Rising demand for milk, meat and eggs in developing countries is opening up big new opportunities to establish and grow businesses and create jobs. While rapidly changing livestock systems pose a range of environmental, health and equity challenges across the highly heterogeneous livestock production systems worldwide, targeted investment in sustainable livestock research for development can produce more food, increase resilience in communities and the environment, and drive equitable and broad-based economic growth. Helping to ensure that hundreds of millions of poor small-scale livestock farmers, processors and marketers, many of whom are women, benefit from these opportunities will be crucial to achieving many of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Continue reading
Category Archives: Spotlight
Introducing English and Swahili instructional videos on the patterns, signs, symptoms and control of Rift Valley fever
Originally posted on ILVAC:
Written by Bernard Bett Several outbreaks of Rift Valley fever in livestock and people have occurred in eastern Africa over the last three months or so. In the first week of June 2018, local media reported at least five fatal human cases in Kenya’s northern Wajir County. More suspected cases in…
Livestock-enhanced diets in the first 1,000 days of life: Pathways to better futures in low-income countries
A new report was published this month on the value of ensuring consumption of meat, milk and eggs by infants up to two years of age and by expectant and new mothers in developing countries (the first 1,000 days). The report was published by ILRI and the Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security. Highlights of the findings of this joint ILRI-Chatham livestock study were presented at a side event at the EAT Stockholm Food Forum on 11 Jun 2018. Continue reading
Can livestock-enhanced diets of the poor in the first 1,000 days of life lead to healthy and sustainable futures?
This year’s EAT 2018 Stockholm Food Forum (11–12 Jun 2018) explores ways to achieve healthy and sustainable diets for a growing global population. On Monday, 11 Jun 2018, Chatham House and ILRI will host a side event around the findings of an evidence review on the influence of livestock-derived foods—meat, milk and eggs—on the nutrition of women and of children during their first 1,000 days of life, from conception to age two. Continue reading
How closing livestock yield gaps can enhance incomes, food security and the environment in Ethiopia and India
Estimates of livestock yield gaps are not available and these are necessary for developing feasible scenarios of how the production of different livestock commodities might evolve in the future, how systems might change and what would be the resource use implications and their costs, both for donors and for public and private entities in target countries. Continue reading
Why milk, meat and eggs can make a big difference to the world’s most nutritionally vulnerable people
Opinion piece by ILRI scientist Silvia Alonso on the ILRI-Chatham House report on the importance of livestock-derived foods in the first 1,000 days of life. Continue reading
Meat, milk, eggs can make a big difference in the first 1,000 days of life in low-income countries—New report
An extensive review of research found demonstrable nutritional benefits of providing children, particularly in countries in Africa and South Asia where undernutrition is highest, with livestock-derived foods such as meat, milk and eggs. Consumption of livestock-derived foods was typically found to be very low among poor families in those countries. The influence of livestock-derived foods on nutrition during the first 1,000 days of life, published by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Chatham House, also concluded that it was possible to meet the nutritional needs of the most vulnerable through livestock-derived produce even if total global livestock production slowed down. Continue reading
Kenyan President Kenyatta headlines national conference at ILRI Nairobi on innovations in Kenya’s agricultural sector
Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta addressed the 400 guests at the national conference of the Feed the Future Kenya Accelerating Value Chain Development project at ILRI on 27 Apr 2018. Continue reading
Art underlines the precious value of poultry genetic research
‘The Incubated Worlds art exhibition clearly communicates the importance of poultry production, genetic diversity and the interdependence of communities worldwide. The facility will be more than a place of research, but also of learning and innovation for farmers, poultry businesses, associations, cooperatives and communities’, said Siboniso Moyo, the ILRI director general’s representative in Ethiopia. Continue reading
Art and science bring poultry genetics to life in Ethiopia while celebrating local diversity in all its forms
Art and science unite to serve Ethiopian farmers—’Incubated Worlds’ explores genetic diversity of poultry to boost nutrition and incomes. Continue reading