Agriculture / Brazil / China / Event report / India / Opinion piece / Policy

Rio+20 ‘ducked’ political realities: Time for South to show ‘political muscle and imaginative thinking’

Happy dragon in Fengdu, China (photo on Flickr by Major Clanger). SciDevNet’s David Dickson argues in an opinion piece last week that the outcomes of the June Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development illustrate that leadership from developing countries will be key to global sustainable development. Dickson says that the result of Rio-20 was ‘the … Continue reading

Agriculture / Environment / Event report / Food Security / Policy

The road back to Rio: Scientists find final ‘The Future We Want’ document to be ‘science light’

Scientists complain that the new Rio+20 accord barely mentions the scientific inputs needed for sustainable development (photo on Flickr by CGIAR Climate/CCAFS). ‘The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) ended last Friday (22 June) with an international agreement on the need for all countries to commit themselves to achieving sustainable development. ‘The agreement immediately … Continue reading

East Africa / Ethiopia / Event report / Gender / ILRI / IPMS / Project / Women

IPMS contributes to gender mainstreaming guideline of Ethiopia’s AGP

Twenty one experts drawn from Regional and Federal Agricultural Growth Programme (AGP) offices, Office of Agriculture, Cooperative Promotion Agency and NGOs participated in a three day workshop organized to finalize the draft a “Gender Guideline” prepared by the Gender Unit of the Federal AGP office. The objective of the workshop was to give input on … Continue reading

Agriculture / East Africa / Ethiopia / Event report / IPMS

Results-based M&E training for Ethiopia’s regional agricultural officers

Towards the end of its five-year term, the Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) project recently ran a training of trainers workshop on results-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E). In this video, Berhanu Gebremedhin outlines the main topics covered in the workshop: An introduction to results-based M&E; the development of a logic model and performance framework … Continue reading

A4NH / Canada / East Africa / Epidemiology / Event report / Farming Systems / Food Security / Geodata / ICT / Livestock / Poultry / RVF / Seeds / Uganda / Zambia / Zimbabwe

New consortium to investigate environmental changes spreading diseases between animals and people in Africa

Malawi crop-and-livestock farmer (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). One of the drivers of disease in Africa, a continent with a particularly heavy disease burden, are environmental changes that help to spread infectious pathogens between animals (both wild and domestic) and people. That is why the start of a new research program, in which the International Livestock … Continue reading

Animal Products / Dairying / East Africa / Ethiopia / Event report / Livestock / LIVESTOCKFISH / Research

East Africa Dairy Development – Tackling the Ethiopian challenge and the ‘white revolution’

Extending a project into a new phase is always a perilous exercise. The East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project is (re-) learning this lesson. In the stakeholder consultation workshop that took place from 27 to 29 February, the project team sought feedback from participants regarding initial ideas for the extension of the program (a so-called … Continue reading

A4NH / Agri-Health / Animal Diseases / East Africa / Emerging Diseases / Event report / Human Health / ILRI / Livestock / Research / Zoonotic Diseases

Livestock and human health – directions for ILRI

As part of a session on ‘livestock and human health’ at the recent ‘LiveSTOCK Exchange’ event, Brian Perry interviewed a panel of ILRI staff on future research in this area as part of the new CGIAR Research Program (CRP4) on Agriculture for Improved Nutrition and Health. Topics addressed by Delia Grace include the topical and … Continue reading

ASF / CBPP / Directorate / Event report / ILRI / Presentation / Research / Staff

Livestock research for development in a complex, messy world: Carlos Seré reflects on a decade of work for ILRI

ILRI former director general Carlos Seré at an ILRI ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event held in Nov 2011 on ILRI’s campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to reflect on the ‘Seré legacy’ and ways forward for the institute under ILRI’s new director general, Jimmy Smith (photo credit: ILRI/Zerihun Sewunet). On 9 and 10 November 2011, the ILRI Board of … Continue reading

Animal Breeding / Animal Production / Biotechnology / East Africa / Event report / Genetics / ILRI / Livestock / Livestock Systems / Research

Livestock research directions for ILRI – systems, health, genetics, impacts?

  During the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, we video recorded reports back from group discussions in three of the sessions: Animal health and genetics – issues and controversies for ILRI research. This session discussed significant or controversial developments; the next big thing in animal genetics, breeding, health, genomics, and feeding.   Livestock … Continue reading

Africa / Agriculture / CCAFS / CGIAR / Climate Change / Event report / Food Security / Geodata / ILRI / Livelihoods / Report / Vulnerability

Climate change could devastate lives and livelihoods strongly linked to crop and livestock yields–Polly Ericksen

ILRI scientist Polly Ericksen says that areas that will be hit hardest by climate change are areas where farmers are already struggling due to new weather patterns (image credit: ILRI/Anita Ghosh). Julio Godoy reported yesterday in Inter Press Service Africa (IPS) on the climate change meeting in Bonn, saying that climate change is putting African … Continue reading