For people living in absolute poverty and chronic hunger, the solution is not to rid the world of livestock, but to find ways to farm animals more efficiently and more sustainably
We need to conserve the most important livestock genetic diversity for possible future use – by poor and rich farmers alike
Livestock feed is a key constraint to the commercialization of smallholder livestock production
While vaccines remain the most cost-effective medical and veterinary interventions for controlling disease, opportunities also exist to improve animal health by improving existing veterinary services and access by poor livestock keepers to those services
Mixed crop-and-livestock farms will, more than the traditional breadbaskets and rice bowls of the past, feed the developing world over the next few decades
Human, livestock and environmental health are inextricably linked, Sixty-one per cent of all diseases are ‘zoonotic’ –that is, transmissible between animals and humans.
Making smallholder production more competitive is a powerful tool to reduce poverty, raise nutrition levels and improve the livelihoods of rural people in many developing countries
Expert opinion agrees that the best way to tap into the potential of the drylands is to build on the foundation of their livestock economies rather than ignoring them or seeking to replace them.
An opinion piece by Mark Tran in the Guardian‘s Poverty Matters Blog yesterday (12 Sep 2011) argues that the G20 faces obstacles in its efforts to spread good farming practices, and that a lack of coherence among agricultural research bodies is a major obstacle. ‘Spreading good ideas and practices in farming sounds like a simple enough … Continue reading
Livestock is an important sub-sector within Ethiopia’s economy in terms of its contributions to both agricultural value-added and national GDP. Between 1995/96 and 2005/06, it averaged 24% of agricultural GDP and 11% of national GDP. At the household level, livestock are crucial to the lives of pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, and smallholder farm households; they help to … Continue reading
Elephants and livestock both need water on a regular basis (photo of Kenya elephant on Flickr by Shawna Nelles). CNN reports that ‘As the Horn of Africa suffers its worst drought for 60 years, there are reports of growing conflict between people and wildlife over the region’s limited resources. ‘. . . Jan de Leeuw, … Continue reading
A woman holding her young malnourished baby queues for food at the Badbado refugee camp, in Mogadishu, Somalia (photo on Flickr by United Nations/Stuart Price). The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) and the Food Security and Analysis Unit (FSNAU) report that in Somalia, in addition to the five areas where famine has already been … Continue reading
John McDermott, currently deputy director general-research of the International livestock Research Institute has been appointed head of CGIAR Research Program 4, on Agriculture for Improved Nutrition and Health (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). Shenggen Fan, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) announced on 6 Sep 2011 that John McDermott has been named … Continue reading
The CGIAR Consortium Senior Information and Knowledge Officer, Enrica Porcari (middle), with CGIAR CEO Lloyd Le Page, at a CGIAR news briefing on ‘Research Options for Mitigating Drought-induced Food Crises,’ 1 Sep 2011 (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). Lloyd Le Page, chief executive officer of the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR), is a guest … Continue reading
The Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD) is a French research center working with developing countries to tackle international agricultural and development issues. It’s recently updated site on it work in East and Southern Africa introduces CIRAD’s activities in the region. ‘Animal health and emerging diseases’ is one of the … Continue reading
‘A partnership between academics and a beer company, which sent sorghum prices soaring in East Africa, has been highlighted as a way of harnessing agricultural research to fight the effects of drought such as the one in the Horn of Africa. . . . ‘The example was highlighted at a press briefing in Nairobi last … Continue reading
A woman holds her severely malnourished young child in a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mogadishu (photo on flickr by UN/Stuart Price). August survey results from the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit—Somalia (FSNAU) ‘indicate that the prevalence of acute malnutrition and the rate of crude mortality have surpassed famine thresholds in Bay Region … Continue reading
The following three slide presentations were presented this August (2011) by scientists working at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), in Nairobi, Kenya, on topics related to sustaining pastoral production systems in the Horn of Africa. In light of the drought ravaging Kenya’s north and the drylands of other countries of Africa’s Horn, the results … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 