Participatory work for ensuring equitable use of, and rights to, pastoral rangelands (photo credit: Fiona Flintan). This article is written by ILRI rangeland governance specialist Fiona Flintan, who also serves as a technical coordinator for the Rangelands Initiative of the International Land Coalition (ILC). ‘It is easy, too easy, for scientists and others to shy away … Continue reading
The Food Climate Research Network (FCRN) site has published (10 Apr 2014) an interesting comment on an interesting paper by Petr Havlík et al., Climate change mitigation through livestock system transitions, published in Feb 2014 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Continue reading
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation blog, Impatient Optimists, is running a piece about ‘an unusual story . . . unfolding in Africa, where the battle against a cattle-killing disease called East Coast fever is quickly becoming a cliff-hanger.’ The article is written by Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), … Continue reading
I joined the PARADE workshop from 9 to 11 December 2013. PARADE stands for Participatory Agricultural Research: Approaches, Design and Evaluation. The PARADE event held this week was an expert meeting at Saint Anne’s College, Oxford, United Kingdom. It was sadly not a vibrant, colourful and noisy display of human diversity… Then again, perhaps it … Continue reading
We’re celebrating this World Food Day (#WFD2013) journalist Mark Bittman in a New York Times opinion piece, How to Feed the World (14 Oct 2013), on the central and enduring value of smallholder farming in feeding the world sustainably. Read the whole article. It’s very good. We’ve added some of our favourite artworks, all (kindly) made … Continue reading
A failed maize crop in Ghana. A report by CCAFS is advising Africa’s farmers and policymakers to adapt to climate shifts now to ensure communities are protected from climate change devastations (photo credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT). The many adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture—from increasing droughts and floods, to more unpredictable and extreme weather patterns, … Continue reading
“In addition to providing high-quality food products (meat and milk), livestock is the most important source of on-farm income and insurance in the low-input farming systems of semi-arid southern Africa.” ILRI’s sister center the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is a long term partner where crops and livestock intersect in southern … Continue reading
American food writer and activist Michael Pollan (photo on Flickr by PopTech). The meat market, says Bill Gates, is ripe for reinvention. The market is growing fast to meet rising demands for animal-source foods throughout much of the developing world, particularly China and India and other countries with fast-growing economies. Food scientists are creating healthful … Continue reading
Vegan and conservationist Mark Tercek, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, the largest environmental non-profit organization in the Americas, had an interesting response this week to a question about eating meat and genetically modified foods—two of the most durable of the hot ‘foodie’ topics of the North, with vegetarian and carnivore consumers, organic and high-tech … Continue reading
Cynthia Onzere, a staff member in the animal biotechnology laboratories of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya (photo credit: ILRI/Evelyn Katingi). ‘A newly elected government provides a country with a rare opportunity for a fresh start—and President Uhuru Kenyatta’s nomination this week of Felix Kiptarus Kosgey to become Kenya’s next Cabinet Secretary … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 