Category Archives: East Africa

Africa / Animal Feeding / ASSP / Capacity Strengthening / CCAFS / East Africa / Ethiopia / Event / Feeds / Forages / ILRI / Seeds

FeedSeed project trains forage seed entrepreneurs in Ethiopia

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The ‘FeedSeed’ project at the International Livestock Research Institute is working with public and private partners to help create a sustainable forage seed supply system in Ethiopia. The idea is to help local entrepreneurs start up forage seed businesses, mainly by establishing a public business incubator that can provide training and mentoring to the entrepreneurs. From 7-11 April 2014, the project organized a technical and business skills development training course for potential forage seed entrepreneurs. Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Products / Dairying / East Africa / Livestock / PIL

White gold: Experts assess dairy opportunities in East Africa and Ethiopia

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The Inter-Agency Donor Group on pro-poor livestock research and development (IADG) recently completed a successful Dairy Expert Consultation in Uganda. The three-day event in Masaka-Mbarara gathered over 50 dairy experts from six East African countries and beyond, and took place from April 1-3, 2014. Continue reading →

East Africa / Ethiopia / Gender / Livestock-Water / NRM / WLE / Women

Beyond fetching water for livestock: A gendered sustainable livelihood framework to assess livestock water productivity

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A sourcebook from the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food, entitled ‘Addressing Water, Food and Poverty Problems Together—Methods, Tools and Lessons’ presents more than 50 articles on how to improve ecological and social resilience. One of the articles looks at ‘A gendered sustainable livelihood framework to assess livestock water productivity’. Continue reading →

Australia / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Event / ILRI / ILRIComms / Insurance / Kenya / Launch / PIL / UK

Of cows, camels and ‘charity insurance’ on Kenya’s Somali frontier–The Economist

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Insuring animals who range with semi-nomadic herders across some of the harshest terrain on earth had defeated all previous efforts. Eventually he came across the work of a Kenyan economist, Andrew Mude of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), based in Nairobi. Mr Mude has developed an insurance model that uses satellite images to assess the impact of drought on the vegetation that camels, cows and goats need to survive. . . . Continue reading →

Australia / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Event / ILRI / ILRIComms / Insurance / Kenya / Launch / Pastoralism / PIL / UK / USA

Shelter from the storm (literally): As remote herders get drought-related insurance payments, the heaven’s open

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Livestock market in Wajir, where Kenya’s remote, never-before-insured livestock herders are getting their first protection from drought (photo credit: ILRI/Riccardo Gangale). ‘It was almost inevitable that the day chosen to make the first drought insurance payments in Wajir, in the arid north-east of Kenya, would be the same day the rains came. ‘Herders who lost sheep, cattle … Continue reading →

A4NH / East Africa / Feeds / Finland / Food Safety / FSZ / Human Health / ILRI / ILRIComms / Kenya / Project

Kenya is hotspot for alfatoxin-related deaths–Report

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‘The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has commissioned a research project that will ascertain the levels of aflatoxins in the milk consumed in Kenya. ‘Kenyans consume more than 145 litres of milk per person annually increasing the risks associated with milk-related aflatoxins. Because of the higher milk consumption, especially by young children, pregnant and nursing … Continue reading →

Australia / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Event / ILRI / ILRIComms / Insurance / Kenya / Launch / Pastoralism / PIL / UK

Africa’s first Islamic insurance for herders

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Hassan Bashir is an astute entrepreneur, developing Africa’s first livestock insurance scheme to make payouts compliant with Islamic law, by bringing together Muslim scholars and number-crunching agricultural experts using NASA weather satellites. Continue reading →

Burundi / Cattle / Dairying / East Africa / Ethiopia / Event / ILRI / ILRIComms / Kenya / PIL / Rwanda / Tanzania / Uganda / Value Chains

East African dairy: Donors and stakeholders meet this week in Uganda to better coordinate their development work

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ILRI scientist Steve Staal (in blue) and Gregg Bevier (right) of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), take a close look at a cowshed typical of Kenya’s smallholder dairy sector (photo credit: BMGF/Lee Klejtnot). In its wisdom, an Inter-Agency Donor Group (IADG) on pro-poor livestock research and development agreed in 2013 to explore ways … Continue reading →

A4NH / ASSP / East Africa / Food Safety / FSZ / ILRI / ILRIComms / LIVESTOCKFISH / Pigs / Uganda / Value Chains

Uganda: Where a pig in the backyard is a piggybank for one million households–and rising

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Uganda is the leading consumer of pork in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Over 2.3 million pigs are kept by one million households in Uganda for consumption, says the institute which further indicates that the majority of pigs are kept by women in smallholder households. Continue reading →