This paper from the World Bank explores whether ownership of various livestock species increases consumption of animal source foods and helps improve child nutritional status. Continue reading
Brachiaria grass is helping Kenyan farmers boost their dairy production and alleviate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions and ground water pollution. Continue reading
The ‘innovation platforms approach’ is an effective way of establishing systematic interactions among stakeholders in the agricultural sector by stimulating technical, institutional and organizational innovations in agricultural value chains. Researchers from the University of Bonn, Germany, ILRI and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), tested the effectiveness of a dairy innovation platform that is trying to improve farmers’ access to cattle feeds in Tanzania. Continue reading
Greater awareness on the health benefits of milk and dairy products is needed to raise their consumption in Tanzania. Continue reading
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is working with partners to understand the breed composition of dairy and indigenous cattle in Tanzania and to find the appropriate dairy cattle genotypes that will help farmers identify and keep dairy breeds that are appropriately matched to farms. Continue reading
Oromia Insurance Company (OIC), the lone index based insurer of livestock in the country, has launched a new scheme that will entail paying compensation for livestock ahead of the drought season instead of after, as it was originally done. Continue reading
A recently unveiled Tanzania Livestock Modernization Initiative (TLMI) is expected to contribute to the improvement of the livelihoods of smallholder livestock farmers in the country and increase their contribution to national food security.
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Fred Segor, principal secretary in Kenya’s State Department of Livestock in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and member of the board of trustees of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which is based in Kenya, recently announced that a large government-sponsored livestock insurance scheme would begin being implemented this October in Wajir, Turkana and Marsabit at a cost of Kshs80.9 million (about USD800,000). Segor said the cover would be escalated to cover 14 of Kenya’s northern counties, targeting 5,000 households in the short term, to help them cope with recurring drought. Continue reading
The 2015 ReSAKSS (Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System) Annual Conference will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on September 1-3, 2015. Continue reading
A new ILRI research brief shows that a livestock marketing information system (LMIS) has improved access to animal marketing information and helped increase trading in livestock in Somaliland. Continue reading
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