Category Archives: CRPs

CGIAR Research Programs

Crop-Livestock / Diagnostics / Humid Tropics / HUMIDTROPICS / ILRI / Innovation Systems / Intensification / Interview / Livelihoods / Research

ILRI in the Humidtropics research program: Interview with Alan Duncan

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The Humidtropics research program held a Strategic Research Theme (SRT) Meeting from 5 to 8 February, 2013 in Nairobi, Kenya.  The main objective of this meeting was to develop a research framework for each of the SRTs. After the meeting, the five SRT Leaders were interviewed. We asked Alan Duncan, ILRI focal point for the program … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Breeding / Animal Production / Biodiversity / Books and chapters / Cattle / Countries / Goats / Guinea / ILRI / Livestock / LIVESTOCKFISH / Mali / Research / Sheep / West Africa

Management of globally significant endemic ruminant livestock in Guinea and Mali

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Although livestock play a central role in rural development in West Africa, traditional livestock systems are in general characterized by high mortality rates, low reproductive rates and low offtake rates. Furthermore, the presence of trypanosome-infected tsetse flies in the subhumid and humid areas seriously holds back the potential for livestock production. The region’s endemic ruminant … Continue reading →

A4NH / Article / East Africa / Film and video / ILRI / Intensification / Interview / Kenya / Zoonotic Diseases

The profits of livestock farming in Nairobi’s slums: Better health and wealth

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Sheep look for food outside the house of Josephine Napkonde, 78, who lives in a slum in Nairobi and looks after 5 children abandoned by a relative (photo on Flickr by HelpAge International/Frederic Courbet). ‘Kahawa Soweto is a slum on the northeast edge of Nairobi, Kenya. . . . It’s a densely packed area, and it’s not … Continue reading →

Agriculture / CCAFS / Climate Change / Food Security / ILRI / Report

‘Lifeline’ food crops at risk of climate change: Major adaptation efforts needed, says CGIAR study

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Rose Mnjemo with soya beans, a maize, soya and cassava farmer from Khulungira Village, in central Malawi (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). Agence France Presse reports on a 2012 international study that found that climate change is on track to disrupt lifeline food crops across large swathes of Africa and Asia already mired in chronic poverty. More … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Animal Feeding / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Ethiopia / Feeds / Fodder / Forages / HUMIDTROPICS / LIVESTOCKFISH / Project / Value Chains

Refining livestock feed assessment tools – ILRI’s work in 2012

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Feed is often cited as the first limiting constraint to livestock intensification in smallholder mixed-crop farming systems in developing countries. However attempts to deal with the feed constraint tend to focus on promotion of a fairly standard set of feed technologies with often disappointing results. Our experience is that feed intervention failures can be traced … Continue reading →

Africa / East Africa / Ethiopia / Livestock Systems / Livestock-Water / NRM / Project / Water / WLE

The ‘happy strategies’ game: Matching land and water interventions with community and landscape needs

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In mid 2011, Catherine Pfeifer, ILRI/IWMI researcher in the Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC), posed us a challenge: What kind of exercise could we do that would combine ‘expert’ knowledge of land and water practices with the needs of ‘landscapes’ and communities where these could be applied. The result should be some validated ‘best bet’ … Continue reading →

Event report / ILRI / Livestock / Markets / PIM / Research / Value Chains

CTA ‘Making the Connection Conference’: Lessons for livestock value chains in developing countries

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The Niamana Livestock Market in Bamako, the largest in Mali (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). This post is written by Jo Cadilhon, an agro-economist in ILRI’s Changing Demand and Market Institutions team. It’s been three weeks now since I attended the conference on Making the connection: Value chains for transforming smallholder agriculture organized by CTA in … Continue reading →

CCAFS / Climate Change / India / South Asia

India fights curbs on livestock-generated greenhouse gas emissions at Doha

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Girdhai Lal Jat herds his cattle through the village of Nagar, in Tonk District, Rajasthan, India, to water (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). ‘At the United Nations climate talks in Doha this week, India opposed any move that would require developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. ‘With an estimated 485 million cattle, goat, … Continue reading →

CCAFS / Climate Change / ILRI / Presentation

‘Enormous potential’ of small-scale livestock farming to help mitigate global warming

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The challenge ahead is unequivocal,” says Mario Herrero, senior agro-ecological systems analyst with the International Livestock Research Institute. “We need to feed 9 billion to 10 billion people in the future at a lower economic cost, but also in a socially and economically acceptable way.” Mario Herrero was speaking in Nairobi, Kenya, at a November … Continue reading →

A4NH / Agri-Health / Animal Health / Article / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Geodata / Human Health / ILRI / Wildlife / Zoonotic Diseases

Pathogen ecologies and human interventions: The natural and unnatural histories of zoonotic diseases

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Three diapered goats in the boot of a car in Bamako, Mali (photo on Flickr by Romel Jacinto/37 °C). This week, the Lancet publishes a series of three papers on diseases that are ‘zoonotic’, that is, infections shared by people and other animals. As William Keresh of EcoHealth Alliance (New York) and his colleagues explain in … Continue reading →