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.
Farmers in nothern Namibia are kept from accessing international markets because of an irrational fear surrounding foot and mouth disease (FMD), said Dr Gavin Thomson, representative of the SADC FMD project in Botswana. Speaking at the 46th annual Livestock Producers’ Organisation (LPO) Congress, Thomson said foot and mouth disease is a manufactured plague. Read more: (Namibia … Continue reading
Thousands of Tanzanian families could be saved from poverty thanks to a much-needed vaccine being mass-produced in a bid to protect cattle from the deadly East Coast fever. East Coast Fever is a tick-transmitted disease that kills one cow every 30 seconds with one million a year dying of the disease in Africa. Calves are … Continue reading
The Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) has posted the results of a summary of an e-consultation on the future of agricultural research in Africa. Four regional e-consultations were conducted in preparation for a 28-31 March 2010 physical meeting in Montpellier, France. The summary of the African e-consultation, organized and summarized by the … Continue reading
This Working paper by Ponniah Anandajayasekeram and Berhanu Gebremedhin on Integrating innovation systems perspective and value chain analysis in agricultural research for development: implications and challenges was released on 8 October, 2009. The environment in which agricultural discovery and innovation occurs has been constantly changing with resultant significant influences on the organization and the social … Continue reading
THOUSANDS of Tanzanian families could be saved from destitution thanks to a much-needed vaccine being mass-produced in a bid to protect cattle from the deadly East Coast fever. This is a tick-transmitted disease that kills one cow every 30 seconds with one million a year dying of the disease in Africa. Calves are particularly susceptible … Continue reading
A profile of what could become the country’s irreversible tragedy Kenya’s worst drought in living memory has been overshadowed by political and economic crises and the destruction of the Mau Forest. Now, with 10 million people short of food, the drought has captured national attention. Read more (Daily Nation) Continue reading
This report by Asfaw Negassa formerly with ILRI now with IFPRI on Improving smallholder farmers’; marketed supply and market access for dairy products in Arsi Zone, Ethiopia was released on 8 October, 2009. Presents study carried out on improving smallholder farmers’; marketed supply and market access for dairy products in Arsi Zone, Ethiopia. The main … Continue reading
A private charity has renewed the fight against cattle deaths with the introduction of a new distribution channel for vaccine in the Kenyan market. Commercialisation of the vaccine is targeted at combating East Coast Fever, a livestock disease that kills millions of animals every year. “We are exploring ways of transferring the production and distribution … Continue reading
The drought cycle in east Africa has been contracting sharply. Rains used to fail every nine or ten years. Then the cycle seemed to go down to five years. Now, it seems, the region faces drought every two or three years. The production of Kenyan maize, the country’s staple, is likely to drop by one-third, … Continue reading
This manual by Lemlem Aregu, Clare Bishop-Sambrook and Ranjitha Puskur of ILRI and Aresawum Mengesha, Ephrem Tesema and Zahra Ali – independent consultants on Gender and HIV/AIDS mainstreaming in a market oriented agricultural development context: A training manual for frontline staff was released on 7 October, 2009. This training manual is based on experiences from … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 