Category Archives: Food Security

Animal Production / Article / Directorate / Food Security / FSZ / ILRI / Livestock / Nutrition / SLS / Trade

Animal production and global food security: Livelihoods for poor owners and food for rich consumers

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The January 2013 issue of Animal Frontiers looks at the contribution of animal production to global food security. The first of two special issues edited by Maggie Gill, this issue ‘takes a high-level perspective, exploring the relationship between people and animals (including fish) in developing countries, through trade and particularly in terms of nutrition’. Articles … Continue reading →

A4NH / Agri-Health / CCAFS / Climate Change / Disease Control / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Environment / Food Security / Kenya / RVF / Zoonotic Diseases

Healthy Futures project examines ways to understand vector-borne diseases, climate change and food security

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Together with regional stakeholders, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) generated so-called ‘socio-economic scenarios’.  These scenarios aim to explore key regional socio-economic and governance uncertainties for food security, environment and livelihoods through integrated qualitative-quantitative descriptions of plausible futures to 2030. The CCAFS vision has been to use these scenarios with … Continue reading →

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

Farmers across the globe will have to switch to climate-hardy crops and farming–CGIAR report

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Taking a young goat to market at Mieso, in the Mirab Hararghe Zone of the Oromia Region, Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Apollo Habtamu). Nature News reports on a new CGIAR study that says ‘One-third of our greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture’ and advises farmers to abandon vulnerable crops in the face of climate change. ‘The global … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Brazil / Food Security / Malawi / Opinion piece / Soils

African agriculture: Basket case or bread basket?

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(Illustration on Flickr by Vintaga Posters.) Is Africa an agricultural basket case, or a potential bread basket? Michael Moran, in the GlobalPost, argues the case for the latter. ‘. . . Food security remains a problem in Malawi, as elsewhere in the so-called Guinea Savannah—a huge belt of arable (and largely untilled) land with unpredictable … Continue reading →

Climate Change / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Food Safety / Food Security / Livestock / Livestock Systems / Research / Zoonotic Diseases

Five grand challenges for animal science research – ASAS takes stock

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The American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) has released five ‘Grand Challenges documents‘ that advocate research priorities for the future of animal science. The issues covered are: Animal health: Support for animal health research would improve disease resistance, disease prevention and animal productivity. Climate change: A better understanding of climate change would keep animal agriculture … Continue reading →

Agriculture / CCAFS / Climate Change / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Livelihoods / Report

East Africans are taking up new farming practices to cope with climate change—but change too risky for hungry households – Survey

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Dairy farmers in Tanzania. Farmers in East Africa are embracing climate-resilient farming practices but food insecurity prevents many of them from doing more to cope with a changing climate (photo credit: ILRI/Nils Teufel). Smallholder farmers across East Africa have started embracing climate-resilient farming approaches and technologies according to new research recently published by the CGIAR … 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 →

Animal Production / Books and chapters / Consumption / Food Security / Human Health / Livelihoods / Pro-Poor Livestock / Research / Zoonotic Diseases

New FAO book spells out rationale, priorities for investing in livestock development to reduce poverty

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A new FAO study reports that more than 85 per cent of poor livestock keepers in sub-Saharan Africa live in extreme poverty; here, at a Toureg encampment near Fakara, in Niger, a boy herds a prized animal, and asset, of his family (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). A new book on the intersection of poverty reduction … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Capacity Strengthening / East Africa / Event / Farming Systems / Food Security / Livelihoods / Southern Africa

New Australian International Food Security Centre seeks partnerships in Africa

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Mellissa Wood (4th left), of the Australian International Food Security Centre, and other members of the the Commission for International Agricultural Research on a visit to ILRI in March 2012 (photo credit: ILRI). A new initiative has been launched by the Australian International Food Security Centre to improve food security in Africa. The centre, which falls … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Environment / Event report / Food Security / Policy

The road back to Rio: Scientists find final ‘The Future We Want’ document to be ‘science light’

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Scientists complain that the new Rio+20 accord barely mentions the scientific inputs needed for sustainable development (photo on Flickr by CGIAR Climate/CCAFS). ‘The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) ended last Friday (22 June) with an international agreement on the need for all countries to commit themselves to achieving sustainable development. ‘The agreement immediately … Continue reading →