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.
Im Kampf gegen den Hunger hat die Weltgemeinschaft ihre Ziele verfehlt—so lautet die Bilanz vor dem Uno-Gipfel. Eine Wende muss her. Damit künftig neun Milliarden Menschen satt werden, sollten nicht Großfarmen, sondern Kleinbauern gefördert werden. Das Essen war knapp im vergangenen Sommer. Monatelang hatte es nicht geregnet. Dorca Mutua, 35, sah, wie erst ihr Kalb … Continue reading
US President Barack Obama delivered a speech this week (21 September 2010) at the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development goals that ‘mixed soaring rhetoric with ground-level truths’. Obama said that providing aid to the poorest countries can directly contribute to the security and prosperity of the wealthiest countries–a framework for a new policy … Continue reading
Cattle and other livestock being trekked north in a great annual transhumance that takes place during the cropping season in Niger (photo by ILRI/Mann). Over at Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog, Luigi Guarino has this to say about a new paper in Evolutionary Anthropology summarizing the history of domestic cattle, based on the latest molecular marker data. … Continue reading
With infectious zoonotic diseases emerging in animals in low- and middle-income countries, surveillance of animal health in these nations is becoming increasingly important for forecasting disease risks to people. A new paper describes a mobile-phone-based surveillance system for animal populations that has been developed and implemented in Sri Lanka. Using this system, field veterinarians reported … Continue reading
Paul Douglas brings news that farmers are exploring perennial fodder crops called ‘tagasaste’ and ‘Old Man Saltbush’ to protect soils, prevent erosion and avoid the energy, time and monetary costs of planting annuals for fodder. As a bonus, he says, the farmers are also finding that the more rugged perennial diet reduces parasites and decreases … Continue reading
A new study by the International Livestock Research Institute has found that reductions in greenhouse gases could be worth $1 billion dollars to poor livestock farmers if they could sell saved carbon on international markets. Greenhouse gas emissions caused by livestock operations in tropical countries — a major contributor to climate change — could be … Continue reading
What kind of food production can: drastically reduce poverty, reduce climate change and cool the planet, restore biodiversity, soil fertility and water resources, improve livelihoods and provide employment for billions of people, produce enough, good, and nutritious food for 9 billion people or more? Find out what the Development Fund (of Norway) thinks Continue reading
Gadab Assassa — Like most farmers in Ethiopia, Jundi Hajji expected that the profit from his wheat harvest would be sufficient to feed his family of eight until next year’s harvest. But, following a yellow wheat rust epidemic across the country and on his farm, he is concerned how his family will survive if the … Continue reading
A new study by the International Livestock Research Institute has found that reductions in greenhouse gases could be worth $1 billion dollars to poor livestock farmers if they could sell saved carbon on international markets. Greenhouse gas emissions caused by livestock operations in tropical countries — a major contributor to climate change — could be … Continue reading
To many, the Western grasslands still reflect the essence of this country: the vast plains that begin with prairie and bump up against the Rockies, home to herds of cattle and the cowboys that run them. Yet this indelible image belies the facts, as much of the nation’s rangeland has been degraded by overgrazing. Land … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 