Better livestock feeding to increase productivity and boost food security in southern Malawi

A new research-for-development initiative is helping smallholder farmers in southern Malawi increase the productivity of their livestock and crops to enhance food security. The agribusiness Crop Livestock Integration and Marketing in Malawi project or CLIM2 is improving animal feeding and crop farming practices and market access for farmers’ produce. Continue reading →

Innovation platforms for dairy development in India and Tanzania

Multi-stakeholder innovation platforms were set up at different levels as part of the milkIT project, resulting in more milk sales, more interactions and better linkages among different value chain actors in India, and, in Tanzania, access to a larger variety of better feeds. This video explains how the milkIT project worked with innovation platforms Continue reading →

Smallholder dairying: better marketing or better feeding – which comes first?

The milkIT project hypothesis was that improvements in milk markets would lead to increased productivity by farmers. This video explains the approaches followed: linking farmers to markets (using market ‘pull’ to drive productivity increases) and farmers’ productivity increases which will attract the market to them. Continue reading →

Working out how to improve livestock feeding: The FEAST feed assessment tool

The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) was one of the key tools used in the milkIT project to assess local feed resource availability and use, guiding targeting and appropriate intervention strategies. This video explains how FEAST was used in the project: Continue reading →

Assessing the environmental performance of animal feed supply chains

ILRI scientists Ben Lukuyu was part of the team that produced a set of draft guidelines to assess the environmental performance of animal feeds supply chains. Continue reading →

Project team gathers in Tanga to kick-start MilkIT project

On 24-25 April scientists from India and Tanzania gathered in Tanga, Tanzania for the inception meeting of the IFAD-funded MilkIT project. The project is implemented by ILRI and CIAT are a major partner. This was the first opportunity for the whole project team to get together, familiarize themselves with the project and begin to develop … Continue reading →

Ethiopia Livestock Feed project trains partners, tests tools for further fieldwork

Following the Ethiopian Livestock Feed (ELF) project inception meeting on 21-22 February 2012, the ELF team arranged a training workshop and field trip to test two tools in livestock value chains, FEAST and Techfit, before beginning research in their selected sites across Ethiopia. 25 participants gathered on 12-16 March 2012 at ILRI in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss … Continue reading →

Simple but effective: Ethiopian Livestock Feed project inception meeting

A group of 30 International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) scientists, partners and other stakeholders met on 21-22 February 2012 on the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa for a two-day inception workshop on the new Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research-funded project, ‘Fodder and feed in livestock value chains in Ethiopia – trends and prospects’ (the … Continue reading →

ILRI and partners develop and test ‘easy-to-use’ feed assessment tools for Ethiopia

On 21-22 February 2012, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) held a two-day inception workshop for scientists, partners and other stakeholders involved in the Ethiopia Livestock Feed (ELF) project. Among other things, the project will further develop and test three  tools for use in assessing feed in livestock value chains. Two of the tools – … Continue reading →

Australia funds scoping study on feed in livestock value chains in Ethiopia

There is a lot happening in the area of feeds for livestock value chains in Ethiopia at the moment. A number of new livestock research for development initiatives are on the horizon including: The Gates Foundation-funded East Africa Dairy Development Project extending its activities into Ethiopia The CIDA-funded LIVES programme The multi-donor Agricultural Growth Programme … Continue reading →