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AgHealth blog

Open Access Week 2021: Preprints as a tool for open knowledge and open science at ILRI

International Open Access Week is an annual scholarly communication event that is marked globally during the last full week of October to raise awareness about open access publishing of research and scholarly outputs to enable their universal online accessibility. The theme of Open Access Week 2021...

Mazingira blog

The New leadership of ILRI’s Mazingira Centre

‘My ambition is to speed the transformation of the livestock sector into an industry that produces nourishing food in both profitable and sustainable ways.’ Claudia Arndt My primary focus is to contribute to the delivery of action-oriented research that improves livestock productivity and food...

AgHealth blog

Lancet Countdown 2021 report calls for urgent global action to tackle the health impacts of climate change

The health impacts of climate change are getting worse, exposing communities around the world to greater risks of food and water insecurity, heatwaves and the spread of infectious diseases, according to a new report by the Lancet Countdown . The Lancet Countdown is an international,...

Africa RISING feed

Quality barley seeds and linkages with breweries unlock better incomes for Ethiopian farmers

Assefa Negash, a farmer and secretary of the Bekume Oyora Seeds Growers’ Cooperative, has long faced difficulties in getting high-quality malt barley seeds. He cultivates the crop jointly with members of his cooperative group on a 3.3-hectare piece of land in the Goba District of the Bale zone,...

  • Haimanot Seifu
CGIAR Research Program on Livestock

Community-based breeding programs to celebrate successes in Ethiopia

Genetic improvement plays a vital role for the development of the livestock sector by means of increasing the productivity and sustainability of production. In 2009, a new genetic improvement approach—the Community Based Breeding Program (CBBP)—was implemented in Ethiopia by the International...

  • Beamlak Tesfaye, Aynalem Haile
AgHealth blog

ILRI researchers contribute to Scientific and Technical Review special issue on veterinary services

A special issue (Aug 2021) of the Scientific and Technical Review journal of the World Organisation for Animal Health ( OIE ) turns the spotlight on the operation of veterinary services in a world affected by various external factors such as climate change and emerging zoonotic diseases. The COVID-...

Africa RISING feed

No technician? No problem: Africa RISING releases 35 vernacular DIY videos on maintenance of maize shelling machines for use by farmers in Ghana

It is estimated that smallholder farmers in northern Ghana face postharvest losses ranging between 30–50% of the yields obtained in each cropping cycle. While northern Ghana has a great potential to be a breadbasket region for the country, with almost all crops grown in the country capable of being...

  • Africa RISING communications
Mazingira blog

A field visit to support climate-smart sustainable agro-pastoralism in East Africa

On 1 Sep 2021, scientists Sonja Leitner and Claudia Arndt from the Mazingira Centre of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya, hosted a group of international researchers on ILRI’s Kapiti Research Station in Machakos County. They were supported in the field by farm...

  • sonjaleitner
AVCD program blog

New drought-tolerant varieties rekindle hopes of food security in drought-prone Makueni County

A happy and hopeful Wilson Lati at his drought-tolerant Sorghum farm in Emali/Mulala Ward in Makueni Hoping against hope of decent harvests, farmers in the semi-arid and arid regions of eastern Kenya have always planted their traditional and favourite food crops – pigeonpea, green gram, sorghum,...

  • wanderaojanji
CGIAR Research Program on Livestock

Promoting women’s participation in collective livestock marketing: reflections from community conversations in Menz Mama, Ethiopia

Smallholder livestock keepers face many market challenges such as low prices, weak bargaining power, lack of market information, high transaction costs, lack of group actions, distance to markets, lack of marketing infrastructure, erratic and unorganized markets, and lack of market linkage...

  • Mamusha Lemma , Abiro Tigabie
Africa RISING feed

Bridging the livestock feed gap through improved feed and forage options

Ethiopia is known for its large livestock population. The livestock sector in Ethiopia contributes about 46% of the country’s agricultural GDP. Livestock is primarily kept on smallholdings where it provides draught power for crop production, manure for soil fertility and fuel, and serves as a...

  • Haimanot Seifu
AgHealth blog

CGIAR scientists and research collaborators from Côte d’Ivoire discuss new One Health initiative

The world’s largest publicly-funded agricultural research partnership, CGIAR , is currently developing a series of initiatives to implement its 2030 research and innovation strategy that was launched in early 2021. The research initiatives are designed to create lasting impact in five key areas:...