New factories that will transform cassava peels into high-quality feed for livestock have been launched in Nigeria. A prototype cassava peel processing plant was launched in in Ojakpata community of Kogi State in March 2017. A month later (April 2017) a similar factory was launched in Benue State. Continue reading
Cowpea fodder bundles stacked in Niger for livestock feed (photo credit: ILRI). ‘Of the many virtues of grain legumes, one is little recognized. Visitors to the livestock fodder markets of West Africa are always surprised to see groundnut and cowpea haulms (stalks and stems of legume plants) sold at prices that exceed that of cereal … Continue reading
The Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Development in Tanzania, Hon Titus Mlengeya (MP), has requested the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to work more closely with Tanzanian research institutions to develop appropriate technologies for fish farming in the country. The request was made at the official opening of the ILRI-Tanzania office on 13 Jun 2014 in Dar es Salaam. Continue reading
A damaged maize cob that, if harvested with clean cobs, can contaminate all the cobs with aflatoxins (photo credit: Joseph Atehnkeng/IITA). ‘The UN World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that billions of people in the developing world are chronically exposed to aflatoxin, a natural poison on food crops which causes cancer, impairs the immune system, inhibits … Continue reading
A village woman in Niger feeds her sheep with forage she has collected (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) announced last week that they are building a closer crop and livestock partnership to better address poverty and malnutrition in Africa. The agreement and … Continue reading
Dinner with philanthropist Bill Gates at the home of genome-czar J Craig Venter in La Jolla, California, in 2008 (photo by jurvetson on Flickr). ‘Gates asked the most astute and detailed questions about microbiology’, JCVI reports, and said, ‘DNA is the most interesting software there is.’ The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates … Continue reading
As part of the US government’s Feed the Future initiative to address global hunger and food security issues in sub-Saharan Africa, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is supporting three multi-stakeholder agricultural research projects to sustainably intensify key African farming systems. Based in three priority agro-ecological zones, the three projects are focused on sites … Continue reading
For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Ramadjita Tabo reflects on crop-livestock research in West Africa … Livestock research in West Africa has made good progress in the past years. With the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, I collaborated extensively with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Institute … Continue reading
A long neglected crop with the potential to halt hunger for millions in Africa, sustain the livestock revolution underway in developing countries, rejuvenate nutrient-sapped soils, and even feed astronauts on extended space missions, is attracting scientists from around the world to Senegal this week for the Fifth World Cowpea Research Conference. “It’s hard to imagine … Continue reading
CGIAR reforms take research decisions too far away, says Hartmann, director-general of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). This year (2009) marks the end of an era in agricultural research. Not only has Nobel Prize-winning agronomist Norman Borlaug died, but the network of research centres with which he was closely associated is in the … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 