Land O’Lakes International Development has launched a new $8 million, three-year USDA-funded dairy development programme in the country that is expected to directly improve incomes and strengthen food security for nearly 18,000 farmers and agricultural input and service providers. The programme, to be funded by the USAID, will also indirectly benefit an additional 87,000 family … Continue reading
Category Archives: Value Chains
Africa / Animal Products / Dairying / East Africa / ICT / Kenya / Knowledge and Information / Livestock / Value Chains
Kenya dairy farming set to go high tech
The local dairy industry is set for a major revolution with the planned migration of services to a single digital platform next week. This will put Kenya among few countries with a digitalised dairy value-chain globally, according to the Kenya Dairy Board managing director Machira Gichohi. Various new technologies covering the entire dairy value chain … Continue reading
Africa / Agriculture / Innovation Systems / Knowledge and Information / Livestock / Livestock Systems / Markets / Research / Southern Africa / Value Chains
Innovation platforms for market development and technology uptake in Southern Africa
At the ILRI-hosted ‘AgKnowledge Africa‘ share fair and the 5th All Africa conference on animal agriculture, Andre van Rooyen shared ICRISAT experiences with ‘innovation platforms’ for market development and technology uptake in Southern Africa. Such ‘innovation platforms’ – spaces which allow individuals and organizations to come together to address issues of mutual concern and interest … Continue reading
Africa / Animal Diseases / Asia / Disease Control / Epidemiology / ILRI / Impact Assessment / Latin America / Value Chains
‘Bottom-up’ approaches that marry epidemiology and economics work best in assessing the impacts of animal diseases in developing countries–ILRI paper
ILRI economist Karl Rich (credit: ILRI). Former ILRI epidemiologist Brian Perry (credit ILRI/Perry). ‘A new study by researchers working with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is recommending use of “bottom-up” approaches that use the strengths offered by value chain analysis and information economics in assessing the impacts of animal diseases and their interaction with … Continue reading
Africa / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Disease Control / East Africa / Kenya / Middle East / North Africa / RVF / Somalia / Tanzania / Trade / Value Chains
Economic losses from Rift Valley fever greater than previous documented
‘Kenya’s livestock farmers were hardest hit as a result of the death of their animals from the Rift Valley fever disease outbreak in 2006/2007, with total economic losses from livestock deaths valued at over 7.6 million US dollars, researchers revealed. ‘According to the researchers at the Market Opportunities Theme of the International Livestock Research Institute … Continue reading
Africa / Animal Feeding / Dairying / Ethiopia / Forages / ILRI / Innovation Systems / IPMS / Livestock / Value Chains
Commercializing dairy and forage systems in Ethiopia: An innovation systems perspective
This working paper by Tesfaye Lemma, Ranjitha Puskur, Dirk Hoekstra and Azage Tegegne on Commercializing dairy and forage systems in Ethiopia: An innovation systems perspective presents and discusses the results of the analysis of Ethiopian dairy and forage innovation systems. Two factors triggered the need for understanding the innovation systems: Ethiopian dairy subsector has not … Continue reading
Barriers to market entry, poor livestock producers and public policy
The main aim of this study is to provide an analytical framework for the assessment of barriers to market access for poor livestock producers that can be used for the development of public policy that works to the advantage of those poor producers that attempt to enter specific product markets. The paper proceeds to demonstrate … Continue reading
Asia / ILRI / Livestock / Markets / Pigs / Southeast Asia / Value Chains / Vietnam
Vietnam: Taking a pig to market
The rapid growth in demand for pork in Vietnam represents an opportunity for smallholders to improve their incomes. But limited access to improved breeds, inputs, veterinary services and markets has constrained smallholders from benefiting fully from market opportunities presented by this rising demand. Recent pronouncements on government policy have also favoured the development of larger-scale, … Continue reading
Innovation systems help put technologies into farmer context
Speaking at the December 2009 CGIAR System-wide Livestock Programme meeting in Addis Ababa, Andre Van Rooyen (ICRISAT) explained the ‘innovation platform’ approach they use to engage with smallholder farmers in Southern Africa. “Our hypothesis is that farmers will only invest in improved technologies when they are part of an effective marketing system.” ‘Innovation platforms allow … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 