Welcome to Can Tho University

For the month of August the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute (MDI) is hosting a summer school case study on Agricultural transformation in developing countries under contexts of urbanization and climate change- the case of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, for the International Master of Science in Rural Development (IMRD) programme from Ghent University.  Wageningen’s Rural Sociology Group is involved in the IMRD programme and as a result, I was able to come and participate in a supportive capacity for the first two weeks.

Case Study Participants at Can Tho University

About the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute (MDI)

MDI is an interdisciplinary organization of Can Tho University (Can Tho, Vietnam). It was established in 2005 from the Mekong Delta Farming Systems Research and Development Institute. MDI has the mission to “improve life quality of rural people and ensure socio-economic and environmental sustainability of the…

By Alice Marks

An agroecosystem. Credit: S. Carrière, IRD

It is no secret that natural resources such as water, nutrients, land and also biodiversity, are increasingly threatened by the changing climate and inefficient farming practices. Farmers often rely on these resources in order to produce food, so it is worrying to see them routinely diminished. Agriculture requires that natural ecosystems are modified and manipulated to better produce food, creating agroecosystems. However, the development of agroecosystems does not need to come at the cost of the environment. All people rely on natural resources, but these risk being damaged and depleted if current agricultural methods continue to be used. In order to meet the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050, food systems must be re-imagined to incorporate more sustainable practices

Methods of producing food need to be more efficient and less environmentally costly. Ecological intensification aims to help agriculture become…

During our writeshop in November 2012, some of the outputs we finalized were a poster (see below) and a factsheet for a wider dissemination of our project goals and achievements. We took advantage of the linguistic diversity of our group’s participants and the factsheet was translated in Portuguese and French to address the non-Anglophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The brochures have now been published by the International Livestock Research Institute.

• ENGLISH: Safe food, fair food (drafted by Kristina Rösel, finalized by all writeshop participants)

• FRANÇAIS: Aliments sains, aliments équitables (translated by Bassirou Bonfoh, Sylvain G. Traoré and Mireille Sylvie Kouamé-Sina at Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire/ Safe Food, Fair Food West Africa)

• PORTUGUÊS: Alimentos seguros, alimentos equitáveis (translated by Helena Matusse and Saskia Hendrickx/ Safe Food, Fair Food Southern Africa)

You are invited to display our poster and circulate the factsheet to colleagues, students…

We are pleased to announce that the book, Food Safety and Informal Markets: Animal Products in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by Kristina Roesel and Delia Grace of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), is now freely available online as an open access resource.

The book was published in October 2014 and officially launched in January 2015. It highlights key messages of the ILRI-led Safe Food, Fair Food project (2008-2011) and 25 proof-of-concept studies on the safety of milk, meat and fish in eight countries across sub-Saharan Africa. The project was funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by local partners and students.

Access the PDF version of the book.

Stephanie Brittain

Launched today by Agriculture for Impact, a new Sustainable Intensification database aims to explain the ecological, socio-economic and genetic approaches that together contribute to the Sustainable Intensification of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa in an easily accessible way, illustrated by more than 80 case studies.

Never has there been a greater need for a new paradigm for improving African agriculture. Worldwide, more than 800 million people suffer from chronic hunger. Meanwhile, Africa’s population alone is set to double to 2.4 billion by 2050, putting additional pressure on our planet’s resources to achieve food security for all. A 2011 FAO publication estimated that 1.2 million km² of land will need to be converted to agriculture by 2030 to meet the increasing demand for food; most of which will need to occur in South America and sub-Saharan Africa. On top of that, climate change is likely to…

Investing in smallholder farmers who own livestock in rural Africa, such as these women in Tanzania, is a catalyst for economic growth (photo credit: ILRI/Deo Gratias Shayo).

Last October (2013), the World Bank reported on the findings of a case study on ‘Livestock and Livelihoods in Rural Tanzania.’ The study assessed opportunities and barriers to contributions livestock make to livelihoods of the poor in three African countries.

This analysis was part of a two-year ‘Livestock Data Innovation in Africa’ project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project was implemented in Niger, Tanzania and Uganda by the World Bank, the African Union–Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources and the International Livestock Research Intistute (ILRI) from 2010 to 2012.

The study reveals ‘investment gaps, potential benefits, and overall social impact’ of the livestock sector in rural Africa, the article says. These facts include how the ‘livestock sector [contributes] to the economic…

Village women and livestock in Niger (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

‘A key function of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization is to estimate food security across the world. These estimates are published each year as the State of Food Insecurity in the World reports. The number of under-nourished people is re-evaluated annually using a food balance sheet approach. For a broad group of crops and livestock commodities, national estimates of the food available for human consumption are made.

‘ILRI’s Tim Robinson and colleagues believe these estimates present the possibility of mapping the changing demand for livestock products and also the associated changes in production that will be required to meet future demand. . . .

‘This study is a contribution to a World Bank background paper, Africa Drylands Study: The Economics of Resilience of Livestock in the African Drylands (forthcoming in 2014). . . .’

Read the full post…

Theories of change have become part of the landscape of CGIAR research programs – also the program on Livestock and Fish.

Livestock and Fish is a complex program characterized by multiple projects spread over a vast geography currently covering nine countries (value chains).

Its delivery of research and development outcomes depends on the creation of pro-poor technological innovations (product lines) and strategic collaboration with a diverse set of actors (researchers, development actors, governments and donors) to facilitate uptake of the innovations at scale.

Recognizing the program’s complexity, a different sort of results-oriented monitoring and evaluation framework is required.

In this report, Keith Child and colleagues share  the program’s experience with a theory of change (ToC) approach to monitoring and evaluation.

Download the report

In 2015, the Livestock and Fish CGIAR Research Program will be evaluated by a team commissioned by the Independent Evaluation Arrangement (IEA) office of the CGIAR. You can learn more about the evaluation here.

As a first step, the evaluation team led by Brian Perry, a veterinary surgeon by profession and epidemiologist by specialization is planning to meet in Kenya the week of 1st February to plan and initiate the evaluation. At the beginning of the week, the evaluation panel will be off ILRI campus holding their own internal team meeting. They will arrive at ILRI on Wednesday 4th Feb at noon to meet the Livestock and Fish Program management, Flagship leaders, other program staff and the ILRI management team.

The agenda for the meetings can be found here.

The members of the team are:

1. Anni McLeod, evaluation team member
2. John Morton, evaluation team member
3. Peter Udén, evaluation…

Aflatoxins are highly toxic fungal by-products produced by certain strains of Aspergillus fungi in more than 40 susceptible crops including maize and groundnuts. Aflatoxins can be separated into aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2.

When ingested, aflatoxin B1 is metabolized to aflatoxin M1 which is secreted into milk. Aflatoxin B1 is particularly important because it has been found in most foods and animal feeds and is highly carcinogenic.

Aflatoxins cause around 90,000 cases of liver cancer each year and are strongly associated with stunting and immune suppression in children. Aflatoxins in contaminated animal feed can lead to reduced animal productivity. They can end up in products like milk, meat and eggs, thus presenting a health risk to humans, with children being particularly susceptible.

In Ethiopia, previous studies have investigated aflatoxin contamination in staple cereals, red chili pepper and ground peas. Now, a new research study published in the journal Food…

Read at :

http://ifad-un.blogspot.be/2013/10/less-hunger-but-not-good-enough.html

Less Hunger, But Not Good Enough

By José Graziano da Silva, Kanayo Nwanze, and Ertharin Cousin

Every year, we take a snapshot of world progress in the fight against chronic hunger. This year, the picture is looking better, but it’s still not good enough.

Some 842 million people are estimated to have been suffering from chronic hunger in 2011-2013, according to The State of Food Insecurity in the World, a report released jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

This figure is down from 868 million during 2010-2012, and represents a decline of 17 percent since 1990-1992. Significant as this progress may be, it cannot disguise the harsh reality: roughly one person in eight suffers from hunger.

The vast majority of undernourished people, 827 million, live in developing…

I am back from Cuba and have a long list of posts in my mind, both from the conference I attended and from talking to Cubans on the street. Coming soon.

However, these days I can’t stop thinking about a topic closer to home, at least mentally – the Greek/European tragedy unrolling over the last weeks with popular referenda, meetings behind closed doors and politics winning over economic arguments. All culminating with the reluctant approval of the demanded austerity reforms (here a version annotated by former Finance Minister Varoufakis) by the Greek parliament amidst widespread doubts as to their effectiveness, while Greek youth throwing molotov cocktails clashed with police outside the debate’s doors.

Among the demands is an even harsher restructuring of the value-added tax system in an effort to increase government revenue and service the country’s unsustainable debt, which in 2014 had reached 177% of its GDP.

Among…

Livestock production in California (image via Flickr/US Department of Agriculture).

There’s been an interesting debate published in the Wall Street Journal this week on whether feedlot beef is bad for the environment. Robert Martin, director of the Food System Policy Program at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, says the pollution spreads for miles. Jude Capper, a livestock sustainability expert based in Britain, says the beef industry keeps things safe

‘Feedlots play a huge but controversial role in the raising of beef cattle in the U.S., which produced an estimated 24.3 billion pounds of beef last year, down slightly from an average of 26 billion for the previous five years.

‘The overwhelming majority of beef cattle spend their last months with hundreds if not thousands of other cows in feedlots, where they are fattened before being slaughtered.

‘But while feedlots help provide large amounts of protein in Americans’ diets, there…

Terrain Map of Trinidad

In my previous post, GIS a map to food security, I identified eight benefits of GIS technology. Additionally, I introduced you to the Land Information System of Trinidad and Tobago (LISTT) Parcel Viewer, a program under the Land Management Division of the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Today, I want to explore how this application can further facilitate Agricultural Tenants (farmers).

The Livestock and Fish CGIAR Research Program director, Tom Randolph, yesterday, 8 October 2012, attended the day-long 45th anniversary celebration in Nairobi for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).

The celebration was hosted by Ruben Echeverria, CIAT director general and Robin Buruchara, CIAT regional director. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) director general, Jimmy Smith, also participated, as well as CIAT colleague, Brigitte Maass. Randolph served as a panelist in the afternoon discussion on ‘Strengthening South – South Partnerships in Africa’s Development’.

The panel session explored the role and challenges of partnerships and, more specifically, lessons from experiences with south-to-south partnerships. In his remarks, Randolph highlighted the changing needs and nature of partnerships since the CGIAR centres, including CIAT, were established in the 1960s and 1970s. He highlighted the current challenge the Livestock and Fish program faces in working closely with development actors to identify and test solutions for…

Jimmy Smith signs the agreement; Livestock and Fish director Tom Randolph look on

Recently, ILRI director general Jimmy Smith signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement between the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish.

According to program director Tom Randolph, this is a key milestone in the evolution of the program, adding strong academic expertise to the existing livestock and fish research for development partnership.

The agreement was earlier signed by SLU’s Vice-Chancellor Lisa Sennerby Forsse.

SLU Vice-Chancellor Lisa Sennerby Forsse with Professor Ulf Magnusson

In the coming two years SLU will contribute with expertise in the area of heard health but also investigate the possibilities of deepening the cooperation in the areas of animal genetics and feed and forages.

More on the SLU Global web site

Goats at a market in Somaliland (photo credit: ILRI/Peter Ballantyne).

By Andrew Wangili

A new research brief by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) shows that a livestock marketing information system (LMIS) has improved access to animal marketing information and helped increase trading in livestock in Somaliland.

The livestock sector is a major source of livelihood in many Somaliland households. Exports of sheep and goats, particularly to the Middle East, experienced tremendous growth between 2007-2012, but despite the opportunities for producers and traders offered by this growth, livestock trade is characterized by underdeveloped legal frameworks, transactional uncertainty and high information costs. Traditional institutions and religious practices guide the livestock trade in Somaliland.

In 2007, Terra Nuova set up the LMIS to address high market information cost in the state. This LMIS activity and the analysis of its data were conducted as part of a ‘Reducing vulnerability of Somali communities by raising the capacity of indigenous systems…

The food security challenge and health complications, strongly realize the importance of those plants (trees, shrubs, bushes etc) which can add to food and health. There are many plants which can give beauty along with the food and health promising nutrients. A movement to turn from just ornamental to health promising and food plants will be a great revolution in human heritage. I here by give the example of Moringa tree as a typical case, how it adds to health and food.

Moringa oleifera is a tree native to the Himalayas and cultivated throughout the subtropics. Also called the ‘drumstick tree’ due to its odd shape, moringa oleifera grows very well in numerous climate types and offers many health benefits. It has over 92 nutrients and 46 natural antioxidants, as well as anti-inflammatory compounds. A superfood to rival most other superfoods due to its incredible nutritional value, it is also said to treat…

A local pork vendor at the wet market sells her meat to two local women, Hung Yen province, Vietnam (photo credit: ILRI/Nguyen Ngoc Huyen).

The 2014–2015 Global Food Policy Report launched last week (18 March 2015) by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) examines the major food policy issues, developments and decisions around the world in 2014 and highlights challenges and opportunities for 2015.

An entire chapter has been dedicated to the subject of food safety which is a major global concern. The chapter titled Food safety: Reducing and managing food scares is authored by Delia Grace, leader of the Food Safety and Zoonoses program at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and John McDermott, director of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture and Health (A4NH) led by IFPRI.

The chapter begins with a review of the high-profile foodborne disease events…

A herd of cattle in Botswana. A new report by ILRI identifies key evidence gaps in our knowledge of antimicrobial resistance in the livestock and fisheries sub-sectors in the developing world (photo credit: ILRI).

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites) develop the ability to continue growing in the presence of an antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal or antiparasitic substance to which they were previously sensitive.

The use of antibiotic drugs to prevent and treat livestock diseases is a key driver for the development of agriculture-related antimicrobial resistance which is now a global public health problem as antibiotics in food animals can enter the food chain and affect the health of consumers and communities.

In developing countries, antimicrobial resistant pathogens are commonly found in animals, animal food products and agro-food environments. However, the lack of national surveillance systems means that we do not have reliable estimates of the true…

Elephants and livestock both need water on a regular basis  (photo of Kenya elephant on Flickr by Shawna Nelles).

CNN reports that ‘As the Horn of Africa suffers its worst drought for 60 years, there are reports of growing conflict between people and wildlife over the region’s limited resources.

‘. . . Jan de Leeuw, from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), says during periods of drought people get desperate.

‘”Herders have animals which are thirsty and because these are areas which have very few water points if wells don’t have water they might have to walk 50-100 kilometers to find another,” he said.

‘Leeuw says that Ethiopian herders have told him that during times of drought rules about certain areas being protected for livestock in their opinion can be broken.

‘But it’s not just the livestock that’s using areas it shouldn’t says Leeuw.

‘”Based on aerial surveys in Kenya…

Workers unload milk cans at a commercial dairy plant in Dimapur, Nagaland, India (photo credit: ILRI/Mann).

A blog in the Guardian this week argues for the G20 agriculture ministers meeting this week to support ‘new investment in farming and vibrant, transparent markets to address food security.’

‘As the G20 agriculture ministers prepare to meet for the first time this week, they will be tasked with addressing a series of complex challenges that have an impact on everyone from smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs to scientists, policymakers, financiers and food consumers around the world.

‘In other words, we all have good reason to take notice. Ensuring global food security entails weighing a series of related but independent challenges to identify possible synergies and opportunity costs. . . .

‘What brings these variables together is agricultural markets—specifically, how they function and how and when they fail. We must support and build these markets, but…

Mohamed Béavogui, director of the west and central African division of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has the following to say in the Guardian‘s Poverty Matters Blog.

‘Africa’s smallholder farmers not only have the potential to produce enough food for export—and thereby contribute to food security worldwide—but to help lead the way to robust growth and development across the continent. That is, if the right kinds of investments and policy approaches are taken to vastly improve their productivity through better access to technology, credit, transportation and markets. . . .

‘Agricultural markets are changing. We no longer need to think exclusively in terms of export crops because new market opportunities are emerging on Africa’s doorstep. As cities expand and incomes increase, people in urban areas are changing their eating habits and becoming consumers who want more meat, dairy products and vegetables, and they expect higher quality standards—we…

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Tadelle Dessie, Yetnayet Mamo and Okeyo Mwai prepared an issue brief on the Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System (DAGRIS) …

In developing countries, lack of accurate information on the diversity and status of existing farm animal genetic resources is believed to exacerbate the alarming rate of
irreversible loss of genetic diversity. Such losses reduce opportunities to improve food security, alleviate poverty and attain sustainable agricultural practices.

DAGRIS (http://dagris.ilri.cgiar.org) is an electronic source of systematic information on indigenous farm animal genetic resources. Initial development of the system focused on three priority farm animal species in Africa – cattle, sheep and goats. It was subsequently expanded to include other livestock species (chicken, pigs, buffalo and yak) and developing countries in Africa and Asia.

Download Issue Brief 9.

On 9 and 10 November 2011, the ILRI Board of Trustees hosts…

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Okeyo Mwai, livestock geneticist, reflects on ILRI’s research over the past decade on the animal genetic resources of the developing world and future directions.

Watch the 2-minute interview with Okeyo Mwai.

What we achieved in the last decade
With the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and many other partners, local as well as international, we achieved:

> Greater public understanding of the value of Africa’s indigenous livestock genetic resources through assessments and articulations of their global ‘meltdown’ in recent decades and the causes for this.

> Greater understanding by policymakers that the best way to conserve this important ‘barnyard diversity’ is to make greater use of native breeds, populations and genes on farms—and that implies providing the farmers both with the animal stock and with incentives for maintaining them.

> Greater scientific understanding of the rich storehouse of…

Minoan terracotta bull’s head, 14th-century BC (via Christie’s).

Animal diseases cost cash-strapped African farmers about $300 billion a year in lost income and veterinary bills. Now scientists are proactively breeding livestock with defenses against these pests before they strike.

Scientists from . . . CGIAR . . . are setting up a “preemptive breeding” program to develop livestock with resistance to potential widespread outbreaks of currently localized diseases to help reduce some of the losses that would occur.

‘Most of the world’s 38 billion livestock are kept in Africa where they face threats from diseases, reduced grazing land and a lack of vaccines. Livestock in Europe or the U.S., by contrast, are rarely lacking in food and medicine, says Okeyo Mwai, a livestock geneticist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya. “Most of the problems are in Africa where the costs of treating diseases are huge. As…

Organized crime is a continuously evolving phenomenon.  The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (2000) defined  “organized criminal group” as a structured group of three or more persons, existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes or offenses […] in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit. (United Nations, 2000).

Typically organized crime groups profit and thrive through the manipulation and monopolization of legitimate markets, institutions, and industries – e.g. financial markets, labour unions, and construction or sanitation (UNODC, 2014) as well as through black markets and illegitimate practices – e.g. illicit drug trade and human trafficking. They rely on tools of violence, corruption, bribes, graft, extortion, intimidation, and murder to maintain their respective operations and control their market profits (Costa, 2010). With high market stakes and violence-based operations, criminal organizations remain…

The following is an excerpted version of a blog post originally published on the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) website.

Some of the foods that would most enhance nutrition in diets in the developing world are also the riskiest in terms of food safety. Numerous health risks exist along the value chain for livestock and fish products, from production to consumption. In this post, Sophie Theis (Research Analyst, Poverty, Health, Nutrition Division, International Food Policy Research Institute) and Delia Grace (Program Manager, International Livestock Research Institute) relate findings from a recent A4NH/International Livestock Research Institute analysis of 20 livestock and fish value chains in Africa and Asia that reveal how gender differences in value chain participation influence risk exposure.

The results from the participatory risk assessment of these value chains are published in Grace et al. (2010) and a paper analyzing the gendered…

The CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) last week (4 June) published its 2014 annual report, marking three full years of its first phase of research. The report highlights a range of research work by the program’s flagships, including the delivery of biofortified crops, work on aflatoxin control and the development of a new global indicator to measure women’s dietary diversity. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) leads the A4NH flagship on agriculture-associated diseases. The annual report features a key output of this flagship, namely, a new book, Food Safety and Informal Markets: Animal Products in Sub-Saharan Africa, published in October 2014. Edited by ILRI researchers Kristina Roesel and Delia Grace, the book synthesizes lessons from 10 years of food safety research in Africa, including 25 case…

Livestock production is beset by many challenges. Animal diseases, in particular, can lead to reduced production of milk, meat and eggs. In some cases, animal disease infections may result in death, leading to loss of livelihoods for livestock keepers.

Livestock in developing countries suffer a high burden of preventable disease, and this burden is likely to increase as livestock systems become more intensive. Antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs are often used to treat animal disease infections.

However, authors of a study published in March 2015 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) warn that the use of antimicrobial drugs in livestock production could contribute to the spread of drug-resistant pathogens in both livestock and humans, posing a significant public health threat.

The study also projects that by the year 2030, global antimicrobial consumption will rise by 67% and nearly double in…

By Mamusha Lemma

LIVES coaching and mentoring is helping avocado farmers (photo:ILRILIVES).

Training is often criticized for not making a significant impact on improving performance. Many training managers are increasingly concerned about how to ensure the transfer of learned skills and knowledge from a training context to the work environment. The challenge arises from how training is traditionally planned and implemented. In most cases, training is conducted as a standalone activity, with little focus on skill transfer strategies, which determines the success of training programs. But when training is properly designed and implemented, with an appropriate follow-up strategy, it can significantly influence performance at an individual, organizational and system level.

Farmers often face several constraints in applying knowledge and skills gained from training such as inadequate technical support from development agents, lack of market incentives to enter into new businesses, and shortage of finance to buy agricultural inputs. Coaching and mentoring can be…

By Stephanie Brittain

More than 800 million people suffer from chronic hunger and two billion suffer from nutrient deficiency. One in four children is stunted and one in two is malnourished. At the same time, 1.9 billion people are overweight, of which 600 million are obese. This is the current state of global nutrition; unbalanced and unequal.

In recognition of this, the Chicago Council held the London launch of their latest report “Healthy Food for a healthy World: Leveraging Agriculture and Food Security to Improve Global Nutrition” on the 2nd of June 2015.  A distinguished panel discussed the key issues that are raised in the report, including Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Chair, High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition, Montpellier Panel member Lindiwe Sibanda, CEO of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), Catherine Bertini, Distinguished Fellow, Global Agriculture and Food…