Category Archives: WLE

CRP on water, land and ecosystems

Books and chapters / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / Environment / Food Security / Geodata / Insurance / Livestock-Water / NRM / Pastoralism / Vulnerability / Water / Wildlife / WLE

Rethinking drylands: Time to unlock their (big, neglected) potential

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A herd of livestock near Marsabit town, in Kenya’s remote northern pastoral drylands (image on Flickr by Neil Palmer/CIAT). It’s time to unlock the potential of the world’s drylands, which cover more than one-third of the earth and are home to a third of humanity, half of whom—one billion—live in poverty and hunger. The current famine … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Production / Burkina Faso / Crop-Livestock / Ghana / ILRI / Intensification / Livelihoods / Livestock / Livestock Systems / NRM / Opinion piece / Research / Water / West Africa / WLE

The triple challenge facing livestock research for development in Africa

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For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Tim Williams – Africa Director at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) reflects on ILRI’s livestock work in West Africa … Two key questions Back in 2000, two key questions occupied the minds of those of us who worked on the development of the ILRI’s Strategy–Livestock: … Continue reading →

Africa / Burkina Faso / Crop-Livestock / Ghana / ILRI / Livestock / Livestock-Water / NRM / Opinion piece / Research / West Africa / WLE

Water scarcity limits crop-livestock production in the Volta Basin

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For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Sabine Douxchamps reflects on her livestock-water work in West Africa … Rainwater management strategies (RMS) have been extensively studied and promoted in the Volta Basin during the last decades. However, water scarcity still limits the agricultural production of most of the smallholder crop-livestock farms of the … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Article / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / Environment / Farming Systems / Food Security / Geodata / ILRI / NRM / Research / WLE

A BIG conversation starts on ways to increase food supplies while protecting environments and eradicating hunger

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An animated 3-minute video clip by the University of Minnesota’s Institute for the Environment. Justin Gillis has published an interesting piece this week in the Green Blog of the New York Times on a big study just published in Nature by Jon Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. … Continue reading →

ILRI / Innovation Systems / Livestock / NRM / Value Chains / WLE

Innovation platforms as spaces for change and transformation in rural communities

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This week’s Rome AgriKnowledge ‘share fair’ included a session on ‘innovation platforms’ as vehicles for rural change. It highlighted some experiences of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Crops Research Institute for the Tropics (ICRISAT), and the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF). The innovation platforms discussed in the session grew … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / East Africa / Ethiopia / Farming Systems / ILRI / ILRIComms / IPMS / Livelihoods / NRM / Report / Value Chains / Water / WLE

Market-oriented irrigated crop development improves farm incomes in Tigray

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A working paper by Gebremedhin Woldewahid, Berhanu Gebremedhin, Kahsay Berhe and Dirk Hoekstra on Shifting towards market-oriented irrigated crops development as an approach to improve the income of farmers: Evidence from northern Ethiopia was released on 5 May 2011. Rainfed crop production in Ethiopia’s semi-arid areas is associated with extreme rainfall variability which occasionally leads to complete crop … Continue reading →

Directorate / East Africa / Event / Germany / ILRI / Kenya / NRM / Pastoralism / Wildlife / WLE

Germany and ILRI sign agreement in Nairobi to collaborate in research to assess the pastoral-livestock-wildlife benefits from Kenya’s eco-conservancies

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited ILRI’s Nairobi campus on 12 Jul 2011: Here, the Chancellor is rising from signing ILRI’s visitors’ book, with German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner, Kenya Agriculture Minister Sally Kosgei and ILRI Director General Carlos Seré looking on (photo credit: ILRI/MacMillan). Nairobi’s Daily Nation newspaper reported yesterday (12 Jul 2011): ‘Kenya has … Continue reading →

Biodiversity / Capacity Strengthening / East Africa / Environment / Event / Farming Systems / Geodata / ILRI / Innovation Systems / Kenya / Launch / NRM / WLE

Kenya’s ecosystems mapped and put online to enhance the country’s education, environment and development

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The World Resources Institute (WRI) is blogging about a collaborative project called Virtual Kenya, which it is leading with the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and Upande Ltd, a Nairobi-based company bringing geographic information systems and web mapping to the African market. ‘Two weeks ago, WRI and Kenyan partners Upande Ltd., Wildlife Clubs of … Continue reading →

Biodiversity / East Africa / Environment / Event / Geodata / ILRI / Kenya / NRM / Pastoralism / Wildlife / WLE

High-level scientific training kicks off systematic game counts in the Kitengela rangelands outside Nairobi

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Plains game and Masai livestock are relatively compatible in Kitengela and other East African pastoral lands (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). The non-governmental ‘Friends of Nairobi National Park’ organization report the following story this month about a ground count of the wild mammals inhabiting the rangelands an hour’s drive from Kenya’s capital of Nairobi, rangelands that not … Continue reading →

Books and chapters / Directorate / East Africa / Environment / Geodata / GIS / ILRI / Kenya / Launch / NRM / WLE

‘Virtual Kenya’ online access to maps will improve the country’s environment and development planning

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Bruce Scott, director of Partnerships and Communications at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), was a main speaker at the launch of ‘Virtual Kenya’ at Nairobi’s iHub this week (photo credit: ILRI/Mungai). Spatial information—including where different populations live and where natural resources are located—is essential for sound development planning and decision-making. A new website launched … Continue reading →