Category Archives: Regions

Africa / East Africa / Film and video / ILRI / Knowledge and Information / Livestock / Niger / PIM / Policy / Project / Research / Tanzania / Uganda / West Africa

Improving livestock data in Africa–Policy perspectives

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The ‘Livestock Data Innovation Project’ is a three-year project to pilot and develop ways to identify, collect and analyze livestock data in three countries: Uganda, Tanzania and Niger. In its second year, representatives of several partners in the organization share their video perspectives on livestock data and its management. Here Kristin Grote from the Bill … Continue reading →

Animal Production / Asia / Film and video / ILRI / India / Livestock Systems / Markets / Pigs / Project / Research / South Asia

Living livestock research: Towards policies for people and pigs in northeast India

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For the past several years, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has worked on a project to better livelihoods through improvement of livestock production and marketing in northeast India that is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). In this 8-minute video, ILRI’s Pier-Paolo Ficarelli, a knowledge management specialist based in India, reports … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Diseases / Article / Biotechnology / Cattle / Disease Control / Film and video / Genetics / ILRI / Zoonotic Diseases

Livestock genes identified to unlock protection from animal plagues

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West Africa’s ancient (humpless) N’Dama cattle (white) are genetically resistant to the disease trypanosomosis while East Africa’s Improved Boran (humped) cattle are susceptible to this tsetse-transmitted disease (photo credit ILRI/Elsworth). Xinhuanet, the Chinese Xinhua News Agency online service, reports on an international research team that used a new combination of approaches to find two genes … Continue reading →

Biodiversity / East Africa / Environment / Event / Geodata / ILRI / Kenya / NRM / Pastoralism / Wildlife / WLE

High-level scientific training kicks off systematic game counts in the Kitengela rangelands outside Nairobi

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Plains game and Masai livestock are relatively compatible in Kitengela and other East African pastoral lands (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). The non-governmental ‘Friends of Nairobi National Park’ organization report the following story this month about a ground count of the wild mammals inhabiting the rangelands an hour’s drive from Kenya’s capital of Nairobi, rangelands that not … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Animal Feeding / Asia / Brazil / China / Latin America / Trade / USA

China’s insatiable appetite for Brazil’s soybeans is making the latter country rich–and nervous

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Planting soy in the state of Paraná, Brazil (photograph via Flickr by Dami Izolan). Daniel Kfouri reports in the New York Times that Brazil’s ‘$7 billion agreement signed last month—to produce six million tons of soybeans a year—is one of several struck in recent weeks as China hurries to shore up its food security and offset … Continue reading →

Animal Products / Cattle / Dairying / East Africa / Food Safety / ILRI / Kenya / Markets / Rwanda / Uganda

When small-scale dairying becomes smart-scale dairying: Transformation via ‘dairy hubs’

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Slide in a presentation by Moses Nyabila on progress in the East African Dairy Development Project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in which Heifer International and ILRI are two partners; the presentation was made at a USAID Bureau for Food Security Webinar on 22 June 2011 in Washington, DC (slide credit: Heifer … Continue reading →

Books and chapters / Directorate / East Africa / Environment / Geodata / GIS / ILRI / Kenya / Launch / NRM / WLE

‘Virtual Kenya’ online access to maps will improve the country’s environment and development planning

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Bruce Scott, director of Partnerships and Communications at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), was a main speaker at the launch of ‘Virtual Kenya’ at Nairobi’s iHub this week (photo credit: ILRI/Mungai). Spatial information—including where different populations live and where natural resources are located—is essential for sound development planning and decision-making. A new website launched … Continue reading →

Asia / India / Innovation Systems / Knowledge and Information / South Asia

Do ICTs help us put research into use?

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A new report from Research Into Use examines the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in South Asia as a tool to put research into use for innovation. The authors conclude: “If ICTs are to contribute meaningfully to innovation management, there has to be a fundamental rethinking of our approach to agricultural and rural … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Feeding / Dairying / Ethiopia / Livestock / Markets

Feed- and dairy-processing plants to improve food security in Ethiopia

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As part of the Feed Enhancement for Ethiopian Development (FEED) project, ACDI/VOCA reports that Ethiopian cooperatives and consumers are fighting food insecurity and benefiting from new feed and dairy plants. In the project, ACDI/VOCA partnered with the Selale Dairy Producers Cooperative Union to make investments in local agricultural production to fill market gaps and improve … Continue reading →

A4NH / Africa / Agri-Health / Animal Diseases / Article / Cattle / Disease Control / Genetics / Human Health / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds

An African cattle disease, disease-resistant cow and disease control solution

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The tsetse fly, which spreads the livestock disease trypanosomosis (photo credit: ILRI/Elsworth). Aid Netherlands has picked up news of a paper published last month in a leading scientific journal about a breakthrough in determining the genes responsible for controlling a tsetse fly-transmitted disease of livestock that has devastated Africa, and held back farming on the … Continue reading →