Jonathan Wadsworth, formerly of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and newly appointed executive director of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Fund, at a meeting of the CGIAR Transition Management Team in Penang, Malaysia, in 2009 (picture credit: ILRI/MacMillan). The prestigious American science journal Science has published today (4 February 2011) … Continue reading
Category Archives: Asia
ILRI and University of Agriculture Faisalabad join forces on indigenous livestock
Pakistan’s ‘Business Recorder’ reports from a workshop in Pakistan on the “implementation of development and application of decision support tools to conserve and sustainability use and genetic diversity in indigenous livestock and wild relatives” where the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) have signed a collaborative agreement. The main … Continue reading
Fresh commercial milk comes to Cambodia
Churning of the Sea of Milk is the most famous bas-relief at Cambodia’s Angkor Wat. It depicts an episode from the Vishnu mythology. The gods, because of a curse from the sage Durvasa, begin to lose their immortality. Assisted by their mortal enemies the asuras, they churn the ocean (which was made of milk in … Continue reading
More good news–for everyone—on the world’s emerging ’emerging markets’
Canned dairy products are now for sale, along with fresh milk and live chickens and goats, at Maputo’s once solely traditional and ‘wet’ Xipamamime market, in Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). More good news on the development front. We previously reported here (Here be dragons, 2 January 2011) progress being made by Viet Nam and Ghana … Continue reading
Here be dragons–and lions: Agricultural growth and development in Asia and Africa
Dragon head detail on a gate to the walled Citadel of Hué, the former, imperial, capital of Viet Nam from the 17th to 19th centuries and national capital until 1945. Located in the middle of the country along the Perfume River, Hué’s Citadel, like Beijing’s Forbidden City, housed only emperors and their concubines and closest … Continue reading
Demand led transformation of the livestock sector in India
The South Asia Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank has produced its first assessment of the livestock sector in India since 1996. According to the report, a ‘livestock revolution’ has occurred on a large scale in India over the last couple of decades. Demand for all major livestock commodities (milk, eggs, meat) … Continue reading
Status of postgraduate training in the livestock sector in South Asia and priorities for ILRI’s support
This Status Report on the status of postgraduate training in the livestock sector in South Asia and priorities for ILRI’s support was released on 15 September, 2010. In order to establish the priorities for collaborative capacity strengthening activities of the learning institutes in the areas of animal production and veterinary services, ILRI commissioned five studies … Continue reading
Researchers worldwide unite in multi-million dollar initiative to fight climate change in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Inger Andersen, chair of the Fund Council of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and vice president of Sustainable Development at the World Bank during her opening speech at Agriculture and Rural Development Day, a side event at the United Nations climate change conference (COP16), being held in Cancún, Mexico (photo credit: Neil … Continue reading
India’s goat gamble
It has been a slow and steady shift over decades. Forced by declining returns from farming in ecologically fragile areas, small farmers have been taking to goat rearing. Today, goats ensure income to five million households in India. It is now bonanza time, with demand for goat meat projected to shoot up. India will have … Continue reading
ILRI calls for steps to conserve the animal genetic resources of developing countries
‘The International Livestock Research Institute is calling for immediate, practical steps to preserve developing countries’ dwindling animal genetic diversity. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization says almost 10 percent of the world’s livestock breeds have become extinct in the last six years. Twenty percent of the 7,616 breeds documented in the FAO’s Global Databank … Continue reading