In case you missed it, earlier this year, Washington Post food–science columnist Tamar Haspel served up an interesting story in The Plate, a blog of National Geographic’s Future of Food series. Her story’s about a long-term research project’s attempt to develop disease-resistant cattle for African farmers. Continue reading
A new program that will address genetic constraints to dairy production in Ethiopia and Tanzania has been launched. Continue reading
Scientists will use funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to look at how genetic information can improve the health and productivity of farmed animals in tropical climates. The institutions in Scotland and Africa where the researchers are based are also making additional contributions, taking the total funding pot to £20 million over the next five years. Continue reading
High taxation could be hampering efforts to promote the consumption of dairy products in Tanzania. Continue reading
Women represent 70% of African smallholder chicken producers. Chickens can be a real way out of difficult livelihoods for these women and the households they attend to. A new project, SciDev.Net recently reported, is aiming at leveraging this potential in novel ways. Continue reading
The Tanzania government is committed to addressing challenges associated with milk production and marketing so that more dairy farmers will benefit from the country’s growing dairy sector. Continue reading
The results of this analysis are conclusive: livestock development among resource poor smallholders in Zambia’s Copperbelt increases household dietary diversity and total consumption expenditures, with dietary impacts that are substantially greater for animals that produce food products for direct consumption. Continue reading
This article reports on market participation and producers’ knowledge of the indigenous livestock grading and pricing system applied to small ruminant marketing in Somaliland. Results confirmed the importance of small ruminants as sources of income in producer households. Knowledge about the grading system was generally widespread, and this was important for market participation. Factors that … Continue reading
This paper from the World Bank uses a stochastic dynamic programming model to characterize the optimal savings-consumption decisions and the role of livestock inventories as a buffer stock in rural Ethiopia. Continue reading
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
ILRI Clippings 