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.
Overgrazing is often seen as a major cause of desertification. But by changing the way animals are managed, the Savory Institute (SI) and Africa Center for Holistic Management (ACHM) have restored 2,700 hectares of degraded land close to Victoria Falls by increasing livestock numbers by 400 per cent. Having increased land productivity, water availability and … Continue reading
The objective of the Funding Strategy is to enhance the availability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the provision of substantial and additional financial resources, and to strengthen international cooperation to support and complement the efforts of developing countries and countries with economies in transition in the implementation of the Global Plan of Action for Animal … Continue reading
(Left to right): Knut Hove, chairman of the board of trustees of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI); Carlos Seré, director general of ILRI; His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki; Bruce Scott, director of Partnerships and Communications at ILRI; Segenet Kelemu, director of the BecA Hub; and Gertrude Ngeleshi, training officer at ILRI, await the President … Continue reading
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
Last week, staff from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) had a major input into the ‘5th All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture’ organized by the Ethiopian Society of Animal Production (ESAP) and the All Africa Society of Animal Production. Staff from ILRI’s knowledge management and information services in Addis Ababa helped support the collation … Continue reading
Estevao Carlos, a pork seller in Morrumbala District, in Zambezia, the most populated province of Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). Two useful reality checks have appeared this week for those of us in the agricultural research for development business. (1) The first concerns the hardy jatropha tree, widely heralded as a miracle biofuel source. Miyuki Iiyama, … Continue reading
Demetria Solomon, 54-year-old farmer growing maize, potato, sota, green beans (and former secretary of the local irrigation scheme) in Khulungira Village, central Malawi (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). Over at SciDev.Net, David Dickson is making the case for joined-up thinking in development work. ‘A holistic approach is also essential for building the solid infrastructure and social systems … Continue reading
The recent ‘AgKnowledge Africa’ share fair on the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa brought together more than 300 people from Africa and beyond. The heart of the event was a series of four learning pathways on different subject areas. One of them was on livestock. The first discussion round aimed to ‘map’ the interests and … Continue reading
A small-scale mixed crop-and-livestock farmer in Oyo State, Nigeria (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). From the University of Minnesota come this news yesterday of a new scientific paper showing the environmental importance of intensifying rather than expanding tropical farmlands to feed the world’s growing human populations and to provide poor people with livelihoods. ‘According to a study … Continue reading
Typical smallholder livestock household in Berhampore Village, West Bengal, India (photo credit: ILRI/MacMillan). The following excerpts are from an article by Philip Thornton published yesterday (1 November 2010) in a Global Food Security Blog. Thornton cites a new paper he and his colleague Mario Herrero have published in a prestigious scientific journal that outlines how … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 