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.
H1N1 (“swine flu”), SARS, mad cow disease, and HIV/AIDS are a few examples of zoonotic diseases-diseases transmitted between humans and animals. Zoonotic diseases are a growing concern given multiple factors: their often novel and unpredictable nature, their ability to emerge anywhere and spread rapidly around the globe, and their major economic toll on several disparate … Continue reading
Colorado State University has received $15 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development to manage a Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP). The focus of the five-year, multi-disciplinary research and training program is to adapt livestock systems to climate change in the semi-arid regions of Africa and Central Asia. Read more … (Colorado State University) … Continue reading
Cows. (No, really.) Kenya’s International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently cracked the code on a formula that could change cattle-herders’ lives — or at least line their pockets. The single biggest risk cattlemen in Kenya’s dry north face is drought. If seasonal rains fail, grasses don’t grow. And if nothing green grows, the hundreds of … Continue reading
The cost of preparing the world’s agriculture to deal with increasing global temperatures will be $7 billion annually, a senior climate change researcher said this week at an African conference designed to push farming up the climate change agenda. Africa, the world’s poorest continent that is forecast to be the most affected by global warming, … Continue reading
In this podcast from the London International Development Centre, four vets describe the challenges affecting livestock within pastoralist communities in East Africa and explain an exciting project to monitor disease by using mobile phones. Dr Ezra Saitoti and Dr Paul Chacha, both field vets for the charity Vetaid, discuss how this innovative technology will help … Continue reading
Climate change is expected to bring greater extremes in weather conditions, but climate models disagree about which problems – droughts, flooding, temperature increases – are most likely in much of northern, central and western Africa. In east Africa, however, the models largely agree: dry areas will suffer more prolonged droughts and wet areas will see … Continue reading
In the fall of 2009, a pair of Kenyan interns at the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute were trying to post an interview with an Australian member of parliament on the organization’s blog. They hoped to put the interview online, as the organization was trying to secure Australian funds to help finance its work. Nancy … Continue reading
Climate change in Africa and the world at large has impacted on many fronts resulting in drought and floods hence resulting in food shortage. Consequently, poverty levels have increased leading to low development among many developing nations. It is against this backdrop that leading agriculture and climate scientists, policymakers, farmers, and development experts from around … Continue reading
GENE CAMPAIGN and Action Aid organized a seminal workshop at New Delhi last week (April23/24) to deliberate on this issue. In her lead presentation, Suman Sahai made the point that climate change will bring turbulence in ALL production systems: no exclusions will be pronounced! The greater the genetic variety, the better the coping strategy will … Continue reading
They are huge, bulky and strong! They are disease-tolerant and can survive drought by browsing on leaves on trees that other livestock cannot eat. These are camels! Following severe long droughts that hit northeastern part of Tanzania in the last couple of years, a group of Maasai women of Ketumbeine village in Longido district, Arusha … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 