Using the state-of-the-art laboratory established in 2015 in Nairobi called the Mazingira Center, scientists are measuring greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in Africa, key to improving the accuracy of emissions data for both national reporting and mitigation. Already, scientists found that Tier 1 emission factors established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) overestimate both methane and nitrous oxide emissions from cattle excreta, given typical smallhoder practices in Eastern Africa. Continue reading
Category Archives: Article
Ephraim Mukisira appointed chair of Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa board
Ephraim Mukisira, a distinguished agricultural researcher and former director (2005–2014) of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), now the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation, has been appointed chair of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) Board of Directors. Continue reading
How agriculture changes our climate—New primer from Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment
The following is an unusually sane and well communicated multimedia primer on the sustainability of the global food system. Food Matters, republished here in full with permission, is published by the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. Continue reading
Brachiaria: The ‘wonder grass’ that could transform African dairy
Sourcing fodder poses a big headache to many dairy farmers. Brachiaria, a grass repatriated to Africa from Brazil, is good for grazing, can be baled as hay, and increases milk production. Continue reading
African livestock and agriculture departments promote new Kenya Livestock Insurance Programme (KLIP)
Vincent Ngari and Richard Githaiga of the Departments of Livestock and Agriculture, while making presentations during the Technical Workshop on Agriculture Index Insurance at the College of Insurance, Nairobi, on Friday, advised farmers to take up the new Kenya Livestock Insurance Programme (KLIP). Continue reading
How you think matters: The messy, rickety, beautifully self-correcting social enterprise of science
The ever-estimable Atul Gawande has published in The New Yorker this week the commencement address he delivered on 10 Jun 2016 at the California Institute of Technology. It’s worth a close read. Continue reading
Why Melinda and Bill Gates are betting big on chickens (hint: ‘the ATM of the poor’)
Our foundation is betting on chickens. Alongside partners throughout sub-Saharan Africa, we are working to create sustainable market systems for poultry. It’s especially important for these systems to make sure farmers can buy birds that have been properly vaccinated and are well suited to the local growing conditions. Our goal: to eventually help 30 percent of the rural families in sub-Saharan Africa raise improved breeds of vaccinated chickens, up from just 5 percent now. . . . Continue reading
Out of Africa genetics: How the giraffe got its long neck (and other biological curiosities and exuberances)
Morris Agaba’s newest passion is the molecular genetics of the giraffe, specifically the genes responsible for the animal’s impossibly long neck and legs—and the highly adaptive cardiovascular system this animal has evolved to manage its formidable biological obstacles. Continue reading
Local greenhouse gas estimates needed for local adaptation to climate change, say Kenya and Uganda
On 3–4 May 2016, policymakers from climate change departments of Kenya and Uganda met with scientists from CCAFS and ILRI for discussions on development of regional greenhouse gas inventories. Continue reading
Livestock are coming to the fore of sustainable development to-do lists
Analysis published in Nature Climate Change estimates that livestock could account for up to half of the mitigation potential of the global agricultural, forestry and land-use sectors, which are the second largest source of emissions globally, after the energy sector. Continue reading