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.
Farming in the highlands of Ethiopia (Credit: ILRI/Habtamu). ‘Agriculture and agri-business offer the biggest transformational potential for Africa, with an even greater positive impact on ordinary people’s lives than the mobile phone boom. ‘“If you ask me what the next ‘big thing’ in Africa will be, I’d say without hesitation agriculture and agri-business,” the World … Continue reading
Kadidja Kimba pounds millet whilst caring for Khadi Boubacar in Katanga Village, near Fakara, Niger (credit: ILRI/Mann). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has made FAO’s State of Food Security available. The report says the number of undernourished people in the world remains unacceptably high at close to one billion in 2010 despite … Continue reading
The Guardian newspaper, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, hosts an interesting ‘Poverty Matters Blog’. Food for thought by 2050 Leading scientists say meat grown in vats may be necessary to feed 9 billion people expected to be alive by middle of century This blog posted an article two months ago on … Continue reading
‘Kenya’s livestock farmers were hardest hit as a result of the death of their animals from the Rift Valley fever disease outbreak in 2006/2007, with total economic losses from livestock deaths valued at over 7.6 million US dollars, researchers revealed. ‘According to the researchers at the Market Opportunities Theme of the International Livestock Research Institute … Continue reading
Since 2003, the Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Farm Comparison Network have been compiling and analyzing information on dairy sector development and dairy household economics over a wide range of countries across the globe. This book brings these studies together and provides a … Continue reading
Even though global warming is not increasing temperatures in the tropics as much as in the northern temperate zone and the Arctic, the metabolic effects on cold-blooded creatures that live there, such as this caiman lizard, will be greater than on creatures living farther north. (Credit: Tim Vickers/Wikimedia Commons) Newswise and the University of Washington … Continue reading
The environmental impact of meat is something of a well-done dish. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and Sir Paul McCartney are just two of the public figures who have called on us all to eat less meat in order to curb the rate at which the world warms. The … Continue reading
Soaring international production of livestock could release enough carbon into the atmosphere by 2050 to single-handedly exceed ‘safe’ levels of climate change, says a study. Scientists combined figures for livestock production in 2000 with Food and Agriculture Organization projections for population growth and meat consumption by 2050. They found that the livestock sector’s emissions alone … Continue reading
Milk from a dairy cow kept by a household in the highland farming community of Embu, Kenya, generates a regular income that helps this family pay for their children’s school fees (photo by CGIAR/Mann). Agricultural systems analyst Mario Herrero, of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), takes issue this week with a paper published 4 … Continue reading
Widowed farmer Maria Ngove feeds a goat at her home in Lhate Village, in Gurue District, Zambezia Province, in Mozambique (photo ILRI/Mann). The UN Wire reports on 30 September 2010 the following among take-away messages from last week’s UN Millennium Development Goals Review Summit, the Clinton Global Initiative and the UN Week Digital Media Lounge: > … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 