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
Category Archives: Seeds
Buffelgrass: a drought-tolerant bunchgrass
Buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris L.) is a bunchgrass that grows in clumps, it can transform deserts into grasslands. It is one of the most popular forage species and is extensively grown across arid and semi-arid parts of the world as it uses less water to produce more feed allowing sustainable agricultural production. Originating in Africa, … Continue reading
Thirty per cent of ILRI gene bank collections now safely duplicated at the global seed vault in Norway
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
German agroecological livestock research investments are benefiting both people and the planet
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
‘Legacy Award’ bestowed on Jean Hanson, ILRI’s forage genebank gatekeeper for the last three decades
Along with six other distinguished scientists, Hanson today, 25 Feb 2018, received an inaugural ‘Legacy Award’ from the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which bestowed this award on Hanson for dedicating her career to forage conservation. Continue reading
Award-winning paper establishes links between women’s empowerment and crop seed improvement and governance in pre-war Syria
Alessandra Galiè, a social scientist specializing in gender issues in agricultural research who now works in Nairobi, Kenya, at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), conducted her doctoral research in Aleppo, Syria, at ILRI’s sister CGIAR institution, the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). This week Galiè received a prestigious award for an academic paper she published documenting how ICARDA’s participatory barley breeding program in pre-war Syria impacted women’s empowerment. Continue reading