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.
The Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development opened a call to receive visiting researchers. Continue reading
On 27 Feb 2014, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and partners convened a meeting of actors in the pig sector in Nagaland, India, to review policies that could better support pig farming in the state.
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This ILRI project report describes the characteristics of village chicken production and marketing, analyses its contributions to farmers’ livelihoods, and presents options for improving the traditional village breeding practices in Horro and Ada’a woredas in the central and western highlands of Ethiopia. For the survey, a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) technique was used which includes … Continue reading
Young water buffalo and rice fields in Mai Chau (an ethnic Thai village), in Hoa Binh Province, northwest Vietnam. Household livestock production is set to become the leading form of livestock production in the country (photo on Flickr by Lon&Queta). ‘Household livestock production should be developed to reach a larger scale and higher professional level, participants … Continue reading
On 27 and 28 February, the N2Africa project was officially launched in Ethiopia. More than 70 people attended the workshop, representing project partners, the private sector, universities, government and researchers. Continue reading
Napier grass (aka ‘elephant grass’), a major feed supplement for dairy cows and other ruminant animals in Kenya (photo credit: Jeff Haskins). Even though research has shown that [greenhouse gas] GHG emissions from the Western world far outweigh those from the developing world, livestock keeping methods in Africa are increasingly becoming a key subject. Europe, … Continue reading
Innovation platforms are widely used in agricultural research to connect different stakeholders to achieve common goals. This twelfth brief reflects on some of the challenges of measuring outcomes and impacts around innovation platforms. Continue reading
Alexandra Jorge just left ILRI to return to her native Mozambique. In this exit interview she reflects on her years at ILRI and activities of its forage genebank. Continue reading
Declan McKeever was a highly gifted and productive veterinary scientist, who made major contributions to our knowledge of a number of diseases that continue to impair livestock production in Africa. Continue reading
The Helmholtz Research School MICMoR on Mechanisms and Interactions of Climate Change in Mountain Regions offers a structured graduate programme for PhD students in the field of Climate Change research.. 3 doctoral fellowships are available. Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 