Commercialization of smallholders: Does market orientation translate into market participation?

Posted on 28 Dec 2010 by Meron Mulatu • Leave a comment

This working paper by Berhanu Gebremedhin and Moti Jaleta on Commercialization of smallholders: Does market orientation translate into market participation? was released on 15 December, 2010. It makes little distinction between market orientation (production decision based on market signals) and market participation (sale of output). It analyses the determinants of market orientation and market participation … Continue reading →

East Africa / Innovation Systems / Kenya / Research / Women

African huts far from the grid glow with renewable power

Posted on 28 Dec 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

For Sara Ruto, the desperate yearning for electricity began last year with the purchase of her first cellphone, a lifeline for receiving small money transfers, contacting relatives in the city or checking chicken prices at the nearest market. Charging the phone was no simple matter in this farming village far from Kenya’s electric grid. Every … Continue reading →

Africa / Climate Change / Crop-Livestock / Livestock

Climate change effects vary widely between rich and poor countries

Posted on 27 Dec 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

When Ulamila Kurai Wragg visited New York in 2009 to speak about the frightening climatic changes taking place in the Cook Islands, some audience members stunned her. “I was hearing, ‘There’s no such thing as climate change. What proof have you got?’ ” Wragg recalled. “The experience I had in New York was not easy … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Environment / Farming Systems / West Africa

African farmers displaced as investors move in

Posted on 22 Dec 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

The half-dozen strangers who descended on this remote West African village brought its hand-to-mouth farmers alarming news: their humble fields, tilled from one generation to the next, were now controlled by Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and the farmers would all have to leave. “They told us this would be the last rainy season for … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Feeding / Animal Products / Dairying / East Africa / Knowledge and Information / Livestock / Uganda

Computers serving Ugandan cows

Posted on 20 Dec 2010 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

A computer programme for feeding dairy cows has won the top prize in the 2009-2010 Africa-wide science competition held by CTA together with partner organisations. The Endiisa Decision Support Tool was developed by a team of scientists led by the National Livestock Resources Research Institute of Uganda. Team leader Dr Sarah Mubiru said the software … Continue reading →

Animal Production / Central America / Farming Systems / Innovation Systems / Knowledge and Information / Latin America / Livestock Systems

Exceeding expectations: The ‘degraded pastures’ project in Central America

Posted on 17 Dec 2010 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

In the past 40 years the area under pastures in Latin America increased from 473 to 555 million hectares, and the number of cattle has risen from 195 to 394 million. This growth has resulted in forest loss and fragmentation. Pastures are now the main agricultural land use, particularly in areas like El Petén, in … Continue reading →

Animal Breeding / Animal Diseases / Animal Feeding / Animal Health / Animal Production / Asia / India / Livestock / Livestock Systems / South Asia

Demand led transformation of the livestock sector in India

Posted on 17 Dec 2010 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

The South Asia Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank has produced its first assessment of the livestock sector in India since 1996. According to the report, a ‘livestock revolution’ has occurred on a large scale in India over the last couple of decades. Demand for all major livestock commodities (milk, eggs, meat) … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Diseases / Disease Control / East Africa / ILRI / Kenya / Knowledge and Information / Livestock / RVF / Tanzania

Traditional knowledge key to managing Rift Valley fever

Posted on 16 Dec 2010 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

By assessing key risk factors and symptoms, such as an increase in rainfall and high abortion rates, Somali and Maasai herders accurately predicted the outbreak of Rift Valley fever in 2006/07 long before veterinary and public health interventions began, researchers have discovered. “Timely outbreak response requires effective early warning and surveillance systems,” say authors of … Continue reading →

Africa / Ethiopia / NRM / Research / Water / WLE

IWMI celebrates 25 years – Addis event focuses on its work in the Nile Basin and East Africa

Posted on 16 Dec 2010 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) shares a campus in Ethiopia with ILRI – the International Livestock Research Institute. The two organizations are also close partners in a number of projects across the world – but especially in Ethiopia and the Nile Basin. The event was kicked off by the Ethiopian State Minister for Water … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Drought / East Africa / ILRI / Insurance / Kenya / Rwanda

Index insurance pushes farmers closer to cover

Posted on 16 Dec 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

The development of the financial services sector is emerging as potential boon to agriculture in East Africa, with up to 40,000 farmers in Kenya and Rwanda set to gain from a new insurance scheme targeting losses to bad weather. The scheme comes at a time when Kenya is recovering from a prolonged drought in 2009 … Continue reading →