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.
A 2 day Tanzania dairy value chain impact pathways workshop was held on 7-8 May 2013 to communicate and validate the program’s intervention logic in the Tanzania dairy value chain, question and clarify the program’s potential to achieve impact in the Tanzania dairy value chain, and to develop an initial framework for program monitoring and … Continue reading »
From 9-11 September 2013, the CGIAR research programs on ‘policies, institutions and markets’ and ‘livestock and fish’ will organize a first AgriFood Chain Toolkit conference in Kampala. The AgriFood chain toolkit of the CGIAR Research program on Policies, institutions and markets was launched in January 2013. This online platform on agrifood value chains is designed … Continue reading »
This video, narrated by Livestock and Fish director Tom Randolph explains why meat, milk and fish are critical to the poor both as food and income and how the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish works. While research has hugely increased farm production in rich countries, we haven’t managed yet to help the millions … Continue reading »
On 13 May 2013, the “Assessing the Impact of African swine fever (ASF) in smallholder pig systems and the feasibility of potential interventions” project held a kick-off workshop in Kampala. Led by the Swedish Veterinary Institute (SVA), the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Makerere University, the project is … Continue reading »
The CGIAR Livestock and Fish research program, led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), aims to increase the productivity of small-scale livestock and fish systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and fish more available and affordable to poor consumers across the developing world. The program works in several countries on developing livestock and … Continue reading »
USAID, USDA, CGIAR and other partners are developing ‘inventories’ to help drive widespread adaptation, dissemination, and adoption of critical agricultural technologies. The inventories will provide a technical evidence base to help scale up appropriate technologies to greater numbers of smallholder farmers. One of the seven inventory topics is Livestock and Aquaculture. The inventory compilers “welcome … Continue reading »
Sheep and goat value chain research explained (photo credit: ILRI\Zerihun Sewunet) A highlight of the recent Livestock and Fish review and planning meeting was the Ethiopia sheep and goat value chains exhibit. Designed to bring the ‘field’ to the meeting, some 90 people joined the structured visits to stands from different value chain actors. The … Continue reading »
