Kenya President Mwai Kibaki officially opens state-of-the-art biosciences facilities at ILRI’s Nairobi campus

Posted on 7 Nov 2010 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

(Left to right): Knut Hove, chairman of the board of trustees of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI); Carlos Seré, director general of ILRI; His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki; Bruce Scott, director of Partnerships and Communications at ILRI; Segenet Kelemu, director of the BecA Hub; and Gertrude Ngeleshi, training officer at ILRI, await the President … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Capacity Strengthening / Farming Systems / Fish / Food Security / Innovation Systems / Knowledge and Information / Latin America / Livelihoods / Women

‘Give a woman a fish and she eats for a day, teach her to fish and she eats her for a lifetime’ goes the proverb (sort of); but give her access to markets and she earns a living, and give her community resources to fish sustainably and she can feed the world

Posted on 3 Nov 2010 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Demetria Solomon, 54-year-old farmer growing maize, potato, sota, green beans (and former secretary of the local irrigation scheme) in Khulungira Village, central Malawi (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). Over at SciDev.Net, David Dickson is making the case for joined-up thinking in development work. ‘A holistic approach is also essential for building the solid infrastructure and social systems … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Climate Change / Food Security / Latin America / Livelihoods

Smallholder agriculture key to ‘climate-smart’ growth–Nwanze

Posted on 31 Oct 2010 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

A young woman tends the goats she is fattening for sale in a village near Fakara, in Niger (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). The International Fund for Agricultural Development is arguing for support for smallholder agriculture at the forthcoming week-long Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change, which starts today (31 October 2010). The conference … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Food Security

One-third of sub-Saharan Africa, and half a billion Asians, are hungry this year–Africa Progress Panel and FAO

Posted on 30 Oct 2010 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

According to the FAO, the percentage of people living with very high or high undernourishment is 32% in sub-Saharan Africa and 15% in Asia & Pacific (graphic credit: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Two stats leap at at you, fighting for your attention, in the figure above, by the Food and Agriculture … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Europe / Food Security

Europe risks being left behind as partner with African farm sector, Conway, Sibanda and other experts report to UK Parliament

Posted on 26 Oct 2010 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Lindiwe Sibanda, member of the board of trustees of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and chief executive officer and head of diplomatic mission of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (photo credit: ILRI). As fears increase about the impact of another global food crisis on poverty in Africa, a ten-member panel … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Directorate / Food Security / ILRI / Latin America / Pro-Poor Livestock / Research

‘Complex’ Third World animal agriculture and food security highlighted at Minnesota ‘UN General Assembly’

Posted on 25 Oct 2010 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

A Gujjar child rests against her favourite buffalo on a trek in the Himalayan foothills; the Muslim transhumant Gujjar of northern India as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan are among the estimated one billion people worldwide who depend on livestock for their livelihoods (photo credit: ILRI/MacMillan). Both the Minnesota Post and Minnesota Public Radio News … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Food Security

Experts tackle world hunger worries

Posted on 19 Oct 2010 by Muthoni Njiru • Leave a comment

Carlos Seré, one of three agricultural experts who spoke yesterday on a panel at the University of Minnesota about securing the global food supply (photo credit: University of Minnesota). ‘With 29 countries facing severe food shortages and the global population expected to increase over the next 40 years, experts have set a timeline to not … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Climate Change / Environment / Food Security / Latin America / NRM / WLE

Agriculture doing more of the same is agriculture ‘committing suicide’ – De Schutter

Posted on 17 Oct 2010 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Farmer Jocia De Sousa pounds maize for her daily meal in Muchamba Village, in Mozambique’s Tete Province (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). ‘Next stop for policymakers gathered in Rome for World Food Day should be Cancun, venue of the climate change summit,’ says Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, on the … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Food Security / Latin America

Prabhu Pingali at the Borlaug Dialogue/World Food Prize ceremony in Iowa

Posted on 15 Oct 2010 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Preparing the land for seed in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). On 13 October 2010, Prabhu Pingali, deputy director of Agricultural Development Policy and Statistics at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, made the following remarks at the World Food Prize and Borlaug Dialogue events (13–15 October 2010), being held this week in Des … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Directorate / Food Security / ILRI / Latin America / Markets

Growing interest in utilizing smallholder farmers–Jarvis