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.
Now men may be able to make babies without women, through a technology that could for the first time allow same sex couples to have their own genetic children. In a technology developed to help in preserving endangered species and improving livestock breeds, scientists have, for the first time, developed an offspring from two males. … Continue reading
A new initiative that brings together leading pastoralists from Ethiopia and Kenya and researchers to discuss and advance solutions to pastoralist issues, recently met for the second time in Kenya. The ‘University of the Bush’ is designed to link debate with action in the drylands and aims to enable pastoralists to engage with, comment on, … Continue reading
A boy works at peeling a mountain of cassava in Nigeria (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). The Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa and its partners are committing US$42 million to a markets program that will connect smallholder farmers to local, regional, and international markets, this press release reports. The markets’ program is currently overseeing US$14 … Continue reading
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have identified the primary site where the virus that causes foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) begins infection in cattle. This discovery could lead to development of new vaccines to control and potentially eradicate FMD, a highly contagious and sometimes fatal viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals that is considered the most economically … Continue reading
In Zulu, “nagana” means “depressed in spirits.” To many poor farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, however, nagana is more than just an emotion—it’s a disease that plagues their livestock, exacerbating poverty and hunger in the region. But researchers in Belgium may soon have something to raise the temperaments of African farmers: a drug aimed at curing … Continue reading
Government-sponsored climate insurance for pastoralists in West African’s arid Sahel region offers a solution to mitigate the loss of livestock due to recurrent droughts related to the effects of climate change, an Oxfam official has said. Gilles Marion, Mali country director for the U.K based charity, said that pastoralists in the Sahel prepare for the … Continue reading
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
An American billionaire who built his fortune as co-founder of software giant Microsoft has given a university $26 million to find ways of improving Africa’s ability to respond to animal-borne diseases. Paul G. Allen, an investor and philanthropist, has made the largest gift to Washington State University in the school’s history — $26 million to … Continue reading
This Status Report on the status of postgraduate training in the livestock sector in South Asia and priorities for ILRI’s support was released on 15 September, 2010. In order to establish the priorities for collaborative capacity strengthening activities of the learning institutes in the areas of animal production and veterinary services, ILRI commissioned five studies … Continue reading
USAID’s PREDICT project, part of the Emerging Pandemic Threats program, seeks to proactively identify disease-causing organisms in wildlife before they spread to humans. Local capacity is being established and enhanced in global geographic hotspots which have high potential for disease transmission among animals and humans. Currently, about 24 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia … Continue reading
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