What’s the beef? Giving livestock a break in Colombia

Cows are regularly portrayed as evil: four-legged, four-stomached, greenhouse gas machines chomping through forests and destroying the planet. It’s no wonder the idea of a climate-smart livestock system sounds like an oxymoron. Nevertheless, you can get a glimpse of these systems in Colombia’s mountainous, Cauca Department. Patía is also a microcosm of Colombia’s livestock conundrum. … Continue reading →

Prioritizing climate-smart livestock interventions in Africa

In this paper, the authors provide a generic framework for evaluating and prioritizing potential interventions comprising the mapping of recommendation domains, assessing adoption potential and estimating impacts. Continue reading →

Do smallholder, mixed crop-livestock livelihoods encourage sustainable agricultural practices?

The authors examine by means of a meta-analysis the argument that small-scale, mixed crop-livestock farming, a common livelihood among poor rural peoples, leads to environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. Continue reading →

CIAT seeks applications for a qualified Plant Breeder – Tropical Forages

CIAT is seeking applications for a qualified Plant Breeder – Tropical Forages; a visionary and innovative breeder with interest in tropical forages recognizing their importance in agricultural systems for livelihoods and environmental benefits. The position is internationally recruited with a posting in Palmira, Colombia. Continue reading →

Climate-smart sustainable intensification: a business strategy for small cattle farmers in Central America

Silvopastoral systems provide a broad range of environmental and productive benefits. The presence of trees in farm plots stabilizes hillsides, minimizes erosion, improves the soil’s water retention and nutrient balance, and provides feed and shade for cattle. These practices generate higher milk and meat yields while contributing to the resilience of production systems in the face of climate variability, which is manifesting in increasingly extreme ways in Central America. Continue reading →

What women want? Gender, genetics and livestock improvement

In 2015, ILRI scientists leading genetics projects in Nicaragua and Somaliland took a special interest in the (human) gender dimensions of their projects. Working with the Livestock and Fish Gender Initiative, livestock geneticists Julie Ojango and Karen Marshall decided to dig deeper to discover whether specific gender analysis integrated in their projects could help the communities they work with realize improved genetics gains in their animals. Continue reading →

Capacity development to strengthen Nicaragua’s dual purpose cattle sector

In Nicaragua, te program has produced five manuals (in Spanish) on dual purpose cattle production. Continue reading →

Reaching out to Nicaraguan livestock farming communities: ‘Because the farm belongs to all of us’

Seeking to address issues regarding the way men and women livestock farmers understand and manifest masculinity in their lives by identifying behaviours and dynamics linked to traditional gender roles in rural communities, the Livestock and Fish program recorded two radio vignettes with a group of five community members, in collaboration with Radio Camoapa, a local radio station located in the center-north region of Nicaragua. Continue reading →

Accelerating forage breeding to boost livestock productivity

The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC), with partners in the UK, Colombia and Kenya bring together their leading expertise in forage breeding for animal nutrition, cutting-edge genomics and phenomics technologies to accelerate the improvement of Brachiaria, a vital livestock feed crop in central Africa and Latin America. Continue reading →

Forages, sustainable intensification, and food security in the tropics

Small-scale livestock farming in the tropics can become more intensive yet sustainable if more and better forage is used to feed the animals being reared. Continue reading →