Julie and Tadelle cut the cake marking their promotions announced on the same day. Both were employed by ILRI in the same year, 2006. Photo by: Grum Gebreyesus(ILRI)

Two researchers in the Animal Sciences for Sustainable Productivity (ASSP) team Julie Ojango and Tadelle Dessie have been promoted to the position of Scientist. The appointments were made at the beginning of April 2013.

Both Julie and Tadesse joined ILRI in 2006 and it is interesting that they have been promoted at the same time.

Julie joined ILRI based Nairobi, on a part time basis to lead a project on Capacity building for sustainable use of animal genetic resources.  At the time, she was a senior lecturer in animal genetics and breeding (AGB) at Egerton University, Kenya.

In academics, she holds a PhD degree in AGB from the University of London in the UK, and an MSc in the same field from the University of Nairobi in Kenya.  She is well versed in dairy and small ruminant production systems found in developing countries, and skilled in livestock data management and quantitative genetic analyses. She has strong knowledge sharing skills, and strives to impart information to transform the livestock sector and develop a next generation of scientists to help change the management and use of animal genetic resources in developing countries.

Tadelle on his part has 20 years of research and development experience in various national and international research and development organizations.  In the period leading to his new appointment, he was group leader for Biotechnology Group based in ILRI-Ethiopia and is involved in the areas of knowledge management and capacity building. He is well versed with projects addressing research for development concentrating on understanding and improved utilization of animal resources to contribute for enhanced livelihoods of poor livestock keepers. Tadelle has rich experience and understanding of livestock production systems in Africa, livestock science, animal health, and interactions between people, livestock, and the production environment.

He holds a BSc in animal Sciences (1990, Alemaya University, Ethiopia), MSc in Sustainable Tropical Animal Production Systems (1996, Swedish University of Agriculture) and a PhD in Animal Genetics and Breeding (Dr. Sc. Agr., Doctor of Agricultural Sciences) (2003, Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany).

On Friday 17^th May, the ASSP team based in Addis Ababa took time to celebrate Julie and Tadesse. Congratulations and the entire team wishes them well!

Kitengela rangeland: Maasai scientist David Nkedianye (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

Livestock scientist David Nkedianye was on Wednesday 27 March 2013 sworn in as the first governor of Kajiado County, in Kenya. Elected in the country’s general election of 4 March 2013, Nkedianye, a Maasai, beat seven candidates to become governor under a new political dispensation that devolved significant power from a central government to 47 county governments, each headed by a governor.

The ILRI -trained scientist and former teacher was initially picked by the Kajiado County professionals as the preferred candidate for governor by a team that scrutinized the history of the candidates and what they had done to improve the lives of communities living in the county. During his time as an ILRI scholar, he researched issues in his home area, the Kitengela rangelands, home of Maasai pastoralists, about an hour’s drive southeast of Nairobi, working to better understand the interaction between Maasai herders, livestock and wildlife as well as land use in the county. He worked closely with the community and helped to establish an NGO called ‘Reto-o-Reto’ (Maasai for ‘I help you, you help me’), which started as a research project conducted jointly by ILRI and Maasai communities in East Africa.

That five-year project (2003–2008) experimented with boundary-spanning research to help balance action in poverty alleviation and wildlife conservation in four pastoral ecosystems in East Africa, including the Kitengela pastoral ecosystem just south of Nairobi National Park. Nkedianye co-authored a scientific paper generated by this project entitled ‘Evolution of models to support community and policy action with science: Balancing pastoral livelihoods and wildlife conservation in savannas of East Africa’, which was published in 2009 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a prestigious American science journal.

The paper won the 2012 Sustainability Science Award, which is given annually by the Ecological Society of America to the authors of a peer-reviewed paper published in the preceding five years that makes the greatest contribution to the emerging science of ecosystem and regional sustainability through the integration of ecological and social sciences.

At the community level, Nkedianye chairs the Kajiado Community Task Force, whose mandate is to implement the Kitengela/Isinya/Kipeto Land Use Master Plan (LUMP), the first of its kind in Kenya. Because his efforts and those of his teams, subdivision of land in Kitengela is now capped at 60 to 80 acres, which is helping to stop the mushrooming of unplanned settlements and the uneconomic subdivision of these rangelands.

He graduated with a PhD in ecology and natural resource management at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, in 2010. during his time at ILRI, he spent time with ILRI partner William Clark as his faculty host at the Harvard J.F. Kennedy School of Government in 2007 in  the Sustainability Science Program.

Kajiado lies just southeast of Nairobi and is both a cosmopolitan and rural county. Some have dubbed it the bedroom of Nairobi due to its close proximity to the city and with many of the city’s residents renting homes and commuting from there. Yet it remains rural and home to many pastoralists who have suffered human-wildlife conflicts and survived some of the worst droughts in the region. Harmonizing these dichotomies are some of the challenges that the new governor will have to deal with.

Nickson Ole Parmisa, a community leader in Kitengela who worked with Nkedianye during his time at ILRI, says: ‘We appreciate David’s effort and struggle to save Kitengela lands and pastoralist community. We hope now that the “land use master plan” our community developed will be fully implemented. I think local people have been praying for this, and they and wildlife and livestock will all benefit.’

Nkedianye says he has used his knowledge from his years of research work with ILRI and others to increase ‘rights awareness’ and to determine pastoral land ownership, access and use by the community.

Shirley Tarawali, Nkedianye’s research director in ILRI’s ‘People, Livestock and the Environment Theme’, who now serves ILRI as director of Institutional Planning and Partnerships, says, ‘David is well placed now to do much to get livestock and other research into real good use in Kenya. We congratulate him on his many achievements, and look forward to working with him for the betterment of poor pastoral herders.’ See related stories at http://peoplelivestockenvironment.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/ilri-pastoral-research-team-wins-sustainable-science-award/

http://www.ilri.org/ilrinews/index.php/archives/tag/reto-o-reto-research-project

http://peoplelivestockenvironment.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/nkedianye-successfully-completes-his-phd/

As rapid urbanization, climate change and growing food needs put ever-increasing pressure on freshwater resources, the objective of the 2013 theme is to draw attention to the benefits of cooperation in water management. It will serve to highlight successful examples of water cooperation and explore key issues, including water diplomacy, transboundary water management and financial cooperation.

Water, a vital resource unlike any other knows no borders. For instance, 148 countries share at least one transboundary river basin. The United nations organization notes that the fulfilment of basic human needs, our environment, socio-economic development and poverty reduction are all heavily dependent on water. As such, good management of water is especially challenging due to some of its unique characteristics: it is unevenly distributed in time and space, the hydrological cycle is highly complex and perturbations have multiple effects. Rapid urbanization, pollution and climate change threaten the resource while demands for water are increasing in order to satisfy the needs of a growing world population, now at over seven billion people, for food production, energy, industrial and domestic uses. Water is a shared resource and its management needs to take into account a wide variety of conflicting interests. This provides opportunities for cooperation among users.

To reflect on this, we share thoughts on the livestock water foot print, as shared by Prof Arjen Hoekstra of the University of Twente, the Netherlands when he gave a seminar at ILRI.

Read Paul Karaimu’s article at http://www.ilri.org/ilrinews/index.php/archives/10711 and Jane Gitau article at http://peoplelivestockenvironment.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/understanding-the-water-footprint-of-livestock-products/

The amount of water in your beef depends where the animal was reared. As such, blanket condemnation of livestock products because they consume a lot of water and are therefore environment unfriendly is unjustified. This was said by Arjen Hoekstra, professor at the University of Twente, the Netherlands.

Hoeskra was addressing researchers and friends of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in a ‘livestock livetak’ at the ILRI campus in Nairobi, on February 7, 2013.

‘In some cases, such as in drylands and some pockets of wetlands, livestock keeping is the only viable option of food production and the water footprint has a low opportunity cost’, Hoekstra said.

Using the scientific colour coding for water – blue, green and grey – Hoekstra said each product has a water footprint but livestock products carry a larger footprint than crops. In the colour coding, the blue water footprint refers to the volume of surface water and ground water consumed during production processes (i.e. evaporated or incorporated into the product), the green water footprint refers to the volume of rainwater consumed (i.e. evaporated or incorporated into the product), the grey water footprint refers to the volume of freshwater that is required to assimilate the load of pollutants and calculated as the volume of water that is required to maintain the water quality according to agreed water quality standards.

He recommended making more efficient use of rainwater as a key to reducing the water footprint of humanity.

Hoekstra, the creator of the water footprint concept, said that most freshwater problems are caused by an over-exploitation of blue water resources (ground and surface water). The trend towards increasing meat consumption in the world and towards an intensification of the livestock sector will lead to increasing water demand.

The use of excessive amounts of irrigation water in water-scarce regions can be reduced by increasing productivities in rain-fed agriculture in the parts of the world where water is more abundant. Overall water consumption can be reduced by lowering meat consumption.

He emphasized that water is a global resource and many countries import food because they do not have enough water resources of their own. As such, most of their water footprint is external, that is abroad; Europe as a continent has the largest external water footprint.

The water footprint of beef varies from country to country depending on the system used to rear the animals. Grazing systems use green water, which is local while mixed systems have a combination of a local green, blue and grey water footprint. Industrial and factory farming systems use partly imported feed, which sometimes comes from water-scarce places, where water has a high opportunity cost. The largest water footprint is in the processed feeds the animals are fed. Only 1% of the water is drunk by the animals.

He advises that governments seek to understand better the maximum sustainable water footprint in every basin so that they know how to allocate water. He observed that only 3.8 % of humanity’s water footprint is home water use while 96.2% of the water footprint is invisible to the ordinary consumer and related to the products bought in the market. This is roughly divided into 91.5% agricultural products while 4.7% is industrial products. Overall, 22% of the water footprint of consumers originates from outside their country.

The water footprint of a product refers to the volume of fresh water used to produce that product, summed up over the various steps of the production chain.

According to Hoekstra, sustainability criterion that helps reduce the water footprint of products would include keeping track of the water footprint of the different components of a product; knowing whether the various components are from water scarce areas and whether they go beyond the benchmark. Reporting and disclosure by industry should therefore be key as well as labeling of products and certification of business.

See the complete presentation:

More pictures from the seminar

Small scale farmers appear to seek diversified ways of living as method of coping with the changing climate patterns and expensive goods. This observation was made by researchers of the IMPACTLite writeshop January 21-24, in Machakos, east of Nairobi, to consolidate their views and outline their proposed scientific papers.

The team is headed by Mariana Rufino, Livestock Systems Scientist at ILRI and supported by Patti Kristjanson, the Theme Leader for Linking Knowledge with Action at the CGIAR Climate Change, Agriculture and Food security (CCAFS) program. It was observed that farmers are diversifying both their crops and sources of income. Across study sites, diversification seems to be the way farmers want to goto boost farm income.

The study was conducted in East and West Africa and in South Asia. It covers 12 countries and 15 sites in the three regions. It was observed that cropping is seen as a diversification strategy at the low rainfall sites and that there will be continued competition for land.

Said Rufino, “we are looking for the missing bits that help stimulate smallholders to plan their future. The starting point is to analyze current livelihood diversity using multiple dimensions. Some farming practices might be good to increase incomes, but may have a negative impact increasing labour demands on women. We want to capture those tradeoffs, so that we don’t end up pushing technologies that are absolutely unattractive to users”
Understanding farms and what is happening in them will help show how people are managing their soils and water, said Kristjanson. “It will also help us understand what science can do to improve methods of coping at farm level because ultimately it is at farm level where change takes place and if it happens we have better livelihoods”.

“The project called IMPACTlite gave us an opportunity to try a new way of working together between researchers, and our partners on the ground. We have designed the project together, and at this stage we put things on the table to assess progress and decide how to proceed. The different teams, including members from different centres have decided together which dimensions were interesting to be explored. We hope this model will allow us that the needs on the ground are addressed in the best way possible. In this ongoing research other CGIAR centres have also been engaged such as the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Institute for tropical Agriculture (IITA), and in the near future, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Bioversity International.

“Working this way helps us to build trust”, says Rufino. “There are three words we must learn to use if we are to be successful in our research. The three words are TRUST, TRUST, and TRUST. Only then shall we be successful and people like to associate with success”.

The University of Twente, Netherlands Professor will be on a three day visit to Kenya during which time he will visit project sites, supervise students and give the talk at ILRI’s John Vercoe Auditorium. It will be beamed live to ILRI Addis Ababa and livestreamed on the internet via http://www.ilri.org/livestream.

Prof Hoekstra is creator of the water footprint concept and established the interdisciplinary research field of Water Footprint Assessment. The water footprint research addresses the relations between water management, consumption and trade. His books include Perspectives on Water (1998), Globalization of Water (2008), The Water Footprint Assessment Manual (2011) and The Water Footprint of Modern Consumer Society (2013).

He observes that the increase in the consumption of animal products is likely to put further pressure on the world’s freshwater resources and nearly one-third of the total water footprint of agriculture in the world is related to the production of animal products. However, animal products from grazing systems have a smaller water footprint than products from industrial systems.

Hoekstra will provide a comprehensive account of the water footprint of animal products, considering different production systems and feed composition per animal type and country.

“Future water scarcity cannot be addressed without proper understanding of the relationship between livestock and the indirect use of water”, he says.
The talk will be held at ILRI Nairobi campus, John Vercoe Auditorium (JVC) from 1500- 1600 hours.

Join the live presentation of this seminar online: http://www.ilri.org/livestream.
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‘Livestock live talks’ is a seminar series at ILRI that aims to address livestock-related issues, mobilize external as well as in-house expertise and audiences and engage the livestock community around interdisciplinary conversations that ask hard questions and seek to refine current research concepts and practices.

Please visit http://ilriclippings.wordpress.com for this and other livestock stories.

CGIAR annual genebank meeting

After the new CGIAR financing arrangements were set up, this was the first meeting (FAO, Rome) of the 11 CGIAR genebanks. It was very useful to discuss new strategies, efficiencies and collaborative ways of work. In addition to the genebank managers from each of the centers (highlighting the participation of the newly recruited genebank managers for CIP, CIMMYT-maize and IITA), several additional scientists participated in the meeting (Bioversity, IPK, SPC, CGN, FAO, GCP and CGIAR consortium). One of the days was dedicated to scientific presentations and interactive discussions in plenary or in smaller groups. ILRI and CIMMYT genebank managers were responsible for the organization and chaired this science day. Themes discussed included: Common policies and guidelines, capacity building, use of molecular tools in genebanks and risk management.

• In addition to the annual funds approved for the core activities of the genebanks, some additional proposals for short term activities were also discussed and approved. ILRI’s proposal to collaborate with the Israel Plant Gene Bank to collect key legume species (Lathyrus, Medicago, Trifolium and Vicia that are commonly used forages in drylands and tropical highlands) in target areas of Israel was approved amongst other collecting proposals.
• The ILRI genebank manager was also invited to join the executive committee of the ICWG (Inter Center Working Group) that is being re-named and updated to suit the new way of work in the CGIAR genebanks.
• ILRI also became part of the advisory committee for the CGKB (Crop Genebank Knowledge Base) project, a diverse website platform for sharing knowledge about genebank management and procedures developed with considerable contributions from ILRI genebank in 2010.

The next AGM meeting will be held at USDA headquarters in Iowa, USA in September 2013.

German scientific expert supports the genebank plant health laboratories

Dr. Evelyn Moller recently spent 5 weeks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia providing technical support to ILRI’s work in the plant health laboratories. She gave excellent inputs, training and advice on our laboratory procedures and quality checked routines. We reorganized the labs with a more practical workflow, calibrated endless numbers of equipment and established templates for routine procedures to assure all the details are captured to facilitate troubleshooting. She also gave us several training sessions and provided support to acquired key equipment that needed replacement as well as installing some new equipment. She was very dedicated, hardworking and interacted a lot with our staff as well as other CGIAR staff interested in her skills.

SES is a German volunteer service – Foundation of German Industry for international Cooperation (with more than 20 000 registered experts – retired skilled and management professionals that volunteer for short term assignments worldwide wherever their expertise is needed). This was the first experience of this kind at ILRI; we  highly recommend this sort of scientific exchange.

Despite the end of the assignment, the connection was made and collaboration and support is continuing through skype and sharing folders and pictures, as long as the internet connection in Addis campus allows…

ILRI genebank international review

In November, we hosted a team of 3 international scientists from the USDA,  the Millenium Genebank and the Global Diversity Trust to evaluate our genebank procedures, workflows, infrastructure and staff composition, as well as financial expenditures and reporting. We had intensive and very long sessions that provided useful external insights and ideas for improved efficiencies and reduced risks. The reviewers also interviewed random users to obtain feedback on our responsiveness and relevance to their work. In addition to a couple of improved efficiencies within the genebank, the main message was to make extra efforts to collaborate more within ILRI and the new CGIAR as well as with our external users, to learn better about what is needed and what we can offer that can have impact.

While we were advised to reach more users and maximize the use of the diversity of our germplasm (even expand it for key ecotypes if needed) at the same time we should be more restrictive on the number of seeds we make freely available, so that our stocks last longer and are made available for more users.

Beyond the review itself, we also used this opportunity to network and discuss further collaboration between our genebank and the genebanks where the review team members work. Many ideas for interesting and challenging student projects were discussed and may be implemented in the future!

New collaboration with INIFAP (Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones forestales, Agricolas y Pecuarias), Mexico and CIAT

As part of a new project (conservation, characterization and use of forage genetic resources for priority grazing land ecosystems of Mexico), the government of Mexico is supporting and promoting collaboration between INIFAP, ILRI and CIAT to implement scientific exchanges and capacity building across the 3 institutes on forage and livestock issues.

A preliminary visit was carried out last week by two scientists from ILRI (Alexandra Jorge and Jean Hanson) and CIAT (Rao Idupulapati and Rein van de Hoek). We traveled with Salvador Fernandez (Coordinator of Research, Innovation and Partnerships, INIFAP) to three main sites across the country:

• Huimanguillo Research Station, Huimanguillo, Tabasco
• El Verdineño Research Station, Santiago Ixcuintla, Nayarit
• Calera Research Station, Zacatecas, Zacatecas

We visited field plots and laboratories and discussed joint activities of INIFAP, CIAT and ILRI as part of the forage genetic resources project. We discussed in detail activities for the next 6 months, including training of staff on key forage research and genebank management areas as well as scientist exchange visits to Cali, Colombia and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

• Did you know that the meaning of “Zacatecas” in the local language is “land of abundant pastures”? This was true when the first settlers arrived but not so true anymore. So, perhaps the forage collaboration between ILRI, INIFAP and CIAT could help to give justice to the original name of this highland, dry and cold region of Mexico!

The side event aims to provide a coherent view of evidence of how poor livestock keepers can manage grasslands, and how policies can support the rehabilitated grasslands to better adapt to climate change.

Speakers at the drylands side event will describe measurement methods used in national climate change action plans (low emission development strategies, nationally appropriate mitigation strategies) and in projects in selected countries globally.

Ericksen observes that ‘Grasslands cover 26% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface and store 8% of global carbon, thus helping to stem global warming. But most of the world’s grasslands are now degraded, and thus store less carbon than healthy grasslands. Restoring the health of grasslands  increases their carbon storage capacity while also increasing their productivity in terms of the amount of biomass and livestock they support. And when grassland productivity is increased, so is the food and nutritional security of poor livestock herding communities, which are then more resilient and better able to adapt to climate change’.

Established in 1994, UNCCD, one of the joint hosts of the drylands side event, is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. The convention focuses on the world’s arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples are found.

The UNFCCC is an international treaty that sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to address climate change. It is one of three conventions adopted at the ‘Rio Earth Summit’ in 1992. Its sister Rio conventions are the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UNCCD. The three are intrinsically linked.

In the UNFCCC, countries pledge how they will cooperate to limit average global temperature increases and resulting climate change and to better cope with that change. The treaty was called a ‘framework convention’ because it was seen as a starting point for addressing the problem of climate change.

With 194 member nations, the UNFCCC has near universal membership. Under the convention, member governments commit: to gathering and sharing information on greenhouse gas emissions, national policies and best practices; to launch national strategies for addressing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to expected impacts, including the provision of financial and technological support to developing countries; and to cooperating in work to find ways of adapting to the impacts of climate change.

Since the UNFCCC treaty entered into force in 1994, the parties of the convention have been holding regular meetings, called ‘Conferences of the Parties (COP)’, to assess progress in dealing with climate change. The COP is seen as the ‘supreme body’ of the convention.

These were some of the observations made at a recent one day field day and discussion forum was organized by Ethiopian Meat and Dairy Technology Institute (EMDTI) on October 25, 2012 at Ephiratana Gidim Woreda Ataye village N/Shewa Zone, Amahara Regional State 280 km from the capital Addis Ababa.  Other organisers were Eden Field Agri-Seed Enterprise (EFASE) & International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

Challenges cited in the effort to produce good quality seed include land ownership for forage seed multiplication; lack of adequate knowledge on forage seed production techniques; limited seed processing and seed storage facilities; high price of forage seed for farmers and lack of basic seeds. Others include lack of awareness on forage seed production, lack of support and incentives; low attention on policy issues related  to livestock particularly on forage seed production; lack of high quality mother trees; market uncertainty and price fluctuation on forage seeds and lack of regulation on seed quality. About 60 relevant stakeholders participated from both government and NGO including EIAR.

ILRI offered to back stop lack of adequate knowledge on forage seed production techniques as well as supplying high quality true to type basic seeds in collaboration with EMDTI. Various stakeholders among the participants showed interest to support the enterprise in their area of profession and appreciated the over all initiative that Eden Field Agri-Seed Enterprise took in forage seed production which is the bottle neck for livestock production in Ethiopia.

I found “the field day very interesting and I suggest that these type of initiatives should be encouraged by all parties and followed up for further development and improvement”.

Eden Field Agri-Seed Enterprise is a privately owned profit making enterprise founded by Ato Getahun Haile in 2008. The enterprise has been engaged in producing, processing and marketing of forage and forest seeds to fill the gaps of both quantity and quality seed supply in Ethiopia. It has been playing a substantial role not only contributing towards the efforts of the country in fulfilling the supply gaps of forage and forest seeds, but also promoting improved seed production and processing techniques and technology transferring in the country by working in collaboration with out grower farmers, research centers, NGOs and others directly and indirectly involved in this development endeavors.

click here to read more about forages

Amare Haileslassie, the key author of the study; credits ILRI flickr

Balanced nutrient inputs on crop land positively impact productivity of the livestock compartment of mixed crop–livestock farming system, a new study has revealed.  This knowledge can build on the currently perceived need and benefits of balanced nutrient replenishment in crop–livestock system.

This is a key finding by the India based team of Amare Haileslassie, Michael Blu¨mmel , S. P. Wani,  K. L. Sahrawat, G. Pardhasaradhi  and Anandan Samireddypalle.  It is published by Springer on October 27, 2012. The paper is entitled Extractable soil nutrient effects on feed quality traits of crop residues in the semiarid rainfed mixed crop–livestock farming systems of Southern India.

Amare et al note that rainfed agriculture covers 80 % of the world cropland and produces more than 60 % of cereal grain. In India, rainfed agriculture has a distinct place and occupies 67 % of the cultivated area, contributing 44 % of the food grains and supporting 40 % of the human and 65 % of the livestock population.

Rainfed agriculture is of critical importance for the livelihood of smallholder farmers in the arid and semiarid regions of southern India (e.g. Karnataka). In these regions, livestock are strongly associated with crop production.

The results of this study clearly demonstrated that the outcome of soil nutrient depletion, in a mixed crop–livestock faming system, is far beyond reducing grain production. It affects livestock feed quality and thus is strongly associated with the demand for resources especially land and water.  Such soil–crop–livestock continuum is seldom explored and rarely used to encourage smallholder farmers to improve soil nutrient management. So this knowledge can certainly build on the existing understanding of the need and benefits of balanced nutrient management in crop–livestock system.