Author Archives: Dr. Bukar USMAN, mni

Originally posted on Food (Policy) For Thought:
It happens that once you specialize in a topic, you get a little jaded about ‘broad overview’ talks. Whenever I go to one of those now, I notice myself mentally playing the ‘food…

Escaping the poverty trap begins with having enough food on your table and enough money in your pocket. For more than 500 million smallholder farmers all over the world, this means producing enough on two hectares (or less) of land … Continue reading →

“The lands were allocated by the state government for farming but they have been used to build accommodation.” Source: http://www.premiumtimesng.com See on Scoop.it – Sustainable Livestock development

Nearly 500 delegates from over 20 countries will converge in Nairobi this morning October 27, to discuss Africa’s Animal Agriculture: Macro-trends and future opportunities. Meeting under the auspic… Source: sustainable-livestock.ilri.org See on Scoop.it – Sustainable Livestock development

GESS hot lines numbers are +234-081-421-087-80, +234-070-608-832-38, which can only be accessed Monday-Friday 8am-4pm. Source: http://www.premiumtimesng.com GESS hot lines numbers are +234-081-421-087-80, +234-070-608-832-38, which can only be accessed Monday-Friday 8am-4pm.   See on Scoop.it – Precision Agriculture

Providing dietary antioxidants to sheep can improve the animals’ oxidative status and reduce the negative effects of heat stress. Source: animal.supplysideinsights.com See on Scoop.it – Precision Agriculture

Dorper sheep offers higher returns because it gains weight faster. Source: http://www.nation.co.ke See on Scoop.it – Food Policy, Supply, Security & Safety

Agricultural transformation is a priority for Africa. Across the continent, the significant information needs of farmers – accurate local weather forecasts, relevant advice on agricultural practices and input use, real time price information and market logistics – remain largely unmet. … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Tech4agri:
The Panel of the CTA organized seminar on Scaling up ICT projects in Agriculture at the CWA 2014. Photo by Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i (@WIBDI_Samoa) In the course of the activities of Tech4agri there has…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
Click here to download the Leaping & Learning Report October 16th 2014 is World Food Day, and in line with this years International Year of Family Farming, the theme…

At the just concluded ‘Awareness Workshop on Safe and Responsible use of Veterinary Medicines, Pesticides and Animal Feeds’, the Director General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii, who was represented by the Director of Veterinary Medicine and Allied Product, Dr. Bukar … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Food Governance :
Together with a colleague  I am organising a section at the ECPR general conference, Montreal 2015 ( http://www.ecpr.eu/Events/EventDetails.aspx?EventID=94) We welcome panel and paper proposals (until 10 November  2014) that are based on the section description…

Whether it be distribution of prophylactic supplements or foods for mothers and children, treatment of severe or moderate acute malnutrition, or behavior-change communication on maternal nutrition and child feeding, nutrition interventions involve systems of social structures (institutions and organizations) and … Continue reading →

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
Three new publications investigate proposed solutions to global food insecurity, exploring the potential consequences of liberalising trade, increasing crop yields and introducing biotechnology. The first, written by agricultural scientists…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
Gordon Conway will lead and participate in a series of high-profile discussions on the critical issues raised in his book, One Billion Hungry: Can we feed the world? at…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
Click to download the full report here Released the 9th of October 2014, the latest Annual Trends and Outlook Report from the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System…

“Our reactors can generate more protein that an acre of soy. Moreover, our process does not use herbicides, or fertilizer, and also diverts food waste from landfills,” said Robert Olivier, CEO of Texas based bioconversion firm, Prota Culture, which is … Continue reading →

Feed safety and antimicrobial resistance were two subjects grabbing the headlines at the annual meeting between long-time bedfellows, the UN’s FAO and the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF), in Rome last week. Source: http://www.feednavigator.com See on Scoop.it – Food Policy, … Continue reading →

To be more resilient in the face of such risks, countries need the resources to be able to better understand where disease is coming from and to prevent it from ever reaching people in the first place. By understanding animal … Continue reading →

Originally posted on DESERTIFICATION:
Read at : http://africasciencenews.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100%3Afemale-agriculture-scientists-to-fuel-africas-agrarian-revolution&catid=49%3Afood&Itemid=113&limitstart=1 Female Agriculture Scientists to Fuel Africa’s Agrarian Revolution African must harness the potential of female agriculture scientists to revolutionise farming practices and rescue millions of citizens from hunger pangs. Experts contend that…

Originally posted on DESERTIFICATION:
Read at : http://www.scidev.net/global/gender/multimedia/investing-female-scientists-feed-africa.html Investing in female scientists to feed Africa In this interview, Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, director of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development fellowship programme in Kenya, talks about AWARD’s work supporting the…

“The livestock support scheme is a good idea. Provided it goes to the right hands, the livestock scheme will definitely go a long way in improving the quality of beef in the country. The greatest challenge we face in our … Continue reading →

Originally posted on LIVES-Ethiopia:
Fattened oxen buyers visiting producer farms in Gamogofa (Photo:ILRIYoseph Mekasha). Cattle fattening is an important component of livestock farming in Gamogofa Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia. The Zonal Bureau of…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
On the 29th September 2014 two events laid out global and African strategies for agriculture and food security. At its 24th session, the Committee on Agriculture (COAG), one of…

Salmonella can affect animals eating the products and there is risk to humans from handling contaminated pet products, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with the products or any surfaces exposed to these products. … Continue reading →

Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish:
Value chain interventions are rarely evaluated as rigorously as interventions in agricultural production or health. This is due to various reasons, including the intrinsic complexity of value chain interventions, intricate…

Originally posted on AgHealth:
Pastoralism is a farming system practised in arid and semi arid lands by societies that derive most of their food and income from livestock production. About 70% of the land mass in the Horn of Africa is dry…

Check out @VetUpdates’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/VetUpdates/status/487605009593688065 FCF! Antimicrobial Therapy in Vet Medicine, the most comprehensive ref available on veterinary antimicrobial drug use http://t.co/UKw53qOpgR

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
A report based on a two day workshop held in January 2012, part funded by the UK Government’s Foresight Programme, was recently published by the Food Climate Research Network…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
By Lindiwe Majele Sibanda and Katy Wilson. Reblogged from AlertNet Today, the world is searching for solutions to a series of global challenges unprecedented in their scale and complexity.…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
A recent paper, No Dominion over Nature, authored by UK ecologists, Professors Mark Huxham, Sue Hartley, Jules Pretty and Paul Tett, describes how current approaches to food production are…

On 22 July 2014, Delia Grace and Johanna Lindahl, food safety researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute, presented on aflatoxins, animal health and the safety of animal-source… Source: aghealth.wordpress.com Aflatoxins in contaminated animal feed not only result in reduced … Continue reading →

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Goats being herded near a water point in Wajir, northern Kenya (photo credit: Riccardo Gangale). ‘Livestock production in smallholder systems exists throughout the developing world in a great variety of forms. Farm animals contribute considerably to…

An Australia-Africa initiative is sowing nearly $1m in training, mentoring and action plans to combat pests’ threat to agriculture, writes Caspar van Vark Source: http://www.theguardian.com Biosecurity broadly refers to ways of preventing or mitigating the threat of pests and diseases … Continue reading →

With chicken hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons, what is the best way to buy better meat, asks Sue Dibb of Eating Better Source: http://www.theguardian.com The message to eat less meat is coming through loud and clear. Too … Continue reading →

Øistein Thorsen: Antibiotic use in farming is common but with serious effects on human health, it is time to replace, reduce and refine useage of the drug Source: http://www.theguardian.com The World Health Organization (WHO) warns the misuse of antimicrobial medicines … Continue reading →

George Monbiot: Allan Savory tells us that increasing livestock can reduce desertification and reverse climate change – but where is the scientific evidence? Source: http://www.theguardian.com “We can take enough carbon out of the atmosphere and safely store it in the … Continue reading →

L Hunter Lovins: George Monbiot’s recent criticism of Allan Savory’s theory that grazing livestock can reverse climate change ignores evidence that it’s already experiencing success Source: http://www.theguardian.com “…grazing #livestock can reverse #desertification and restore #carbon to the #soil, enhancing its … Continue reading →

David Nabarro, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Food Security and Nutrition who directed the development and implementation of the study, states that  “As people’s incomes increase, their demand for (and access to) livestock products tends to increase … Continue reading →

In Africa, gender-sensitive policy responses to the effects of climate change are critical to ensure a productive agriculture sector and a food-secure growing population Source: ccafs.cgiar.org  African #women especially those directly engaged as primary food producers are not only vulnerable … Continue reading →

“What we intend to do is actually use #agriculture to solve some of the social problems in most societies of #Africa including #poverty and #hunger,” Dr Nteranya Sanginga, IITA Director General said t.

Aflatoxins are highly toxic fungal by-products produced by certain strains of Aspergillus flavus in grains and other crops. Consumption of very high levels of aflatoxins can cause acute illness and death. Chronic exposure to aflatoxins is linked to liver cancer, especially where … Continue reading →

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
Africa is often referred to as a continent of opportunity, economic or otherwise. In part because of the progress made – since 2000, rates of extreme poverty and hunger…

With more than 50 million people in refugee camps or fleeing conflict, the World Food Programme is using mobiles to provide critical food assistance Source: http://www.theguardian.com “We were curious: if we used mobile technology, could we get information faster, cheaper, … Continue reading →

The first step any country should take to improve the micronutrient status of its population, according to Ruel, is to “work on the food system” Source: http://www.ifpri.org See on Scoop.it – Agriculture, Climate & Food security

When a scientist says something works, or is better, it’s based on what research has demonstrated, or at least what it has demonstrated up to that point in time.  So when the Union of Concerned Sci… Source: onpasture.com Based on the review … Continue reading →

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
At Agriculture for Impact we talk a lot about resilience and in particular how farms and rural economies can become more resilient to shocks and stresses like climate change,…

Mr. Adesina also says the best performing stocks in the Nigerian market today were agriculture-related stocks Private sector investment in Nigeria’s agricultural sector was valued at over $8billion… Source: http://www.premiumtimesng.com See on Scoop.it – Agriculture, Climate & Food security

World Bank pledges to support the design of a reform package for water resources management and irrigation in Nigeria. ————————— The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors on F… Source: http://www.premiumtimesng.com See on Scoop.it – Food Policy, Supply, Security & … Continue reading →

The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said on Friday that the ministry was collaborating with other ministries to protect Nigerians from being infected by the Ebola virus. Chukwu told newsmen in Abuja that surveillance had been mounted in all … Continue reading →

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
As the threat of climate change, natural resource scarcity and declines in the provision of the majority of ecosystem services continue, agroecology is increasingly being explored as an option…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
In the wake of the 2008 food price crisis, which exacerbated food insecurity and increased smallholder farmers’ vulnerability to shocks and stresses, recognition of the barriers smallholders face in…