In an opinion piece she published in the current issue of the Daily Nation newspaper’s ‘Seeds of Gold’ pull-out magazine, Kenyan agriculturist and iCow entrepreneur Su Kahumbu takes issue with two new dairy and crop laws being considered by the Kenya government. Continue reading
Category Archives: Extension
Accelerating the development of agricultural value chains in Kenya—AVCD Conference Highlights
Twitter Moment highlights of the Accelerated Value Chain Development Conference at ILRI on 26–27 Apr 2018. Continue reading
Leveraging cross-sector partnerships to deliver animal health services in extensive livestock systems
ILRI and TechnoServe jointly convened a stakeholders’ workshop to deliberate on how best to achieve sustainable livestock services in extensive production systems in Africa. Continue reading
Guide to haymaking using tropical grasses and legumes
A new extension brief by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) explains the principles of haymaking using tropical grasses and legumes. Continue reading
PRIME(ing) resilience among Ethiopia’s pastoral communities
PRIME helps farmers with livestock become more resilient to shocks. It also supports better management of existing water resources through more efficient rain harvesting techniques, better early warning systems and information sharing, and improved governance of communal lands and water spots. By improving linkages in the livestock value chain, PRIME also helps ensure profitable outlets for livestock sales when there is not enough feed available to support existing herd sizes. Continue reading
Eight principles for land and water management in the Nile Basin
The Nile Basin Development Challenge (NBDC) in Ethiopia distilled insights, findings and experiences into eight key messages which, taken together, contribute to new water and land management paradigm that enables poor smallholder farmers improve their food security, livelihoods and incomes while conserving the natural resource base. Continue reading
Power, partnership and participation: Nile Basin Development Challenge in summary
The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) just published a summary of land and water research, lessons and outcomes generated by the Nile Basin Development Challenge in Ethiopia. Continue reading
Extension and advisory services delivery models – examples needed
Farmers throughout the world benefit greatly from having access to extension and advisory services (EAS). The EAS landscape in most countries is diverse and typically described as “pluralistic”: not only are there many different types of providers (public sector, private for profit, NGOs and CSOs, farmer-based organizations , …) but also different models and approaches … Continue reading
Commodities, innovation and action research in Ethiopia: Livestock live talk at ILRI on 27 March 2013
The Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian Farmers project is coming to an end. IPMS aimed to transform agricultural productivity and rural development in Ethiopia through market-oriented agricultural development. Project staff worked with the Ethiopian Government to try new and innovative approaches and technologies. The team worked to achieve this objective through four main … Continue reading
The ‘new extensionist’: Roles, capacities, and strategies to reduce hunger and poverty
Recognizing the chronic need for strengthening of advisory services around the world, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) was a founding member and co-funder of the recently established GFRAS – the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services. GFAR and GFRAS need your input! They are preparing an important paper called “The New Extensionist”, proposing … Continue reading