The 7th multi-stakeholder partnership meeting of the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock kicked off on Monday in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. The four-day meeting, which attracted more than 250 livestock specialists from 50 countries, aims to strengthen the role of livestock in supporting livelihoods, producing safe food and protecting the environment. It focuses on demonstrating the positive contribution of livestock to the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the world, and fostering the sustainable development of the rapidly growing sector. Continue reading
Tag Archives: FAO
Cooperating with the future: Towards multiplying the multiple benefits of sustainable livestock
Yesterday, 8 May 2017, Henning Steinfeld delivered a keynote presentation—Multiple Benefits from Sustainable Livestock—to some 300 participants on the first of a five-day 7th Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Meeting of the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock. Continue reading
As another drought bites the Horn, 12 million face food shortages in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia
With as little as one-quarter of expected rainfall received, widespread drought conditions in the Horn of Africa have intensified since the failure of the October–December rains, FAO said. Areas of greatest concern cover much of Somalia, northeast and coastal Kenya, southeast Ethiopia as well as the Afar region still to recover from El Niño induced drought of 2015/16, and South Sudan, which faces a serious food crisis due to protracted insecurity. Continue reading
Sucking it up: Milk—cheap, energy dense, retro-cool—is becoming Asia’s weapon of choice in its war on hunger
In Asia, milk production has almost tripled, from about 110 million tons in 1990 to nearly 300 million tons in 2013—accounting for more than 80 percent of the world’s increase in milk supplies during that time. Continue reading
Dairy goes green: New tool will enable smallholders to swap GHG emission reductions for carbon credits
By unlocking carbon credit markets, first-of-its-kind methodology looks to boost financing for smallholder farms, green the livestock sector. The new dairy methodology, developed by FAO, ILRI, Kenya State Department of Livestock and the Gold Standard Foundation, is a key to allowing smallholder dairy operations to receive internationally-accepted carbon credits in exchange for emission reductions. Continue reading
FAO workshops map and plan work to contain animal-transmitted Ebola and MERS diseases
Joerg Jores, a molecular biologist at the Nairobi animal health laboratories of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) who is working to develop diagnostic assays and vaccines against livestock diseases caused by Mycoplasma mycoides is also investigating the epidemiology of MERS-CoV in camel populations in Kenya and participated in the recent FAO-hosted discussions. Continue reading
Manure: A valuable resource—a 3-part webinar on a ‘win-win-win-win-win’ coming this February
The Livestock and Manure Management project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Wageningen University & Research Centre (Wageningen UR) invite you to join a series of three webinars—on Wednesdays, 3, 17 and 24 Feb 2016—on ‘Manure: a valuable resource’. Continue reading
ILRI, FAO and Kenya veterinary service providers discuss control of peste de petits ruminants
Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), also known as goat plague, is a highly contagious viral disease of sheep and goats. The disease causes heavy losses especially in goats and has been described as one of the most damaging livestock diseases in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. On 7 October 2015, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and FAO held a joint workshop with veterinary service providers in Kenya on the socio-economic study of PPR. Continue reading
Where do the world’s cattle, chickens, pigs live? Check out these cool maps (sheep and goats coming)
This articles describes a fascinating set of 2014 maps available on a Livestock Geo-Wiki maintained by a multi-partner collaboration led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB-LUBIES). Here you’ll find regularly revised and updated global maps of livestock distributions and production systems. Continue reading
FAO’s Modibo Traore and Uganda’s Bright Rwamirama at ILRI@40 Nairobi conference (1 Oct)
Bright Rwamirama, Honourable State Minister for Animal Industry, Uganda (left), and Modibo Traoré, FAO sub-regional coordinator for eastern Africa and representative to Ethiopia, the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, at the ILRI@40 conference in Nairobi, 1 Oct 2014 (photo credit: ILRI/Paul Karaimu). Which matters most to Africa’s agricultural development? Research … Continue reading