Category Archives: East Africa

Africa / Animal Production / Climate Change / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Environment / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Livestock / Pastoralism / Project / Research

Coping with drought: Assessing the impacts of livestock insurance in Kenya

Posted on by • Leave a comment

In January 2010 the index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) pilot project was launched in Marsabit District of northern Kenya as an effort to help pastoralists manage drought risk, and its pernicious ex ante and ex post effects. A Brief from the I4 Index Insurance Innovation Initiative reports results based on the impact of insurance on households’ … Continue reading →

Biodiversity / East Africa / Environment / ILRI / Kenya / NRM / Pastoralism

Lasst die Wildnis leben (Let the wilderness live)

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Kenya safari (photo on Flickr by Shawna Nelles). ‘Afrikas Bevölkerung wächst rasch. Das bedroht einzigartige Ökosysteme. Sind Löwe, Gnu & Co. noch zu retten? ‘Doch außerhalb der Schutzgebiete, und das ist der größte Teil der Mara-Region, verschwinden die großen Wildtiere beängstigend rasch. Besonders betroffen sind die Büffel, Warzenschweine und Wasserböcke, Elen-, Topi- und Kongoni-Antilopen, Gnus, … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food Security / Kenya / Pastoralism / Somalia / South Sudan / Sudan / Vulnerability / West Africa

FEWS NET says rainfall in Africa’s eastern Horn may be below normal again this year

Posted on by • Leave a comment

FEWS Net Estimated Food Security Conditions for Mar 2012 (map credit: USAID and Famine Early Warning System Network). Bloomberg News has reported a new report from the Famine Early Warning Systems network (FEWS NET) that East African rainfall ‘may be “significantly” below average in the Horn of Africa’s main growing season, potentially threatening a region … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Animal Production / Animal Products / Cattle / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / IPMS / Livestock / Markets / Project / Research

IPMS project updates shared with steering committee

Posted on by • Leave a comment

The Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) project held its semi annual steering committee meeting on April 17, 2012 in Addis Ababa. Representatives from the Oromia, SNNP and Tigray bureau’s of agriculture/research; IPMS rural development officers; CIDA representatives; and IPMS headquarters staff attended. Iain Wright chaired the meeting. The main agenda of the day was … Continue reading →

Animal Production / Animal Products / Cattle / East Africa / Ethiopia / Film and video / IPMS / Livestock / Markets / Value Chains

An innovation story: Livestock fattening in Metema, Ethiopia

Posted on by • Leave a comment

This innovation story narrates the experience of the Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) project on livestock fattening in Ethiopia. The video documents how a 2005 alliance between the local government office of agriculture, the IPMS project, and local livestock farmers and traders in western Ethiopia took advantage of livestock market opportunities in neighbouring Sudan. … Continue reading →

Agriculture / East Africa / Ethiopia / Event report / IPMS

Results-based M&E training for Ethiopia’s regional agricultural officers

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Towards the end of its five-year term, the Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) project recently ran a training of trainers workshop on results-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E). In this video, Berhanu Gebremedhin outlines the main topics covered in the workshop: An introduction to results-based M&E; the development of a logic model and performance framework … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Books and chapters / East Africa / Research

Bringing farmers’ options to farmers’ fields in the East Africa Highlands

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Earlier this year, the International Development Research Centre (Canada) published a book titled Integrated Natural Resource Management in the Highlands of East Africa. In this short video interview, Ethiopian scientist Tilahun Amede, on joint appointment with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and leader of a Nile Basin Development … Continue reading →

Books and chapters / Cattle / Dairying / East Africa / Goats / Human Health / Nutrition / Pastoralism / Small Ruminants / Uganda / Vulnerability

Milk matters are serious matters in northeastern Uganda

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Karamojang woman and child in Kotido, Uganda (photo on Flickr by Courtney Chance). An interesting report on ‘milk matters’ has been produced by the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, USA, in collaboration with Save the Children. It looks at milk in children’s diets and household livelihoods among the Karamojang, a pastoral tribe in northeastern … Continue reading →

Animal Feeding / Buffalo / Cattle / Crop residues / Crop-Livestock / East Africa / Fodder / ILRI / India / Intensification / South Asia / Tanzania

Dual-purpose groundnut, pigeonpea, millet and sorghum raise milk yields in dairy-intensive India

Posted on by • 1 Comment

Groundnuts (photo on Flickr by Stephen Eustace). Jerome Bossuet, of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), based in Pantancheru, India, has an interesting article in the New Agriculturist last month about fodder innovations helping Indian dairy farmers. Feed matters are big matters in this intensive dairy-producing country, because ‘Feed represents around 70 … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Article / Climate Change / Drylands / East Africa / Kenya / Livelihoods / Pastoralism / Vulnerability / Women

Women playing key role in pastoralist livelihood diversification

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Maasai women in Kenya. Women are playing a key role in pastoralists’ diversification (picture credit: Konrad Glogowski on Flickr).  A feature story carried by IRIN this week highlights how women are playing an increasingly important role in pastoralist livelihoods diversification in Kenya. ‘Along a small seasonal stream in Ewaso Nyiro village in Narok, southwestern Kenya, Leleseina … Continue reading →