Livestock and pensions provide the main source of livelihood for the farmers living around the Hoachanas settlement situated in the Kalahari Sandveld of Namibia. Small stock, such as goats and sheep, are crucial for food and income, with the area too dry for crop and feed production. But mortality of animals due to dry season … Continue reading
Category Archives: Markets
Africa / Climate Change / Drought / East Africa / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Livestock Systems / Markets
What do NASA, insurance giants and Kenya have in common?
Cows. (No, really.) Kenya’s International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently cracked the code on a formula that could change cattle-herders’ lives — or at least line their pockets. The single biggest risk cattlemen in Kenya’s dry north face is drought. If seasonal rains fail, grasses don’t grow. And if nothing green grows, the hundreds of … Continue reading
Non-market values of cattle ‘crucial’ to smallholder dairy farmers in Zimbabwe
When the smallholder dairy farmer looks at a cow, he sees more than just a simple economic asset whose value is reckoned in terms of the milk it produces. What he sees is an asset endowed with an assortment of attributes ranging from the production of milk, manure to fertilize crops, insurance against unforeseen contingencies … Continue reading
Africa / Drought / East Africa / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Livelihoods / Livestock / Markets
Der Ziegen-Schutzbrief
Kleinbauern in Afrika können ihr Vieh neuerdings gegen Dürren versichern Der Marsabit-Distrikt in Kenia ist nicht unbedingt eine Touristengegend. Es gibt zwar um den verloschenen Vulkan gleichen Namens herum einen Nationalpark mit Löwen, Leoparden, Zebras und Elefanten. Aber das Tiefland am Ufer des Turkana-Sees und an der Grenze zu Äthiopien ist eintönig und flach, steinig … Continue reading
Animal Products / Asia / Dairying / India / Livestock / Markets / South Asia
Indian farmers preferring to rear livestock for meat
India’s almost-indelible perch atop global milk-producing nations is showing the first signs of cracks, with farmers increasingly preferring to rear livestock for meat, lured by lucrative prices and a friendly government policy. Read more … (Economic Times) Continue reading
Africa / Animal Diseases / Disease Control / East Africa / Epidemiology / ILRI / Livestock / Markets / Trade / Uganda
Livestock trade is culprit in sleeping sickness spread
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
Africa / Animal Products / East Africa / Livestock / Markets / Trade
East Africa losing millions on exports of unprocessed leather
Livestock experts want East African countries to invest more in the processing of hides and skins in order to increase revenue. Largely neglected as a village-based enterprise for arid and semi-arid areas, the experts argue that the leather sub-sector could inject additional revenue into regional economies through value addition. According to the permanent secretary in … Continue reading
Asia / Livestock / Markets / Southeast Asia / Vietnam
Vietnam livestock industry under review
The animal husbandry and poultry sectors will be reviewed and restructured so that they develop in a sustainable and competitive manner, an official said at a conference in HCM City yesterday. Hoang Kim Giao, head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Animal Husbandry Department, said under the Livestock Development Strategy, the country would … Continue reading
Barriers to market entry, poor livestock producers and public policy
The main aim of this study is to provide an analytical framework for the assessment of barriers to market access for poor livestock producers that can be used for the development of public policy that works to the advantage of those poor producers that attempt to enter specific product markets. The paper proceeds to demonstrate … Continue reading
Africa / Dairying / East Africa / Markets / Uganda
Milk: Keep the taps on as EAC realigns itself in 2010
Uganda’s dairy industry is one sector likely to cash in on the limited trade barriers as the East African Community integrates further. The country is expected to exploit its wealth of resources to upstage its neighbours in winning over new markets. There continues to be fears that the launch of the uniform East African Customs … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 