CRP on drylands
An online article in Africa Business Magazine explains how Zimbabwe’s small-scale mixed crop-livestock farmers are benefiting from cultivating sunn hemp. Continue reading
A new extension brief by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) explains the principles of haymaking using tropical grasses and legumes. Produced by ILRI researchers and partners in Zimbabwe, the brief gives practical steps on how smallholder farmers can make hay from grasses and legumes such as cowpeas, velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) lablab (Lablab purpureus) including … Continue reading
Participatory work for ensuring equitable use of, and rights to, pastoral rangelands (photo credit: Fiona Flintan). This article is written by ILRI rangeland governance specialist Fiona Flintan, who also serves as a technical coordinator for the Rangelands Initiative of the International Land Coalition (ILC). ‘It is easy, too easy, for scientists and others to shy away … Continue reading
Using data from satellite imagery, insurers can assess the impact of drought on the vegetation that livestock need to survive. Could this be a lifeline for Kenyan farmers? Continue reading
Insuring animals who range with semi-nomadic herders across some of the harshest terrain on earth had defeated all previous efforts. Eventually he came across the work of a Kenyan economist, Andrew Mude of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), based in Nairobi. Mr Mude has developed an insurance model that uses satellite images to assess the impact of drought on the vegetation that camels, cows and goats need to survive. . . . Continue reading
Livestock market in Wajir, where Kenya’s remote, never-before-insured livestock herders are getting their first protection from drought (photo credit: ILRI/Riccardo Gangale). ‘It was almost inevitable that the day chosen to make the first drought insurance payments in Wajir, in the arid north-east of Kenya, would be the same day the rains came. ‘Herders who lost sheep, cattle … Continue reading
Hassan Bashir is an astute entrepreneur, developing Africa’s first livestock insurance scheme to make payouts compliant with Islamic law, by bringing together Muslim scholars and number-crunching agricultural experts using NASA weather satellites. Continue reading
