For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Alan Duncan, Bruno Gérard, Diego Valbuena, Michael Blümmel, and Shirley Tarawali prepared an issue brief on the contributions of crop residues to mixed crop and livestock systems in developing countries … Contrary to the popular view that cereal crop residues are just a low quality by-product … Continue reading
Category Archives: Crop-Livestock
Under Sustainable intensification in smallholder crop/livestock systems, we work to improve system efficiency through better feed quality, health and animal performance – in a context of increasing competition for land and other resources (eg biofuels)
ILRI – ICRISAT collaborating to meet food and feed security needs
For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, William Dar, of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), reflects on ILRI-ICRISAT collaboration on crops-livestock integration in mixed systems … When Michael Blümmel and team organized the inauguration of ILRI’s experimental feed processing unit in their field office at ICRISAT headquarters in … Continue reading
The triple challenge facing livestock research for development in Africa
For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Tim Williams – Africa Director at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) reflects on ILRI’s livestock work in West Africa … Two key questions Back in 2000, two key questions occupied the minds of those of us who worked on the development of the ILRI’s Strategy–Livestock: … Continue reading
Intensifying crop-tree-livestock systems while adapting to climate change
For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Ramadjita Tabo reflects on crop-livestock research in West Africa … Livestock research in West Africa has made good progress in the past years. With the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, I collaborated extensively with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Institute … Continue reading
Water scarcity limits crop-livestock production in the Volta Basin
For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Sabine Douxchamps reflects on her livestock-water work in West Africa … Rainwater management strategies (RMS) have been extensively studied and promoted in the Volta Basin during the last decades. However, water scarcity still limits the agricultural production of most of the smallholder crop-livestock farms of the … Continue reading
Successful collaboration key to achieve livestock research impact
For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, CIMMYT’s Bruno Gérard reflects on crop-livestock systems research at ILRI … There has been a long presence of ILRI (then ILCA) in West Africa, focusing both on Sudanian and Sahelian mixed crop livestock systems. A turning point for ILRI research in West Africa was the concentration … Continue reading
Interdependence of smallholders’ net market positions in crop and livestock markets: Evidence from Ethiopia
A working paper by Moti Jaleta and Berhanu Gebremedhin on ‘Interdependence of smallholders’ net market positions in crop and livestock markets: Evidence from Ethiopia was released on 12 April 2011. Using simultaneous-equation models, this paper examines whether there is interdependence between smallholders’ net market positions in crop and live animal markets under mixed crop-and-livestock production systems. Data … Continue reading
Animal nutrition ‘successes and failures’ in developing countries
During the last four decades a number of animal-nutrition-based technologies and practices have been developed and used in developing countries, with varying degrees of success. Some technologies have produced profound beneficial effects and have been widely used; while others have shown potential on research stations but have not been taken up by farmers. To learn … Continue reading
HOW livestock researchers do science, and with WHOM, determines WHAT their science achieves
Agricultural economist and livestock and climate specialist Patti Kristjanson argues for innovation in livestock-research-for development; the image is ‘My mind-map from Thore & Andy’s “Research Impact” workshop at MSRC’ (image credit: dumbledad’s Flickr photostream). How livestock researchers engage with partners, and how they do and communicate their science, matter even more in developing countries than they do … Continue reading
Sustainable development of animal production systems: Assessing options and strategies
The July 2011 issue of Livestock Science is a compilation of papers addressing different aspects of the sustainability of animal production systems. According to the editorial introduction, animal production systems are facing large challenges because of their effects on the environment, emerging zoonotic diseases, welfare issues and negative contribution to human health. Unfortunately these negative … Continue reading