Category Archives: Drylands

Dairying / Drylands / Feeds / ILRI / Intensification / Launch / Pakistan / Pastoralism / Project / Small Ruminants / South Asia

Four-year US$30-million Agricultural Innovation Project launched in Pakistan

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A flock of Makhi Cheeni goats near Hasilpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan (photo credit: ILRI/M Sajjad Khan). ‘The US Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) launched a new project to expand the use of modern technologies in Pakistan’s agriculture sector. ‘PARC Chairman Dr … Continue reading →

Cattle / Climate Change / Drylands / Environment / Food Security / Forages / Goats / Pastoralism / Presentation / Sheep / Small Ruminants / Soils / USA / Vulnerability / Wildlife

Want to green the world’s deserts? Do the unthinkable: Put livestock back on them — Allan Savory

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Watch this new provocative 22-minute TedTalk by Allan Savory on ‘How to green the world’s deserts and reverse climate change’. Alan Savory, a Zimbabwean-born biologist/ecologist and rangelands specialist, gives environmentalists pause in a recent TedTalk, published 4 Mar 2013, on the ‘cancer’ of desertification of the world’s drylands, which make up some two-thirds of the … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / Geodata / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Project / Vulnerability

Livestock herders in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia insured against drought for first time

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Cattle herders at Goraye in Ethiopia’s lowland Oromiya region (photo on Flickr by Andrew Heavens). ‘The drylands of East Africa are home to millions of pastoralists, herders who move from place to place in search of water and pasture for their livestock. Drought years are tough for these families, who depend on their animals—cows, goats, … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Geodata / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / PPR / Vulnerability

Eyes in the sky: ‘Index-based’ livestock insurance for pastoral herders pilot ‘a significant success’

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An artist’s rendition of the next Landsat satellite, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) that will launch in Feb 2013 (photo credit: NASA). The Landsat program is the longest continuous global record of Earth observations from space—ever. Since its first satellite went up in the summer of 1972, Landsat has been looking at our planet. The … Continue reading →

Books and chapters / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / Sudan / Tanzania / Vulnerability / Wildlife

Dynamic pastoral change: A new look at the Horn’s resourceful, innovative livestock peoples

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(Left) water gourd, Kenya, Northern Frontier District, Boran or Gubbra tribe, on loan from Gary K Clarke, Cowabunga Safaris; (right) calabash, Kenya, Maasai, on loan from Gary K Clarke, Cowabunga Safaris (photo credit: Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library / Betsy Roe). A new book from the STEPS Centre, in the UK, takes a fresh look at … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Production / Asia / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / Event / Goats / ILRI / India / Innovation Systems / Knowledge and Information / Livestock / Mozambique / South Asia / Southern Africa

Innovation platforms: Documenting experiences from the imGoats project and beyond

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Innovation platforms are a complex and some would say a not-so-straightforward approach. Nevertheless, ILRI, other CGIAR centers and other partners are using this approach in various projects such as the Nile Basin Development Challenge, IMGoats and the recently-completed Fodder Adoption and Fodder Innovation projects. What are innovation platforms exactly? This poster gives some ideas.   … Continue reading →

Animal Feeding / Climate Change / Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya / Markets / Pastoralism / Project / Vulnerability / Women

New EU-funded project to support Kenya dryland livestock markets and women camel milk traders

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Women herding camels in Kenya (photo on Flickr by Curt Carnemark/World Bank Photo Collection). Polly Ericksen, a senior scientist with the People, Livestock and Environment Theme at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), announced to the ILRI community last Friday new funding from the European Union that will finance a three-year food security project that … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / Film and video / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

CNN publishes major story and video about livestock insurance project helping herders in northern Kenya

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ILRI is working with insurance companies to train livestock herders in Kenya’s northern drylands in the benefits and costs of a new index-based livestock insurance first made available in Marsabit District in 2010 (photo credit: ILRI/Andrew Mude). CNN has published a major story on a major breakthrough—a project that is insuring never-before-insured livestock herders in … Continue reading →

Burkina Faso / Climate Change / Directorate / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Eritrea / Ethiopia / Food Security / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Mali / Niger / Nigeria / Pastoralism / Policy / Senegal / Somalia / Sudan / Uganda / Vulnerability / West Africa

Hunger in Sahel worsens as ‘lean season’ begins: ‘The worst is yet to come’

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Football legend Raul Gonzalez, Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), learns while speaking to goat herders in Chad that protecting people’s livestock is essential for preventing them from falling into the danger zone during the current food crisis. Livestock will also be essential, the people say, for helping them to … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Film and video / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Pastoralism / Vulnerability

Livestock insurance for the Horn: Looking back in anger, forward in hope–CNN video

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A new CNN video—Protecting farmers against drought—describes the benefits of ILRI’s Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) scheme in Kenya’s Marsabit District, runtime: 5:44, 11 Jun 2012 (CNN Marketplace Africa). Watch the video     Read the transcript Some half a year after the drought that devastated large parts of the Horn of Africa broke towards the end … Continue reading →