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.
Kenya minister of livestock development Hon Mohammed Kuti and Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi at the launch of an ‘Index-based livestock insurance’ scheme in Marsabit, in January 2010; led by ILRI scientists, this project is making livestock insurance available to Kenya’s northern pastoralists for the first time (photo credit: ILRI/Mude). An editorial in Kenya’s Daily … Continue reading
Korr, in northern Kenya (photo on Flickr by Hello Hillary). In the face of the great drought engulfing the Horn of Africa, David Western, a savanna ecosystems expert who is chairman of the African Conservation Centre and a former director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, in Nairobi, Kenya, makes a persuasive case for better management … Continue reading
A new paper by by GK Bruckner, of South Africa, Ensuring safe international trade: how are the roles and responsibilities evolving and what will the situation be in ten years’ time?, outlines the changing and evolving roles and responsibilities in ensuring safe international trade in animals and animal products. Bruckner’s abstract follows. ‘The roles of the … Continue reading
A pig on a farm in Nikhekhu Village, Dimapur, Nagaland, India (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). ‘The Nairobi-headquartered International Livestock Research Institute is undertaking a comprehensive study on the mortality of pigs in [India’s] Northeast because of classical swine fever and will suggest effective mechanisms for its prevention and control. ‘The study will focus on Assam, Nagaland … Continue reading
Projected food security situation in southern Somalia for August through December 2011 (map by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia [FSNAU]). Two critical agencies—the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) and the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU)—reported this week (2 Aug 2011) that famine thresholds have been surpassed in … Continue reading
A Somali nomad with his camel on the way to the deep-sea commercial seaport of Berbera, in the Gulf of Aden, in the north, where live sheep, camels and other livestock are exported to the Gulf states (photo on Flickr by Charles Fred). The information below is from the website of Vétérinaires sans Frontières-Germany. ‘Somalia has been … Continue reading
A mother in Somalia carries the body of her child, who died of hunger, in the last famine to occur in that country, in 1992 (photo on Flickr by Jerry Mannel Reghunadh). Starving Somali families are waiting till their last animal is dead before making a dangerous trek across the desert to refugee camps. The Los … Continue reading
John Vidal in the Guardian argues that ‘to pin this crisis on drought or climate change is wrong. This is an entirely predictable, traditional, man-made disaster, with little new about it except the numbers of people on the move and perhaps the numbers of children dying near the cameras. . . . ‘Aid agencies and … Continue reading
The new moon, which when sighted begins the Muslim holy month of Ramadan (photo on Flickr by On Being). As Ramadan begins this week, it is estimated that some 1.4 million Somalis are ‘internally displaced’, with an average of more that 12,000 people displaced every month this year due to drought. Most of these people … Continue reading
Herding in Debub Omo, Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s Region, southern Ethiopia (photo on Flickr by CharlesFred). ‘There is a famine in the Horn of Africa. . . . It is at times like this that we get a lot of half-baked commentary about famine. We are told that the problem is drought, or over-population, or … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 