Selecting forages for the tropics with the the SoFT tool

Established in 2005, the selection of Forages for the Tropics (SoFT) tool enables users to identify forage species suitable for specific climates, soils, and farming systems such as cut and carry, agroforestry, erosion control, beef, and dairy. Users can also view images of the plants and their use, search a database of scientific references with abstracts, and consult a glossary of botanical and management terms. Continue reading →

Livestock and livelihoods: boosting incomes and productivity in South Asia

Livestock provides an important complement to cereal farming-based livelihoods in South Asia and can increase incomes for millions of crop-livestock farmers. Continue reading →

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 →

Effects of White Spot Disease and biosecurity on shrimp farming in Bangladesh

Shrimp culture is of central importance in Bangladesh, shrimp being the cash component of many smallholder, polyculture fish farming systems. Shrimp also contributes substantial income through exports. However, production remains low compared with other countries for a number of reasons, including low availability of good quality post larvae (PL) seed stock, lack of credit facilities, and disease problems. Continue reading →

Changes to Livestock and Fish flagship leadership

In May 2016, the program made some changes to flagship leadership: Karen Marshall (ILRI) has taken up the leadership of the Animal Genetics flagship, replacing John Benzie from WorldFish given his major role in developing the 2nd phase of the Fish CRP. Isabelle Baltenweck (ILRI) is assuming leadership of the Value Chain Transformation and Scaling … Continue reading →

Towards a toolkit to analyse livestock and fish value chains

On 18–20 May 2016, a small group of researchers from the International livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and WorldFish working in the Livestock and Fish program participated in a writeshop to consolidate all the different value chain tools produced and used over the past four years into one comprehensive value chain analysis toolkit. The objective is to produce a toolkit- a well-organised set of tools that can be used to identify ‘best bet’ interventions that improve the effectiveness, efficiency and inclusiveness of livestock and fish value chains – that can be adopted by other practitioners in agricultural research for development. Continue reading →

WorldFish feed experiments to increase nutritional value of tilapia

WorldFish scientists will begin to experiment with feed ingredients that can increase the nutritional value of tilapia as part of a new project. Continue reading →

Assessing chemical and biological product use in aquaculture in Bangladesh

n assessment was made of the current chemical use practices in the aquaculture sector of Bangladesh and the factors that influence them. Continue reading →

Dairy platform tackles sector problems in Tanzania’s Tanga region

The Tanga Dairy Platform, created in 2008, is an informal forum of different stakeholders involved in the dairy industry of Tanzania’s Northeastern Tanga region. The platform’s objective is to exchange knowledge and develop joint actions to common problems. Continue reading →

Practical guides to recognise African Swine fever

The smallholder pg value chain project in Uganda recently produced two posters – for farmers and for butchers – giving information on how to recognize African Swine fever (ASF). Continue reading →