue reading

The ‘big bet’ on chickens for Africa
ACGG / Africa / Animal Breeding / Animal Feeding / Article / Chickens / CTLGH / Ethiopia / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Intensification / LiveGene / LIVESTOCKFISH / Markets / Mozambique / Nigeria / Poultry / Tanzania

The ‘big bet’ on chickens for Africa

The African Chicken Genetic Gains project is on a mission to bring ‘more productive chickens to African smallholders’. Led by ILRI, and backed by the deep pockets of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the African Chicken Genetic Gains project aims to improve the genetic makeup of African chickens. The initiative, which is initially being rolled out in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania, is part of what the Microsoft founder has called his ‘big bet’ on chickens, which also includes a promise to donate 100,000 of the birds to families and communities in the world’s poorest nations. . . . Continue reading