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.
If you educate a whole family it follows that a nation will be educated; women bare, sucker and most often are the prime educators of children. Many women, in the developing world, would increase their propensity to educate if they had greater access to livestock ownership and all the benefits it would inevitably produce. Recently … Continue reading
Leading agriculture and climate scientists, policymakers, farmers, and development experts from around the world will gather in Nairobi on May 4 to focus on the threat of climate change to the global food supply. If not dealt with, climate change could imperil efforts to reduce poverty and hunger and threaten the stability of entire nations … Continue reading
Animal Genetics has a Special Issue on “A Global View of Livestock Biodiversity and Conservation,” coordinated by Paolo Ajmone-Marsan and Licia Colli. Read more … (Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog) Continue reading
Rain rules the lives and wellbeing of rural people in most developing countries: it determines whether they will have enough to eat, be able to provide basic necessities and earn a living, but climate change has made rainfall more erratic in many parts of the world. “What is scary is how fast things have been … Continue reading
Climate change has gradually dominated discussion in almost every country of the world because of the challenge it poses to the survival of individuals and whole nations. In recent times, whole countries have been threatened by changes in climatic conditions ranging from draught, delayed rainfall, continuous melting of the polar region causing severe flood in … Continue reading
Insurance is about protection against loss — and so, in many ways, is conservation. The similarities between these two industries mean both could gain from a closer relationship. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently announced the trial of an innovative insurance scheme for traditional herders in northern Kenya. There’s a severe need for such … Continue reading
FAO calls for sustained action on H5N1 and emerging infections 16 April 2010, Rome – Although concerted international action has successfully eliminated the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus from poultry in almost all the 63 countries it infected at the peak of the world outbreak in 2006, it persists in five nations and thus poses … Continue reading
Accra, April 13, GNA – Authorities of University of Ghana College of Agriculture and Consumer Science (UGCACS) on Tuesday launched the School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) to train world class veterinarians in Ghana. Dr Alfred Sugri Tia, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) in-charge of Livestock, said at the launch that Ghana had relied … Continue reading
Small-scale farmers and pastoralists in Ethiopia are likely to bear the brunt of the negative impacts of climate change in the region, which will include increased poverty, water scarcity, and food insecurity, according to a new Oxfam International report released today. The international development agency’s report, “The Rain Doesn’t Come on Time Anymore: Poverty, Vulnerability, … Continue reading
Thandeka Mabuza’s small-scale dairy farm, on the banks of the Olifants River, gives off hardly any of the earthy smell you might expect from a thriving dairy operation. But the lack of manure odour is hardly the only benefit from the farm’s pioneering biogas dairy. By using vats to digest cow dung and then harvesting … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 