An initiative called the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium, which is hosted by the UK’s STEPS Centre, at the Institute of Development Studies, in Brighton, issued a news release today regarding the science and poverty implications of transmissions of animal-to-human diseases. This comes upon reports by UK officials this week of a the … Continue reading
Category Archives: ILRI
New series of monthly high-level ‘livestock live talks’ begins in Nairobi and Addis Ababa
‘Livestock live talks’ is a new series of high-level monthly institutional one-hour seminars hosted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The new seminar series aims to address livestock-related issues, mobilize external as well as in-house expertise and audiences and engage the livestock community around interdisciplinary conversations that ask hard questions and seek to refine … Continue reading
Segenet Kelemu receives prestigious TWAS award in Tianjin, China
The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) awarded Segenet Kelemu the 2011 TWAS Prize for Agricultural Sciences during the 23rd TWAS General Meeting in Tianjin during the 23rd TWAS General Meeting in Tianjin on Tuesday 18 September. Read more about this on the BecA-ILRI Hub website Watch a video clip of the award ceremony … Continue reading
Eyes in the sky: ‘Index-based’ livestock insurance for pastoral herders pilot ‘a significant success’
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
New Scientist’s Fred Pearce reports on ‘How African herders rid the planet of a disease’
Tom Olaka, a community animal health worker in Karamajong, northern Uganda, was part of a vaccination campaign in remote areas of the Horn of Africa that drove the cattle plague rinderpest to extinction in 2010 (photo credit: Christine Jost). Fred Pearce writes in New Scientist about How African herders rid the planet of a disease, … Continue reading
ILRI’s Jeff Mariner speaks on what he learned from the eradication of rinderpest–and his new fight against ‘goat plague’
ILRI veterinary epidemiologist Jeff Mariner presents his research at a meeting of the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) (photo credit: OIE). Lauren Everitt of AllAfrica interviewed Jeffrey Mariner, a scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya, about a current article he co-authored in Science (13 Sep 2012) on lessons learned in the eradication … Continue reading
Livestock challenges and opportunities in Asia discussed at regional policy forum
Increasing livestock production to meet rapidly growing demands in a socially equitable and ecologically sustainable manner has become major challenge for the Asia-Pacific region. To discuss these challenges and to outline elements of a response, FAO, together with ILRI, IFPRI and other partners organized a Regional Policy Forum in Bangkok on 16-17 August 2012. Asia … Continue reading
Stuck on stubble: Why ‘no-till agriculture’ is a ‘no can do’ on many small farms
Rice residues in southeast Punjab, India, prior to the wheat season (photo on Flickr by Neil Palmer). Why are most poor farmers in developing countries not adopting ‘no-till agriculture’ (also called ‘conservation agriculture’)—an eco-friendly, natural-resource-conserving technology that helps conserve soil fertility by eliminating ploughing and keeping the remains of crops on the ground after harvest? The … Continue reading
Greening livestock
This report on Greening livestock: Assessing the potential of payment for environmental services in livestock inclusive agricultural production systems in developing countries was released by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in July 2012. Livestock serve as pathways out of poverty for poor smallholder farmers in the developing world. The production of livestock in mixed extensive and intensive … Continue reading
IPMS – Farm Radio Participatory Agricultural Radio Series in Ethiopia: Sidama
In 2011, Farm Radio international conducted a Participatory Agricultural Radio Series (PARS) related to two of the commodity value chains of the Improving Productivity and Marketing Success (IPMS) project of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The series focused on apiculture in the Tigray region and fruit tree production in Sidama region. The PARS was implemented … Continue reading