News Archive

ILRI clippings

Kenyan livestock sector to grow ‘exponentially’—Kenya National Bureau of Statistics

Cattle grazing at ILRI’s Kapiti Ranch Research Station, outside Nairobi, in Kenya (photo credit: ILRI/Paul Karaimu). Kenya’s livestock sector is primed to grow exponentially over the next three decades and anchor the country’s food sufficiency amid a rapid rise in the human population, a new survey...

Policies, institutions and livelihoods

Unravelling value chains through participatory modelling: part 3

This blog is the third and final of a three-part series on the system dynamics (SD) modelling technique and its use at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Today we speak with Jared Berends, a PhD student from Lincoln University who is researching pro-poor value chain upgrading...

ILRI clippings

On a frugal continent of ‘economic vegetarians’, consuming more meat means longer, healthier lives—Economist

A slaughterhouse in Maputo, Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). The Economist reports that the future of food lies in Africa. And why that’s a good thing. Read on to find out why. As Africans get richer, they will eat more meat and live longer, healthier lives ‘. . . Between 1961 and 2013...

ILRI clippings

On a frugal continent of ‘economic vegetarians’, consuming more meat means longer, healthier lives—The Economist

A slaughterhouse in Maputo, Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). The Economist reports that the future of food lies in Africa. And why that’s a good thing. Read on to find out why. As Africans get richer, they will eat more meat and live longer, healthier lives ‘. . . Between 1961 and 2013...

AVCD program blog

Bulk milk chilling and pasteurizing plants great opportunity for cooperatives to run as a business

The AVCD project handed over bulk milk chilling and pasteurizing plants to cooperative societies of Kericho, Homa Bay, Kisumu and Makueni counties of Kenya in mid January and March 2019 (photo credit: ILRI/Meron Mulatu). The Feed the Future Kenya – Accelerated Value Chain Development (AVCD) program...

ILRI News

Barriers and opportunities for women milk traders in peri-urban Nairobi

In much of Africa, milk is not only an important dietary component, but a vital livelihood activity. Dairying provides income to many people, up and down the dairy value chain. In Nairobi’s peri-urban resource-poor areas, informal milk trade dominates the market: most residents rely on it to source...

Policies, institutions and livelihoods

Business-to-business forums spur economic growth in northern Kenya

https://flic.kr/p/2cAx4GU Part of the traders participating in the B2Bs trading at the Isiolo market (photo credit: Judy Kimani/ ILRI) The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has been partnering and collaborating with the United States Agency for International Development ( USAID)...

IBLI blog

On the road to salvaging livestock market data: Digitizing livestock market data from Kenya’s arid and semi-arid regions

By Kevin Kidimu, Research Associate, International Livestock Research Institute Since independence, Kenya has grappled with collection of livestock market data. The livestock production department was established in 1987 and since then, the ministries of agriculture and livestock have been split...

Policies, institutions and livelihoods

Improved cattle feeding holds the key to dairy sector growth in Nicaragua

A model silvopastoral farm established in Matiguás, Nicaragua (photo credit: Shadi Azadegan/CIAT). Dairy is an important contributor to the nation’s economy in Nicaragua. Cattle production accounts for 45% of the national agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 32% of exports by value. An...

Policies, institutions and livelihoods

Trade-offs in sustainable intensification of smallholder livestock systems: Balancing benefits for farmers and stakeholders

Improved food and nutritional security from better utilisation of dairy cattle breed-types types in Senegal. (photo credit: ILRI/Karen Marshall) A new study exploring how to achieve trade-offs—the balance of factors which may otherwise not be attainable at the same time—in livestock intensification...

ILRI clippings

A ‘milk start-up’ aims to modernize India’s massive informal dairy economy in Odisha State

Small-scale dairying in Odisha State, India (photo credits: ILRI/Jules Mateo and Susan MacMillan) Leveraging the arrival of the internet in rural areas of India, an entrepreneur and former executive with Tata Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, zeroed in on the huge but underdeveloped and...

ILRI clippings

Win in old ‘real-world’ markets by capturing mind shares (claiming bandwidth) in the new ‘narrative markets’

[C]ompeting successfully in ‘old’ markets for capital, labour, goods and services no longer suffices. Firms, governments and other actors are compelled to create, contend and collaborate in new markets with distinct features and operating rules—markets for narratives. ‘. . . Behavioural economists...