In Kenya, low prices offered by the formal milk marketing channels are forcing farmers countrywide to seek alternatives to get better deals. Milk hawkers have continued to thrive even as restrictions are put on their way as concerns heighten over hygiene standards. Every morning more than 40,000 milk hawkers are out on their bicycles, motorcycles … Continue reading
Dryland in Marsabit District, northern Kenya; 80 per cent of Kenya’s lands are dry or semi-dry; some of these drylands are predicted to get drier still in this century as a result of climate change (photo credit: ILRI/Mude). Philip Thornton, an agricultural systems analyst with the International Livestock Research Institute, is quoted in the Guardian … Continue reading
In the lush green hilly countryside of Kirinyaga district, Central Kenya, a silent farming revolution is taking place. While tea is favoured crop mainly due to the cool weather in the areas close to the 5199 m snowcapped Mt Kenya, integrated chicken-fish farming is slowly taking root. Read more … (Kenya Agriculture Stories) Note: The … Continue reading
Colombia, with 24 million head of cattle, is showcasing two advances towards reducing the 13 percent of climate-changing gas emissions attributed to livestock production around the world. The key words in this endeavour: brachialactone and Lotus uliginosus. Brachialactone, a chemical compound discovered in this Andean country on the roots of the African Brachiaria humidicola, gives … Continue reading
Mid-2010 , the Kenya’s Ministry of livestock development placed its veterinary department on high alert over a possible outbreak of a Rift Valley fever epidemic in the North Eastern, Upper Eastern and Rift Valley provinces. Livestock Minister Mohamed Kuti, while issuing the alert, announced that a massive vaccination campaign was due to begin in the … Continue reading
ILRI is working with insurance companies to train livestock herders in Kenya’s northern drylands in the benefits and costs of a new index-based livestock insurance first made available in Marsabit District in 2010 (photo credit: ILRI/Mude). ‘IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, today signed agreements with three partners to expand access to insurance … Continue reading
‘A mandate created by the 193 participating nations, of which the United States is not a part, has ensured that countries will now have full jurisdiction over their genetic resources, and the resulting profits. ‘Countries will be able to collect compensation or royalties on any product made from a genetic resource within their borders. ‘This … Continue reading
Preparing land for sowing seeds in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). ‘A report published Wednesday [17 November 2010] says developed nations are not fulfilling the financial promises they made at a United Nations conference last year aimed at helping poor countries deal with climate change. ‘At a U.N. climate change summit in Copenhagen last … Continue reading
The newly launched livestock insurance scheme will help improve business sustainability and productivity in the agricultural sub sector, the product promoters-Botswana Insurance Company-are confident. Read more: Midweek Sun (Botswana) Simbarashe Nembaware News blog More posts on livestock insurance Continue reading
‘Throughout the tropics, a lack of feed keeps farm animals underweight and underproductive, thereby preventing some 600 million poor farmers and herders from meeting fast-rising global demand for milk and meat. But thanks to a partnership between India’s National Research Centre for Sorghum (NRCS), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 