A new study has revealed the extent to which dairy farmers in Tanzania are under-served by the feeds manufacturing sector, which despite having adequate capacity, is operating at only 50% of installed capacity. On average, dairy feeds account for just 4% of what is produced by feed manufacturers in Tanzania, with poultry feeds production dominating (96%) the sector. According to […]
Lessons from research: Delivering results from FoodAfrica
Experts from different scientific fields and international research organizations shared their expertise on food and nutrition security on Monday 16 June, 2014 at the FoodAfrica midterm seminar. The seminar, organized by FoodAfrica co-ordinators MTT Agrifood Research Finland, was held at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Karen Marshall and Stanly Tebug were part of the team that represented the International Livestock […]
Producing more milk, more meat with less water
When Sasakawa-Global 2000 and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) provided training and loans to a group of farmers in the Awash Valley, Ethiopia, little did they anticipate what such resources in the hands of hard working, poor, small scale farmers could yield. The farmers in the Awash River Basin were trapped in poverty, earning a mean annual […]
Did it ever cross your mind that cows, goats, sheep and all animals have tribes, families, clans and other family groups much like human beings do? Or that keeping track of those families is as important as it is for human beings? Understanding livestock families’ means understanding the parents of an animal, specific characteristics like the dominant colour […]
Using science to preserve culture in Rwanda
Traditional culture and science often seem to be worlds apart, but for Theogen Rutagwenda, the director general for animal resources in the Rwandan government, the two mix as naturally as salt and food. “I grew up looking after cattle and knew they were productive. Then my family moved to Uganda, where our animals died from a condition termed […]