Bone dry, dusty and windy, the vast plains outside Arusha are often a sight of despair and hopelessness during the height of the dry season. Such was the situation in most of the Maasailand for the past one year. The dreadful situation was too obvious even for travellers along the Great North Road; Arusha- Namanga … Continue reading
Pastoralists in parts of the semi-arid eastern region of Isiolo are abandoning their nomadic lifestyles in favour of farming to improve their food security and livelihoods. Successive droughts in arid and semi-arid parts of Kenya have led to livestock deaths, affected pastoralist nutrition and, in places, led to pastoralist drop-outs. Read more (IRIN: Humanitarian news … Continue reading
Between 1 and 4 December 2009, some 25 dairy-sector stakeholders from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Northeast India met at ILRI Nairobi for a South-South symposium to share lessons on traditional dairy development. Read more … (Livestock Markets Digest) Continue reading
This Research Report by Jeannette van de Steeg, Mario Herrero, James Kinyangi, Philip Thornton, K.P.C. Rao, Roger Stern, and Peter Cooper on The influence of current and future climate-induced risk on the agricultural sector in East and Central Africa: Sensitizing the ASARECA strategic plan to climate change was released on 23 December, 2009. Rainfed agriculture … Continue reading
Communities in transition throughout Africa are at a critical crossroads. Rapid technological change, rising population, and growing urbanization, along with the impact of climate change on the continent, present a number of challenges to communities. And unfortunately the development groups, aid agencies, and local governments do not make this easy. Spend a week in a … Continue reading
The northwards spread of human Rhodesian sleeping sickness in Uganda is likely due to the movement of infected livestock, according to new findings from an interdisciplinary research group including members from the Centre for Infectious Diseases, University of Edinburgh; the Ministry of Health, Uganda; and the Universities of Oxford and Southampton. The current study, published … Continue reading
This Status Report by Lusato Kurwijila on Status of postgraduate training in the livestock sector in East and Central Africa and priorities for ILRI’s support was released on 17 December, 2009. ILRI recognizes that the long-term solution to address the continuous and dynamic nature of capacity strengthening needs is to develop sustainable capacity within the … Continue reading
In this week’s PLoS Medicine, Jonna Mazet (University of California, Davis) and colleagues describe their work in the Tanzania-based HALI Project, which adopts the ‘One Health’ approach to address emerging zoonoses, recognizing the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health. There is a strong need for integrated health approaches, the authors argue, because explosive human … Continue reading
It is not the best time for livestock breeders to be in Copenhagen, especially those whose livelihoods and culture are intertwined with the precious creatures that provide meat in diet. Negotiators and activists here say the world has to cut its meat consumption and activities around raising chicken, pigs, and cattle, saying they are major … Continue reading
Livestock researchers believe that rather than rid the world of livestock it’s preferable to find ways to farm animals more efficiently, profitably and sustainably, according to a new short film (see link below) prepared by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on livestock and climate change. Watch video. . . (Climate, Food and Developing Country … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 