Category Archives: Small Ruminants

Africa / Animal Production / ASSP / BecA / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Livestock / LIVESTOCKFISH / Research / Sheep / Small Ruminants

Review of sheep research and development projects in Ethiopia

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This working paper reviews and documents sheep research projects/activities in Ethiopia and provides an overview of major research outputs, dissemination of research results, impacts on the sheep industry, and the gaps in research. Thoughts on the future directions of sheep research are also presented. Sheep research and development in Ethiopia dates back to the early … Continue reading →

Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / East Africa / Goats / ILRI / Launch / Pastoralism / Sheep / Small Ruminants / Southern Africa / Vulnerability

Drylands of the developing world: New livestock and crop research program launched

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A herd of sheep and goats in northern Kenya (photo on Flickr by gordontour). The dry areas of the developing world occupy over 40% of the earth’s surface and are home to some 2.5 billion people. Many in these regions struggle to provide sufficient food for their growing populations and face a series of daunting … Continue reading →

Feeds / Forages / Goats / Markets / Small Ruminants / Southern Africa / Value Chains / Zimbabwe

Small stock connections lead to better business for goat keepers in Zimbabwe

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Feed is scarce for livestock in the dry season, farmers can lose up to 30% of their herds in these three months (photo on Flickr by ICRISAT/Swathi Sridharan). Willie Dar, director general of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), highlights the success of taking a ‘value chain’ approach to improving goat … Continue reading →

Dairying / Drylands / Feeds / ILRI / Intensification / Launch / Pakistan / Pastoralism / Project / Small Ruminants / South Asia

Four-year US$30-million Agricultural Innovation Project launched in Pakistan

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A flock of Makhi Cheeni goats near Hasilpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan (photo credit: ILRI/M Sajjad Khan). ‘The US Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) launched a new project to expand the use of modern technologies in Pakistan’s agriculture sector. ‘PARC Chairman Dr … Continue reading →

Cattle / Climate Change / Drylands / Environment / Food Security / Forages / Goats / Pastoralism / Presentation / Sheep / Small Ruminants / Soils / USA / Vulnerability / Wildlife

Want to green the world’s deserts? Do the unthinkable: Put livestock back on them — Allan Savory

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Watch this new provocative 22-minute TedTalk by Allan Savory on ‘How to green the world’s deserts and reverse climate change’. Alan Savory, a Zimbabwean-born biologist/ecologist and rangelands specialist, gives environmentalists pause in a recent TedTalk, published 4 Mar 2013, on the ‘cancer’ of desertification of the world’s drylands, which make up some two-thirds of the … Continue reading →

Animal Production / Dairying / Gender / ILRI / Poultry / Report / Small Ruminants / Women

Taking stock of women in livestock development project: Issues, tips, tools, and a checklist

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Yulita Cosmas, a chicken farmer in central Malawi, with one of her hens (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). A publication, ‘Understanding and Integrating Gender Issues into Livestock Projects and Programmes: A Checklist for Practitioners’, from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is due to be published soon. It is being produced by Francesca Distefano, … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Climate Change / Crop-Livestock / East Africa / Environment / Ethiopia / Event report / ILRI / Livestock / Livestock-Water / Sheep / Small Ruminants

Crop-livestock farmers in Ethiopia’s Blue Nile Basin supported in climate adaptation

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Last week a project to ‘enhance communities’ adaptive capacity to climate-change-induced water scarcity in drought-prone hotspots of the Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia’ held a farmers’ field day at Kabe Watershed. More than 90 farmers, researchers, extension experts, staff of non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders met to share lessons on what farmers have practiced and benefited … Continue reading →

Animal Health / Central Africa / Congo-DR / Disease Control / Goats / ILRI / PPR / Sheep / Small Ruminants

A livestock plague is killing Congo’s goats and sheep

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Goat and people share a road in Goma, DRC (photo on Flickr by Robert Guerra). Voice of America is reporting on a new livestock epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The highly contagious viral disease is known as ‘peste des petits ruminants’, or PPR for short, sometimes as ‘ovine rinderpest’, and more … Continue reading →

Books and chapters / Cattle / Dairying / East Africa / Goats / Human Health / Nutrition / Pastoralism / Small Ruminants / Uganda / Vulnerability

Milk matters are serious matters in northeastern Uganda

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Karamojang woman and child in Kotido, Uganda (photo on Flickr by Courtney Chance). An interesting report on ‘milk matters’ has been produced by the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, USA, in collaboration with Save the Children. It looks at milk in children’s diets and household livelihoods among the Karamojang, a pastoral tribe in northeastern … Continue reading →

Africa / Animal Breeding / Animal Production / Biodiversity / Cattle / Gambia / Goats / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Livestock / Project / Report / Research / Sheep / Small Ruminants / West Africa

The Gambia’s hardy native ruminant livestock surveyed in bid to improve their conservation and productivity

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Although livestock play a central role in rural development in West Africa, traditional livestock systems have high death rates, low reproductive rates and low offtake rates. Furthermore, the presence of trypanosome-infected tsetse flies in the sub-humid and humid areas hurts the potential for livestock production. The region’s endemic ruminant livestock, however, are highly adapted to … Continue reading →