CGIAR Innovation Platform Case Study Competition: And the winner is . . .
Agriculture / ASSP / Capacity Strengthening / CapDev / Communications / Congo-DR / Event Report / Humid Tropics / HUMIDTROPICS / ILRI / India / Innovation Systems / PIL / Rwanda / Spotlight / Uganda

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)
Environment / ILRI / Innovation Systems / Livestock / Opinion Piece / Pro-Poor Livestock / Spotlight

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

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

Fragments d’ILRI: La viande dans nos assiettes, les vies dans nos lunettes
Consumption / Directorate / French / ILRI / Livestock / Opinion Piece / Pro-Poor Livestock

Fragments d’ILRI: La viande dans nos assiettes, les vies dans nos lunettes

Ce billet d’opinion offert par Jimmy Smith, directeur général du Centre International pour la Recherche sur l’Elevage (ILRI) est paru le 23 février 2015 dans The Economist, dans sa version anglaise ‘The Meat We Eat, the Lives We Lift’. Il reprend les critiques exprimées à l’encontre de l’élevage à la loupe pour comprendre la perspective différente entre le monde développé et en développement sur cette question. 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

Chickens rule — Everywhere — Everyday — Every way
ACGG / Animal Breeding / Article / Chickens / Consumption / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Intensification / LiveGene / Poultry / Spotlight

Chickens rule — Everywhere — Everyday — Every way

When, exactly, did the chicken move out of our backyards and into our front rooms, taking over our kitchens and imaginations? When did it stop being a bird peasants kept to serve up the occasional egg, and the daily morning crow, and become meat for daily gobbling? 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