With livestock and cropping the backbone of the country, leaders from 11 of the 15 CGIAR centres met with Somali officials last month at ICRAF to map ways that CGIAR dryland agricultural research could accelerate and enhance Somalia’s development. Continue reading
The Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and the Kenya State Department of Livestock within the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation (MALFI) are organizing next year’s Joint 24th International Grasslands and International Rangelands Congress, to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, 25–30 Oct 2020. Continue reading
Philip Thornton contributed a chapter to Grasslands and Climate Change, the latest volume of the Ecological Reviews series. In this post Philip tells us more about the chapter, which explains the impacts of climate change on open grasslands used for livestock grazing. Continue reading
Agricultural ecologist Ian Scoones has some important and thoughtful things to say about the science and media publications promoting the recent ‘vegan craze’ in rich countries and the impacts of those publications on millions of livestock herders in poor countries. Continue reading
Enthusiastic traders from several counties in northern Kenya and from across the border in Ethiopia joined a livestock trade facilitation forum in Marsabit, Kenya on May 9. By close of business, participating livestock buyers and sellers signed contracts for a total of 5,373 livestock at a value of $406,774. Continue reading
Below are excerpts of a response to a new livestock report made by Ilse Köhler-Rollefson, a German veterinarian and researcher who is an expert on camels and camel herding societies. Continue reading
Published by the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, Environment Reports is a collaboration between an international group of scientists, writers, and designers to combine incisive narratives about environmental challenges, backed up by cutting-edge data. Food Matters, the first report, focuses on the sustainability of our global food system. The article below—Is climate change a risk to global grazing lands?—is reproduced here by permission. Continue reading
We found that areas where livestock grazing is an important part of local food availability (Fig. 3, dark red) and economies (dark blue) experience the highest levels of CVP (coefficient of variation of precipitation). Continue reading
Initially intended only as insurance against the death of livestock, the insurance scheme has evolved into a product to help pastoralists keep their animals alive, according to Masresha Taye, who coordinates the programme in Ethiopia for the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Continue reading
The following excerpts of an opinion piece were written by ILRI’s Andrew Mude and originally published by The Standard newspaper (Kenya): Insurance only way to guard against weather-gone-awry phenomenon, 28 Apr 2017. Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 