Improved animal feed equals increased dairy incomes in Bihar

Improved animal feed equals increased dairy incomes in Bihar

Anuj Kumar Jha, a very young farmer of Kalyanpur village, Sarairanjan block, Samastipur district of Bihar. He only has 0.5 acre of agricultural land and was unsure about what to do with scarce land and unemployment. All that changed in 2011, when he met ILRI-CSISA people in livestock training and shared his concerns with them. Following that conversation, he was […]

Woman farmer celebrates better life through livestock in Odisha, India

Woman farmer celebrates better life through livestock in Odisha, India

Pravati is the secretary of the Kapila Muni women Milk Society under local government cooperative society (Orissa State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation (OMFED)) in Barandua village. She is also the only trained artificial insemination expert providing services to farmers under the ILRI portion of the Cereal System Initiatives for South Asia (CSISA) Project in that village. As the secretary, she […]

Barbara Wieland joins ILRI’s Animal Science for Sustainable Productivity team

Barbara Wieland joins ILRI’s Animal Science for Sustainable Productivity team

Barbara Wieland joined the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on 5 January 2015 as team leader herd health in the Animal Science for Sustainable Productivity (ASSP) program. Wieland is a Swiss national who graduated as a veterinarian at the University of Bern. She did her post-doctoral fellowship  in  the UK in a joint position with the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) […]

Improved cattle feed provides new business opportunities for farmers in India

Strong demand for milk in Bihar Province, India, for direct human consumption and for vital nutrients for the community, has provided an opportunity for one farmer to venture in business. The International Livestock Research Institute is providing opportunities for better feed and this is improving the quality and quantity of milk as this story shows.  Read about how Ram Nandan Prasad, […]

Study shows how Tanzania dairy farmers stand to benefit from improved commercial feeds

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 […]

Land pressure drives hunt for resilient livestock genes in East Africa, world congress told

      Scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) are among experts discussing livestock genetics at the 10th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production in Vancouver, BC, Canada, August 17-22, 2014. Fidalis Denis Mujibi, discusses the Use of high density SNP genotypes to determine the breed composition of cross bred dairy cattle in smallholder farms: assessment […]

‘Boni’ scaling the heights to greater success

She steps forward to the podium, her face breaking into her characteristic charming smile.  Her black, short cropped hair compliments her light skin.  Standing at average height, she is comfortable in front of the microphone as she would be in her own kitchen. Her name is Siboniso Moyo, popularly known as ‘Boni’- the regional representative in Southern Africa, for the […]

    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 […]