Author Archives: Dr. Bukar USMAN, mni

Africa was the only region where the number of hungry grew over the period, from 175 million to 239 million, with nearly 20 million added in the past four years. The prevalence of hunger, although reduced over the entire period, … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
South African Farm (Photo: Siphiwe Sibeko) As Americans set off for the Thanksgiving holidays, few will likely pause to reflect on the global inequality surrounding access to food. A estimated one billion people worldwide…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
Saturday Night Live last week screened a devastating critique of the charity industry, highlighting so many of the problems associated with these types of initiatives: the Western expert; the helpless “African;” the placeless “Africa;”…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Small-scale farms mixing crops and livestock, such as this one in India, will feed a growing world population (photo credit: CCAFS/Vishwanathan). An article published this week (18 Nov 2014) in the online edition of Kenya’s…

The purpose of this workshop is to discuss important aspects of Ebola virus and vaccine immunology in order to inform future clinical, scientific and regulatory decision-making related to vaccines against Ebola. Source: http://www.fda.gov See on Scoop.it – Food Policy, Supply, … Continue reading →

The old world camels (Dromedary and Bactrian) are well adapted to the harsh (both cold extreme and hot extreme) and hostile (deserts with scarce water and feed availability) ecosystems of the north… Source: camel4all.wordpress.com See on Scoop.it – Agriculture, Climate … Continue reading →

Knowledge is increasingly online and digital, making connectivity essential; and offline explicit knowledge invisible. Getting their own hidden knowledge online and visible is a number one task for institutional KRCs. It also makes sure that knowledge seekers are more likely to find more of … Continue reading →

Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish:
The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has just approved a small grant to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) for a project entitled the ‘potential farm…

The plant will be expected to produce 15 tons of the aflasafe in a week, with the initial target being to produce sufficient amounts to treat about 100, 000 hectares. The facility will also serve in making aflasafe for local … Continue reading →

There’s a new feature article in National Geographic this month titled: Carnivore’s Dilemma. Written by Robert Kunzig and photographed by Brian Finke, the feature asks, and attempts to answer, the … Source: clippings.ilri.org See on Scoop.it – Food Policy, Supply, … Continue reading →

Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish:
In September 2014, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) organized a dairy value chain seminar with support from the…

Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish:
For the past year, researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute, other research institutes and national partners have been working on a framework to carry out a ‘Comprehensive Livestock Environment…

Originally posted on Database of Press Releases related to Africa – APO-Source:
White House Garden Harvests Vitamin-A Rich Orange Sweet Potato The sweet potato was chosen to highlight its role in improving the nutrition and health of millions of children…

“Conclusion; Phantom could be considered as a suitable approach to collect semen due to simplicity, safety, and lack of specimen contamination in dromedary camel.” Findings

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Providing early-career support to promising young developing country researchers has been the mandate of the International Foundation for Science (IFS) for many years. Building on this experience, the new IFS Strategy 2011-2020, launched in 2011, emphasizes three approaches:…

The GNR will contribute to country-led efforts to strengthen accountability, share learning about what is working, and highlight bottlenecks to progress and how they may be overcome,” said Lawrence Haddad, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research … Continue reading →

Displaced populations and their host communities face a high risk of food insecurity, malnutrition, and epidemics. The security situation in northern Mali improved due to international efforts, but violence has increased in northern Nigeria. An exodus of people from northern … Continue reading →

Source: http://www.ifpri.org See on Scoop.it – Food Policy, Supply, Security & Safety

The adoption of agricultural biotechnology, and specifically genetically modified (GM) crops, by many African countries has been quite limited to date, however. To further inform the debate over agricultural biotechnology, this report collects current information on the status of biotechnology … Continue reading →

Diets link environmental and human health. Rising incomes and urbanization are driving a global dietary transition in which traditional diets are replaced by diets higher in refined sugars, refined fats, oils and meats. Source: http://www.nature.com See on Scoop.it – Food … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Food Governance :
Call for Applications:  Postdoctoral Fellowships on Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions (IMMANA Fellowships) (led by the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University) Download the Call Objective: To accelerate the…

‘ILRI research has contributed to appropriate health management systems leading to healthy animals, people and ecosystems and increase animal-source food and income for all’. Source: aghealth.wordpress.com See on Scoop.it – Sustainable Livestock development

A 2001 court decision crippled the federal government’s ability to shut down food plants that are sickening people. Source: http://www.alternet.org See on Scoop.it – Food Policy, Supply, Security & Safety

The Cornucopia Institute has updated the infographic detailing supporters and opponents of Washington state’s historic November 5 vote on the labeling of GMO food ingredients, known as I-522. Source: http://www.cornucopia.org See on Scoop.it – Food Policy, Supply, Security & Safety

The FAO has always been concerned with agricultural development and food security. Recent disease epidemics, in both developing and industrialised countries, have once again focussed attention on livestock disease and their potential to harm development. In the context of developing … Continue reading →

Classical risk assessment approaches for animal diseases are influenced by the probability of release, exposure and consequences of a hazard affecting a livestock population. Once a pathogen enters into domestic livestock, potential risks of exposure and infection both to animals … Continue reading →

Protecting livestock against diseases and preventing their spread is one of the keys to fighting hunger, malnutrition and poverty. The Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES) was established by FAO’s Director General in 1994. … Continue reading →

Despite being treated like Bigfoot believers by their opponents, pesticide ascetics are inching their way toward credibility. Introduced by Monsanto in the early 1970s under the trade name Roundup (and used primarily back then as a weed killer), glyphosate is … Continue reading →

The industry assures us it’s safe, but new research has found that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s popular herbicide Roundup®, is more insidious to human health than previously thought.   Research published in the journal Entropy found that glyphosate interferes with … Continue reading →

Source: gx196.infusionsoft.com See on Scoop.it – Precision Agriculture

And here’s why you should buy them…. Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com See on Scoop.it – Precision Agriculture

At Walter Bracken STEAM Academy, they still teach the three Rs: radishes, rhubarb and rutabagas. Source: http://www.reviewjournal.com See on Scoop.it – Precision Agriculture

The Whartons want a garden, but don’t have much space in their backyard. Here are the results of their ZipGrow towers vs. Soil Gardening experiment. Source: brightagrotech.com See on Scoop.it – Precision Agriculture

“If farmers are the implementers of these technologies, then obviously they should be involved in their design and development.” Gilbert Nakweya Source: m.scidev.net See on Scoop.it – Food Policy, Supply, Security & Safety

The Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems (SAFA) Guidelines were developed for assessing the impact of food and agriculture operations on the environment and people. The guiding vision of SAFA is that food and agriculture systems worldwide are characterized … Continue reading →

Supporting farmers to add value to the food chain goes beyond the monetary dimension of increasing their incomes, Graziano da Silva argued, saying: “It means more nutritious and healthy foods, produced sustainably.” Source: http://www.fao.org See on Scoop.it – Food Policy, … Continue reading →

What “organics” is, how it should be defined, and how it should be regulated is a hot topic right now from Brussels to Berlin. The reason? The European Commission has proposed a new legislative framework, and was met with broad … Continue reading →

By 2050 the world will need to feed an additional 2 billion people and will require 70 per cent more meat and milk. The increasing future demand for livestock products, driven by increases in income, population and urbanization will impose … Continue reading →

The conference “Insects to feed the world” organized by the FAO/WUR, that took place last May in The Netherlands was a milestone in the recognition of the professional insect industry. Feed industry leaders, insect breeders, universities, NGO’s and other stakeholders … Continue reading →

ABSTRACT During the last four decades a number of animal-nutrition-based technologies and practices have been developed and used in developing countries, with varying degrees of success. Some technologies have produced profound beneficial effects and have been widely used; while others … Continue reading →

Livestock production is resource hungry: it occupies 75 percent of all agricultural land, including crop and pasture land, and consumes 8 percent of global human water use, mainly for the irrigation of feed crops. Source: http://www.fao.org “Insects have many advantages … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Kalu Samuel's Blog:
In recent times gamification has been used to learn new skills, however I always thought improving knowledge of Agriculture in Africa using gamification is not possible until I played the Farm Defenders game.…

31 October 2014 Smallholder farmers in the main yam-growing areas of West Africa will benefit from a new project that aims to develop new varieties of this crucial staple crop and enhance yam breeding capabilities and partnerships in the region.. … Continue reading →

Insight into business in Africa Source: http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com See on Scoop.it – Food Policy, Supply, Security & Safety

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
In most developing countries, food-borne diseases are a major cause of sickness and death. Whilst many countries acknowledge food safety is a major problem, there is little up-to-date, comprehensive information on food safety issues at…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
Evidence that investing in agriculture in developing countries as a way of tackling poverty and hunger is growing. Given the sheer number of people working in the agricultural sector,…

While many mothers in developing countries don’t have access to healthy foods, almost all of them have access to something else: a mobile phone Source: http://www.theguardian.com See on Scoop.it – Precision Agriculture

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). Its mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Kalu Samuel's Blog:
e-learning group PEF, Photo credit: PEF The postharvest training program will be launched in January 2015 by The Postharvest Education Foundation and have up to 40 young horticultural professionals currently working in developing…

Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish:
The draft report of the CRP-Commissioned External Evaluation of the Program’s Value Chain Approach is now available for comment (more information on this evaluation). Comments are open until 17 November…

Originally posted on Food (Policy) For Thought:
Philanthropy is an interesting concept. Here is one person, or a board of people, with more money to distribute than small nations have budgets. If they choose to concentrate on a topic, their…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Department of Veterinary Medicine Institute for Parasitology and Tropical Veterinary Medicine Research assistant – PhD candidate 50% Entgeltgruppe 13 TV–L FU For a limited period of 3 years, starting as soon as possible The Institute for…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
Last year we brought you six of our favourite TEDx talks on food security and since then we’ve discovered a whole lot more. Here are nine more interesting talks…

Originally posted on Kalu Samuel's Blog:
Several Months ago, I and a three other African visionaries sat down in Accra, Ghana and developed a startup: Agricnet Solutions Enterprises, a one-stop Agric consultancy and viable social enterprise that aims to…