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.
International agricultural development acquired a significant new player last December when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — the biggest private foundation in the world, with US$37 billion under its control — announced that it was joining the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). When the Gates Foundation launched its own agricultural programmes a … Continue reading
This ILRI learning module by Sylvester Dickson Baguma Ponniah Anandajayasekeram and Ranjitha Puskur on Writing convincing research proposals and effective scientific reports. Part A: writing a convincing proposal was released on 24 March, 2010. The growth in agricultural research investment was very rapid in the 1970s and slowed down since the mid 1980s. The rate … Continue reading
In the Papua New Guinea Highlands, people live in much the same way as they have for centuries. But even in these far reaches, technology is making its first tentative steps into this subsistence way of life. Villagers have been wooed by the lure of mobile telephones, provided to them by companies which are using … Continue reading
Eventually, if livestock agriculture gets totally out of hand, the soil will be depleted of carbon and the plants, livestock and humans will all die; but because there’s so much carbon in the soil, we’ll have runaway global warming long before that happens. Thus, livestock are critical to the climate change issue. Read more … … Continue reading
Modern transportation allows people, animals, and plants–and the pathogens they carry–to travel more easily than ever before. The ease and speed of travel, tourism, and international trade connect once-remote areas with one another, eliminating many of the geographic and cultural barriers that once limited the spread of disease. Because of our global interconnectedness through transportation, … Continue reading
A scientist in the United States has questioned the impact meat and diary production has on climate change, and accused the United Nations of exaggerating the link. In 2006, a report published by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) titled “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” claimed meat production was responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas … Continue reading
A report presented this week at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society suggests that despite claims to the contrary, eating less meat and dairy will not have much of a mitigating impact on climate change. That’s because in most developed countries, greenhouse gas emissions from livestock make up a small percentage of … Continue reading
Africa is getting chairs at the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) table where food safety and animal and plant health issues are decided. africa-apple-featured.jpgWTO is giving observer status to three regional organizations of African counties on its Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Committee. WTO’s new observers are the Economic Committee for West African States (ECOWAS), the Committee … Continue reading
The March 2010 issue of ILEIA’s ‘Farming Matters’ magazine is subtitled ‘Going for more animals.’ The issue “focuses on how small-scale farmers manage their animals, how they link animal husbandry with other activities, and what their livestock means to them. An integrated perspective on the role of farm animals is crucial in overcoming simplistic assumptions … Continue reading
On Tuesday March 17, at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo., more than 250 livestock industry professionals gathered for NIAA’s theme of “One Health: Implications for Animal Agriculture.” One Health is a collaborative effort of multiple disciplines to obtain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. The … Continue reading
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