Livestock production employs more than 1.3 billion people and livestock keeping is a mainstay of the livelihoods of some 600 million poor farmers in the developing world. Increasing demand for meat, milk and eggs in poor countries, particularly in India, China and other emerging economies, is driving economic growth. Making smallholder dairy production more competitive …
Human, livestock and environmental health are inextricably linked, Sixty-one per cent of all diseases are ‘zoonotic’ –that is, transmissible between animals and humans.
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
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
An ongoing project in Rwanda is focusing on increasing the consumption of milk, which is considered a promising way of promoting income generation activities and nutritional outcomes. Many parents and other farmers are learning how to improve both the production of milk and their children’s nutrition. Continue reading
Ahead of the International Women’s Day (IWD) 2019, the ILRI gender team got thinking on how to sensitize staff on gender in research. Continue reading
Both in the scientific community and the media, there are a lot of talks about sustainable livestock systems, what they are and how to promote them. A sustainable farming system is one which is economically viable, socially acceptable, environmentally friendly and transferable to the future generations. But achieving sustainable smallholder milk production systems in developing countries, including Tanzania, is limited by many constraints including low cow productivity, shortage of feed, limited access to inputs and outputs markets and degradation of natural resources. Continue reading
Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock:
The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock recently announced with pleasure the appointment of Dr. Isabelle Baltenweck as its new flagship leader for Livestock, Livelihoods and Agro-food Systems (LLAFS). Originally from France, Isabelle brings to the role close to 20 years of post-doctoral experience in smallholder value chains…
Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock:
The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock recently announced with pleasure the appointment of Dr. Karen Marshall as its new flagship leader for Livestock and Genetics. Karen is not a newbie to the position, having led the flagship previously at the end of the first phase of the…
This video highlights some of the results of a three-year initiative (2015-17) by ILRI and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) to strengthen the gender capacities of local partners in Ethiopia. Continue reading
Recently, ILRI researchers from the Policies, Institutions and Livelihoods (PIL) Program and the collaborative CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) developed and implemented a two-day training curriculum on equity and gender for the finalists from the first veterinary class at Malawi’s Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Continue reading
Both the bone and tallow value chains are short, use low-value inputs, produce relatively low-valued products and are complementary. To better harness their potential contribution to improved economic growth, the study recommends that value addition should be adopted. This can be achieved by slaughtering, processing and exporting chilled carcasses/packaged meat and by investing in the transformation and processing of livestock by-products like hides and skins, and bones, tallow and horns. Continue reading
The key findings indicate that milk business is more lucrative for men than for women due to gender-based constraints faced by women milk traders. For instance, access to and purchase of milk from producers is mainly favourable to men due to cultural norms that hinder women such as inability to travel to remote areas due to house chores and inappropriate means of transport (mainly motorbikes). Continue reading
The CGIAR Gender and Breeding Initiative (GBI) envisions the development of a comprehensive toolbox aimed at the analysis and incorporation of gender perspectives from the very beginning of a breeding program, right through to implementation and impact assessment. Continue reading
ILRI policies, instititions and livelihoods program 