A new working paper from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has been published on the impacts of climate change on livestock across Africa. Lead author of the new paper, Philip Thornton, is a scientist with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Continue reading
Author Archives: Susan MacMillan
CGIAR Innovation Platform Case Study Competition: And the winner is . . .
In Nov 2014, to better assess the efficiency of these innovation platforms and to document their successes and challenges in different developing countries, Humidtropics launched an Innovation Platforms Case Study Competition. In Feb 2015, twelve candidates were selected to participate in a writeshop focused on writing strong, reflective and cohesive case studies. Earlier this month (Jun 2015), jury members in an editors’ meeting reviewed all the final submissions and chose eight cases to be featured in a Humidtropics Anthology to be published by an academic publisher before the end of 2015; the jury also recommended that two cases be published separately. Continue reading
Scarce, but real, resources (a little essay on the dairy cow prototype and refineries of the future)
Information, ideas and technologies generated by research provide the skeleton on which human development everywhere and at all times depends. New ideas, embedded in technological change, drive human growth, allowing us to escape the grim statistics that haunt peoples of the developed world and the hardships that face peoples of the developing world. Continue reading
Happy World Environment Day!
Happy World Environment Day 2015. Don’t forget to celebrate the world’s domestic farm animals! Continue reading
‘We’re having all the wrong debates’–Tamar Haspel
Award-winning journalist Tamar Haspel makes the case in her latest Washington Post column for exchanging our polarizing arguments about food issues for debates about stuff that really matters. Continue reading
It’s simple (everybody eats); It’s complicated (everybody eats differently)
The inestimable Tara Garnett, of the Food Climate Research Network, offers much new food for thought on ‘the meat question’ in a new discussion paper on What is a sustainable healthy diet? and a new think piece, Gut feelings and possible tomorrows: (where) does animal farming fit? Continue reading
Influencing developing-country decision-makers: 14 things that work–or don’t
Here is some useful advice on what developing-country decision-makers tend to listen to and what they tend to ignore. These excerpts are from a blog post of 12 May 2015 by Duncan Green, strategic adviser for Oxfam GB and author of Oxfam’s blog and book titled From Poverty to Power. Continue reading
Livestock and Fish goes after the gold standard: Transformation at scale
The Value Chain Transformation and Scaling Flagship of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish works to works to enable innovations for the transformation and scaling of selected livestock value chains in developing countries. Continue reading
How will we feed all the farmed animals in the developing world? Livestock and fish production by, and for, the poor
The feeds and forages flagship is designing superior feed and forage strategies for smallholders to meet current and evolving demands for more meat, milk and fish as well as agile feed value chains with lighter ecological footprints. Continue reading
Who decides what breeds–and for what purposes? Livestock and fish production by, and for, the poor
The Animal Genetics Flagship works to ensure that by 2023 choices of improved and appropriate livestock and fish breeds and strains are widely available, used sustainably and are equitably providing nutritious, affordable food and income for the poor. The 40 comments in the animal genetics flagship virtual discussion fell into four major topics. Continue reading