New project promises more productive chickens for Africa’s smallholders
ACGG / Africa / Agriculture / Breeds / Chickens / Ethiopia / Farming Systems / Genetics / Indigenous Breeds / Launch / LiveGene / LIVESTOCKFISH / Nigeria / Project / Spotlight / Tanzania

New project promises more productive chickens for Africa’s smallholders

A new four-year African Chicken Genetic Gains (ACGG) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will run from 2015 to 2019 and work to genetically improve Africa’s chickens and to better deliver the superior chickens to small-scale farmers. Continue reading

It’s simple (everybody eats); It’s complicated (everybody eats differently)
Agri-Health / Consumption / Food Security / Human Health / Policy / Report / Spotlight / UK

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

Food scares: Agrifood systems everywhere need greater cooperation and investments in safer foods and farming
A4NH / Agri-Health / Books and Chapters / Cameroon / Canada / China / Consumption / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / Food Safety / FSZ / Ghana / Human Health / ILRI / Markets / Policy / South Sudan / Spotlight / UK / USA / Zoonotic Diseases

Food scares: Agrifood systems everywhere need greater cooperation and investments in safer foods and farming

An interesting, if scary, read is chapter 6 of the recently launched flagship report of IFPRI on reducing and managing food scares, co-written by Delia Grace at ILRI and John McDermott, who directs the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, led by IFPRI. Continue reading

Managing the most nutritious, and riskiest, foods in the informal markets of developing countries
A4NH / Africa / Agri-Health / Animal Products / Consumption / Disease Control / Epidemiology / Food Safety / FSZ / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / Nigeria / Nutrition / Opinion Piece / Spotlight

Managing the most nutritious, and riskiest, foods in the informal markets of developing countries

A new book compiling 25 contemporary studies on food safety in Africa’s informal markets offers (surprising) lessons for much of the developing world. Continue reading

IGAD’s Horn of Africa, Nile Valley and Great Lakes region member states sign agreement for joint work with ILRI
Drought / Drylands / East Africa / Eritrea / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Launch / Pastoralism / Pro-Poor Livestock / SLS / Somalia / South Sudan / Spotlight / Sudan / Uganda

IGAD’s Horn of Africa, Nile Valley and Great Lakes region member states sign agreement for joint work with ILRI

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an an eight-country trade bloc in Africa including governments from the Horn of Africa, the Nile Valley and the African Great Lakes region and with headquarters in Djibouti City, signed a memorandum of understanding last Friday (27 Mar 2015) with the International livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Continue reading

Fighting fire with fire: New study shows co-parasitic infections of cattle protect the animals from lethal disease
Agri-Health / Article / Cattle / Central Africa / Disease Control / East Africa / ECF / Epidemiology / Human Health / ILRI / Kenya / LiveGene / LIVESTOCKFISH / Southern Africa / Spotlight

Fighting fire with fire: New study shows co-parasitic infections of cattle protect the animals from lethal disease

A Boran calf and girl in eastern Kenya (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). A new study of the cattle killer East Coast fever finds a protective process that may also be at work in human malaria: Infections with milder parasites may protect against severe disease. African cattle infected with a lethal parasite that kills one million … Continue reading

Humidtropics program launches research-for-development platform in Ethiopia
Agriculture / Article / ASSP / Crop-Livestock / East Africa / Ethiopia / Feeds / HUMIDTROPICS / Livestock

Humidtropics program launches research-for-development platform in Ethiopia

On 5 February 2015, the Humidtropics Ethiopia Action Site R4D Platform was launched at the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa. The platform is designed to oversee, and link with, the local level innovation platforms at field sites for co-learning and guiding Humidtropics integrated research-for-development activities in the country. Continue reading