CRP on climate change, agriculture and food security
The following are highlights of a new CGIAR paper advancing ways to make agricultural science make a bigger difference to development outcomes. We describe a theory-of-change approach to an agricultural research for development program. Continue reading
Insurance that pays out when forage coverage drops—known as index-based livestock insurance—is an elegant idea. Andrew Mude, an economist and principal scientist at ILRI, last month was awarded the Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application. The award, a major prize in agricultural research, is given by the World Food Prize Foundation and financed by the Rockefeller Foundation. Tina Rosenberg covers the story in the New York Times. Continue reading
What might seem like a silver bullet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions risks undermining other development goals such as ending hunger, improving health and eliminating poverty. We cannot ignore the important role that animal-source foods play, especially in developing countries, when we talk about tackling climate change. Instead we need to find a middle ground. Continue reading
Andrew Mude, an economist and principal scientist at ILRI, is being presented with the 2016 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application today, 12 Oct 2016, for his work leading an innovative livestock insurance program that employs satellite data to help protect livestock herding communities in the Horn of Africa from the devastating effects of drought. Continue reading
Greenhouse gases emitted by Kenyan cattle excreta are found to be much lower than estimates derived from models in industrialized countries. Continue reading
A new project is reconstructing Rwanda’s incomplete meteorological data record using cutting-edge climate science and developing climate information products and services based on the expressed needs of the country’s farmers and other end users. The work is carried out by RAB and Meteo Rwanda, in collaboration with CCAFS, IRI at Columbia University, ICRAF and ILRI, with funding from USAID. Continue reading
Mario Herrero, chief research scientist for Food Systems and the Environment at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), in Australia, and colleagues have published a paper in Nature Climate Change on Greenhouse gas mitigation potentials in the livestock sector. Continue reading
Common foods of Khulungira village, in central Malawi: Nsomba zophika (fish stew), chimanga chophika (boiled maize), nyemba zophika (mixed beans with salt and oil), bowa wofutsa (dried mushrooms with ground groundnuts), nkhwani wophatikiza ndi maungu anthete ndi kachewere wophika (pumpkin leaves, pumpkin blossoms and potatoes) and mazira ophika ndi phwetekere, anyezi, mafuta ndi mchere (boiled … Continue reading
A commentary published in The Lancet last month supporting a series of five papers on antimicrobials recommends prohibiting use of antibiotics critically important for human medicine to promote the growth of livestock or to prevent routine livestock disease. The commentary was written by Tim Robinson, a principal scientist in spatial analysis at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and colleagues in partner organizations. Continue reading
With global mobile technology growing exponentially, the opportunities for resource- and infrastructure-poor countries to rapidly expand learning are huge. Two projects managed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)—mNutrition and Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI)—have seized this opportunity and developed mobile technology solutions to challenges they encountered. Continue reading
ILRI news 