Recent drought-induced livestock losses in East Africa mask deeper problem of animal feed scarcities
Animal Feeding / Brazil / Cattle / Dairying / East Africa / Feeds / Fodder / Forages / Kenya / LIVESTOCKCRP / LIVESTOCKFISH / Opinion piece / Pro-Poor Livestock / Seeds / Southern Africa / Thailand / Zambia

Recent drought-induced livestock losses in East Africa mask deeper problem of animal feed scarcities

The following excerpts are taken from an opinion piece on Brachiaria grass for livestock feed published by An Notenbaert, tropical forages coordinator for Africa at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and published by Business Daily (Kenya) and the CIAT Blog. Continue reading

Animal Production / Article / CCAFS / Climate Change / Environment / Geodata / ILRI / ILRIComms / Intensification / Livestock Systems / Policy / SLS

Yet more evidence that agriculture–particularly livestock agriculture–needs to be part of climate discussions

The farmyard, by Marc Chagall, 1954 (via Wikipaintings). Without big interventions, the future of food security looks bleak. So says an article in One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World Website. The clear message from . . . the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report is the urgent need for farmers to adapt to a changing … Continue reading

Animal Production / Article / CCAFS / Climate Change / Environment / Geodata / ILRI / ILRIComms / Intensification / Livestock Systems / Policy / SLS

Research shows vast differences in livestock systems, diets and emissions–FCRN on PNAS paper

Tara Garnet, of the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN), at Oxford University, recently highlighted a paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The paper, Biomass use, production, feed efficiencies, and greenhouse gas emissions from global livestock systems, is written by livestock scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI, Kenya) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO, Australia). Continue reading

Animal Production / Article / CCAFS / Climate Change / Environment / Food Security / ILRI / ILRIComms / Kenya / Livestock Systems / Policy / SLS

What livestock eat (and don’t eat) determines how productive, and efficient, they are–PNAS study

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

ILRI / Livestock Systems / Research

Classifying livestock production systems for targeting agricultural research and development in a rapidly changing world

This Discussion paper by Notenbaert A., Herrero M., Kruska R., You L., Wood S., Thornton P., Omolo A. on Classifying livestock production systems for targeting agricultural research and development in a rapidly changing world was released on 15 September, 2009. A myriad of agricultural and livestock production systems co-exist in the developing countries. Agricultural research … Continue reading