In Central America, dairy products are an important dietary component for consumers from all social strata. The potential to increase the consumption of dairy products is high; improved value chain linkages are key drivers to increase smallholder productivity.
The aquaculture sector makes a significant contribution to income, employment creation and food security in Egypt, all of which are national priority areas given low per capita income levels, rising population, worsening food security indicators, and official unemployment levels which have remained at around 10% for the last ten years.
Uganda exhibits the highest consumption per capita of pork of any country in Africa, and is ranked 3rd on the continent in absolute number of pigs. It also appears to be experiencing the most rapid growth.
Small-scale dairy production and marketing benefits the poor in many ways, especially where increasing demand enhances those opportunities as in Tanzania. These include opportunities for intensification and enhanced productivity leading to livelihoods improvement, including through employment, besides nutrition benefits for the poor.
India faces a significant gap between the demand for and supply of milk despite milk production contributing about 18% to agricultural GDP and being—by value—the single most important agricultural commodity. About 70% of the milk is produced by small, marginal and landless farmers keeping up to 3 adult dairy animals.
Sheep are mostly kept by smallholders and the rural poor, including women headed households. They contribute substantially to the livelihoods of Ethiopian smallholder households as a source of income, food (meat and milk), and non-food products like manure, skins and wool.
Increased productivity of smallholder pig systems will have direct benefits to rural livelihoods through increased ecoefficiencies of production systems.
Most poor farmers in Mali keep small ruminants as a main source of livelihoods. Hence, sheep and goats assets are key opportunities for smallholder small ruminant producers to not only engage in income generating activities enabling them to escape the poverty trap but also to consume animal source food they could not afford to buy.
Livestock and Fish partner CATIE – Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza – located in Costa Rica has an immediate vacancy for someone to lead its livestock and environmental management program. Download the details – in English Download the details – in Spanish CLOSING DATE: 9 February 2013! Continue reading »
In the January 2013 issue of Animal Frontiers, Livestock and Fish advisory committee member James Muir explains that fish production will have to increase to meet global demand. He writes that fish are often overlooked as an important source of nutrients and protein. According to Muir, global fish consumption increased rapidly over the last 50 … Continue reading »
In December 2012, the Austrian Development Agency approved a three-year research project from ILRI, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), CIAT and the National Agricultural University of Nicaragua (UNA) on ‘increasing the productivity of dual-purpose cattle in Nicaragua — More milk and meat through better breeds.’ This is a particularly strategic … Continue reading »
On 20 and 21 December 2012, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) ran a training course for national partners and collaborators on methods and approaches for phenotypic characterization of animal genetic resources. “For genetic resources to contribute to food security goals, we need … Continue reading »
A new working paper from WorldFish argues that the availability of genetically more productive fish stock “must progress hand in hand” with refinements in the production systems in which the fish will reared and marketed. The authors indicate there is much “documented evidence about the success of selective breeding in several species,” however they argue … Continue reading »
On 5 and 6 December, leaders of the various value chain development projects in the program met to coordinate their plans and priorities across the countries and chains. The meeting started with situation reports from each of the value chain coordinators: Smallholder pigs in Uganda, smallholder dairy in Tanzania, small ruminants in Ethiopia, small to … Continue reading »
On 11-13 December 2012, the Science and Partnership Advisory Committee of the Livestock and Fish CGIAR Research Program held its inaugural meeting in Nairobi. First on the agenda was a meeting with management teams of ILRI and the Livestock and Fish program. Program component leaders provided updates on each component, including the rationale of the … Continue reading »
