Category Archives: Regions

Africa / Animal Feeding / Dairying / Ethiopia / Forages / ILRI / Innovation Systems / IPMS / Livestock / Value Chains

Commercializing dairy and forage systems in Ethiopia: An innovation systems perspective

Posted on by • Leave a comment

This working paper by Tesfaye Lemma, Ranjitha Puskur, Dirk Hoekstra and Azage Tegegne on Commercializing dairy and forage systems in Ethiopia: An innovation systems perspective presents and discusses the results of the analysis of Ethiopian dairy and forage innovation systems. Two factors triggered the need for understanding the innovation systems: Ethiopian dairy subsector has not … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Cattle / East Africa / ECF / ILRI / Kenya / Livestock / Vaccines

Cattle disease vaccine launched 30 years after invention

Posted on by • Leave a comment

An effective vaccine that languished, underused, for 30 years after its invention has finally been released commercially as a result of a new scheme for getting innovation into practice. The vaccine protects cattle against the deadly East Coast Fever (ECF), which kills two cows every minute — one million a year — causing economic losses … Continue reading →

Africa / Asia / Climate Change / Livestock / Research

Colorado State University to study impact of climate change on livestock

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Colorado State University has received $15 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development to manage a Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP). The focus of the five-year, multi-disciplinary research and training program is to adapt livestock systems to climate change in the semi-arid regions of Africa and Central Asia. Read more … (Colorado State University) … Continue reading →

Africa / Climate Change / Drought / East Africa / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Livestock Systems / Markets

What do NASA, insurance giants and Kenya have in common?

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Cows. (No, really.) Kenya’s International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently cracked the code on a formula that could change cattle-herders’ lives — or at least line their pockets. The single biggest risk cattlemen in Kenya’s dry north face is drought. If seasonal rains fail, grasses don’t grow. And if nothing green grows, the hundreds of … Continue reading →

Africa / Climate Change / Food Security

Africa needs about $3 bln a year to adapt farming

Posted on by • Leave a comment

The cost of preparing the world’s agriculture to deal with increasing global temperatures will be $7 billion annually, a senior climate change researcher said this week at an African conference designed to push farming up the climate change agenda. Africa, the world’s poorest continent that is forecast to be the most affected by global warming, … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Health / East Africa / Kenya / Pastoralism / Tanzania

Improving animal health in East Africa

Posted on by • Leave a comment

In this podcast from the London International Development Centre, four vets describe the challenges affecting livestock within pastoralist communities in East Africa and explain an exciting project to monitor disease by using mobile phones. Dr Ezra Saitoti and Dr Paul Chacha, both field vets for the charity Vetaid, discuss how this innovative technology will help … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Climate Change / East Africa / Food Security / ILRI

Climate models paint bleak picture for East Africa

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Climate change is expected to bring greater extremes in weather conditions, but climate models disagree about which problems – droughts, flooding, temperature increases – are most likely in much of northern, central and western Africa. In east Africa, however, the models largely agree: dry areas will suffer more prolonged droughts and wet areas will see … Continue reading →

Africa / CGIAR / Climate Change / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya

World scientists meet again over climate change in Kenya

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Climate change in Africa and the world at large has impacted on many fronts resulting in drought and floods hence resulting in food shortage. Consequently, poverty levels have increased leading to low development among many developing nations. It is against this backdrop that leading agriculture and climate scientists, policymakers, farmers, and development experts from around … Continue reading →

Asia / Biodiversity / Climate Change / Food Security / India / South Asia

Food Security, biodiversity and climate change

Posted on by • Leave a comment

GENE CAMPAIGN and Action Aid organized a seminal workshop at New Delhi last week (April23/24) to deliberate on this issue. In her lead presentation, Suman Sahai made the point that climate change will bring turbulence in ALL production systems: no exclusions will be pronounced! The greater the genetic variety, the better the coping strategy will … Continue reading →

Africa / Camels / East Africa / Livelihoods / Livestock / Pastoralism / Tanzania

Heifer Camel project: A resounding success to Maasai community in Tanzania

Posted on by • Leave a comment

They are huge, bulky and strong! They are disease-tolerant and can survive drought by browsing on leaves on trees that other livestock cannot eat. These are camels! Following severe long droughts that hit northeastern part of Tanzania in the last couple of years, a group of Maasai women of Ketumbeine village in Longido district, Arusha … Continue reading →