Livestock farmers in North Eastern Kenya will be compensated against loss of their animals from drought following the launch of an insurance product targeting the sector. The compensation will ensure that pastoralists do not suffer losses when their livestock die from drought, disease or flooding. Read more … (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) Continue reading
Delegates arriving at the gates of the climate conference in Copenhagen last month were met by women in furry animal suits holding placards showing pictures of lambs, cows and pigs and warning, “Don’t Eat Me.” But the virtues of vegetarianism as part of the battle to curb climate change are far from being an issue … Continue reading
This week, the Participatory Epidemiology Network for Animal and Public Health (PENAPH) holds a 5-day training course for trainers in Participatory Epidemiology, in Lomé, Togo. The 11 participants were selected from the 29 Participatory Disease Surveillance (PDS) practitioners trained in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo as part of the Early Detection Reporting Surveillance … Continue reading
Scientists baffled by the continued spread of sleeping sickness through Uganda have discovered that it is livestock markets that are driving the disease. A team from Uganda and the United Kingdom analysed the incidence of the serious Rhodesian form of sleeping sickness, which is carried by cattle, in two newly affected districts. They confirmed that … Continue reading
Equity Bank Ltd. and UAP Insurance Ltd. will insure livestock in northern Kenya against starvation and are offering the first African insurance program that will use satellite images to predict drought. The index-based product will initially be sold to herders of camels, cows, goats and sheep in Kenya’s arid Marsabit district, the Nairobi, Kenya-based International … Continue reading
Herders in northern Kenya who suffered large cattle losses during recent droughts are to be offered livestock insurance in a pioneering project that uses satellite imagery of available grazing to determine when payouts occur. The scheme, billed as a world first by the International Livestock Research Institute, is being launched today in the arid Marsabit … Continue reading
“This is a new approach to tackle an old problem,” Carlos Sere, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), said of the satellite-based insurance for cattle, goats and other animals. Satellite images will measure the greenness of vegetation in the Marsabit area of northern Kenya. A shift to brown will trigger payouts to … Continue reading
Africa missed on the “Green Revolution” that drove Asia; the West and the larger America out of food insecurity five decades ago, but Agricultural Scientists in Kenya say, it should not miss out on the “Gene Revolution” seen to transform food production policy in the continent. First, the statement marks the progress Agriculture Science has … Continue reading
A world-class state-of-the-art biosciences research facility has officially opened its doors to scientists and students in Africa’s national research institutes and universities in Nairobi’s International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). According to Biosciences east and central African (BecA) Hub Director Segenet Kelemu; ‘This means that, Africa’s scientists can comfortably venture into new realms of science without … Continue reading
After years of lagging behind in the scientific field, Africa’s bio-science research capability could now be effectively at par with research undertaken in the world’s most advanced institutes. A world-class bio-sciences research facility had just been launched in Nairobi and open to scientists and other stakeholders from Africa’s national research institutes and universities. The laboratory, … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 