Africa / BecA / Biodiversity / Capacity Strengthening / Event / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Kenya / Opinion piece / Poultry / Women

Changing the face of agriculture in Africa–one (emerging woman) leader at a time

CGIAR AWARD Fellow Sheila Ommeh, working at ILRI-BecA, gives a presentation on the importance of conserving and better using Africa’s native chicken breeds for World Bank vice president Rachel Kyte on 2 Feb 2012 at the World Agroforestry Centre (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). The Huffington Post this week carries a blog by Sir Gordon Conway, professor of … Continue reading

Article / Capacity Strengthening / Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Pastoralism / Vulnerability / Women

Capacity building helps Ethiopia’s pastoral women transform their impoverished, drought-ravaged communities

Borana girl (photo on Flickr by Gustavo Jeronimo). Layne Coppock, of Utah State University, and Solomon Desta, Seyoum Tezera and Getachew Gebru, of Managing Risk for Improved Livelihoods, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, report in the journal Science this month on a project they conducted in southern pastoral Ethiopia that indicates that capacity building can, and should, ‘set … Continue reading

CCAFS / ILRI / Women

A late (great) start on gender work at the International Livestock Research Institute

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Jemimah Njuki, sociologist and gender specialist at ILRI, reflects on ILRI’s fairly recent jump into gender research . . . How far have we come in integrating gender awareness, principles and ethics at ILRI? The first concerted efforts to look at gender issues in the International … Continue reading

Capacity Strengthening / East Africa / Tanzania / Women

East African women battling livestock diseases win prestigious AWARD Fellowships

Lillian Wambua, a 2011 African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) fellowship winner working at ILRI, announced 18 August 2011 (photo credit: ILRI/ Njiru). ‘The African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (Award) yesterday named three East African women among 70 brilliant African researchers who have won its 2011 Award Fellowship. ‘. . . … Continue reading

Animal Production / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / ILRI / India / Innovation Systems / Mozambique / South Asia / Southern Africa / Trade / Value Chains / Women

Reducing hunger and poverty through goat ‘value chains’ in India and Mozambique

In many of the world’s dry areas, goats provide poor people with nutrition and livelihoods. An imGoats Project is working to transform the lives of goat keepers in India and Mozambique by turning their subsistence-level goat production into viable and profitable enterprises. This two-year (2011–2012) project aims to improve the performance of small ruminant value … Continue reading

Africa / Agriculture / Cattle / Dairying / Livelihoods / Malawi / Pro-Poor Livestock / Southern Africa / Women

A woman and her cow: Of bovine bank loans and entrepreneurship

In Khulungira Village, in central Malawi, farmer Jinny Lemson, 32, started acquiring livestock with her husband ten years ago as an investment. Neither grew up with animals. First they bought chickens, then goats, then pigs, sheep, and cows. They also have ducks, cats and dogs. They grow all the feed on their farm. ‘Our life … Continue reading

Agriculture / Capacity Strengthening / Women

Closing the gender gap for development

Village food seller in Nigeria (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). From the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) comes this news. ‘Investing in closing the gender gap in agriculture could bring the number of undernourished people in the world down by 100-150 million people. This is one of the conclusions of the State of Food and … Continue reading

Africa / Directorate / Food Security / ILRI / Women

ILRI board member Lindiwe Majele Sibanda celebrates African women farmers

Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, member of the ILRI Board of Trustees and CEO of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) (picture credit: ILRI). Lindiwe Majele Sibanda celebrates International Women’s Day today with the following message. ‘As we mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, a global day celebrating the economic, political … Continue reading

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Bangladesh / Capacity Strengthening / Ethiopia / ILRI / IPMS / Markets / Women

Women in agriculture–hungry countries are ‘gender unequal’ countries

Women taking goods to market (photo credit: ILRI/Kebede). The New Agriculturist this month provides a snapshot of views about where we are in gender research for agricultural development. Journalist Olivia Schwier collected these viewpoints at a ‘Gender and Market-Oriented Agriculture’ workshop held 31 January—2 February 2011 in Addis Ababa. Lessons from case studies in gender work … Continue reading

Latin America / Livelihoods / Pro-Poor Livestock / Trade / Women

Livestock ladders for the poor in Haiti: The exhilaration of new possibilities

Participant in semi-intensive ‘cut-and-carry’ goat production model in Haiti using soil conservation fodder production plots; a man holds the first of the improved breed baby goats in a development project run by Developpement Economique pour un Environnement Durable (photo credit: Nick Hobgood’s Flickr Photostream). ‘Nearly a year after the earthquake in Haiti, more than one … Continue reading