Feed and Forage Development program
Containing the nutritive values of over 44,000 forage and fodder samples, the updated CGIAR feed database can be accessed by researchers, development agents and agricultural extension workers in Africa including farmers, who can use this information to design accurate and scientifically based best-cost livestock rations. Continue reading
Yesterday (7 Sep 2020), ILRI and four partners—Bidco Land O’Lakes, Corteva Agriscience, Forage Genetics International (FGI) and Land O’Lakes Venture37—announced their new alliance in a project to strengthen dairy production in central Kenya. The project aims to help 5,000 smallholder dairy women to advance their sustainable farming practices and to ease the shortage of dairy products in the country. Continue reading
The recent release of the CGIAR Genebank Platform 2019 annual report highlights that, for the third year in a row, germplasm distribution to requesters outside of the CGIAR exceeded that to those inside the CGIAR. Ethiopia ranked as one of the top 10 countries receiving germplasm from the CGIAR. Nearly 60% of these, representing a … Continue reading
Located at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) campus in Patancheru, India, the feed technology research platform of the Feed and Forage Development Program of ILRI provides laboratory infrastructure and tools for rapidly and affordably analysing fodder quality. Continue reading
For the third time, ILRI last month shipped a set of its forage genebank collection, comprising 302 accessions representing 74 species and 30 genera, to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Continue reading
Seven years ago, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) developed a decision-making tool known as the Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) which was funded through the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) under the Fodder Adoption Project. Continue reading
A recent study, published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, has identified significant diversity in a Napier grass collection. Continue reading
Last month, the ILRI Forage Genebank delivered a second set of 389 accessions of 69 species representing 25 forage genera to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway for safety duplication. Continue reading
ILRI was honoured this week (3 Sep 2018) to host a high-level German delegation including Maria Flachsbarth, parliamentary state secretary to Germany’s federal minister for economic cooperation and development, and Stefan Schmitz, deputy director of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), as well as senior staff of the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Irrigation, including Andrew Tuimur, chief administrative secretary, and Ann Onyango, agriculture secretary; and representatives from several other CGIAR centres working in Kenya, including Tony Simons, director general of ICRAF, and representatives from the Nairobi-based International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe). Continue reading
Michael Blümmel, deputy program leader for the Feed and Forage Development program at ILRI, is lead author on a new paper that explores the big benefits of treating cereal straws and stovers—the ‘residues’ of cereal crops after their grain has been harvested—to release their sugars, thereby turning these crop residues into nourishing feed for ruminant farm animals—cows, water buffaloes, goats and sheep. Continue reading
ILRI news 