Smallholder pig producer family in Kiboga, Uganda (photo credit: ILRI/Danilo Pezo).

‘Scientists in Kenya have launched research of a vaccine to be used against African swine fever. The study is still at an early stage where scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) are identifying antigens and best-bet delivery systems to be used.

‘“Research in this area, with the ultimate goal of generating resistant and productive domestic pigs, is just beginning,” said ILRI molecular biologist Dr Richard Bishop.

‘He said that ILRI has just been awarded major funding from BMZ for vaccine development in collaboration with FLI (Riems) Germany to help save the global pig industry that is worth $150 billion.

‘Africa-wide economic impacts of swine fever are hard to quantify due to a dearth of disease recording, especially as this infection rapidly turns lethal in pig herds and active surveillance for the infection is rare. The prevalence of the disease has thwarted investment in the smallholder pig sector.

‘The disease is still emerging in Africa and in the last 20 years, it has spread to parts of West Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius and most recently (in 2011) to Chad from Cameroon.

In Uganda, pig numbers have increased to four million today and continue to rise from 100,000 in the 1970s and pork consumption is now close to that of beef.

‘There were 20 recorded outbreaks of African swine fever in Uganda in 2010 alone.

‘“This is an underestimate due to a difficulty in diagnosing the disease and under-reporting of livestock diseases,” Bishop said.

‘Although the absolute total number of pigs kept in Africa remains relatively small (less than 50 million), pig keeping is very profitable for many of Africa’s rural poor, providing a flexible means of generating an income in the right environments. . . . .’

Read the whole article in the Daily Nation/Xinhua: Kenyan experts search for swine fever vaccine, 12 May 2013.

Filed under: Africa, Animal Health, ASF, Asia, Biotech, Chad, Disease Control, Emerging Diseases, ILRI, Kenya, PA, Pigs, Project, Uganda Tagged: Cameroon, Daily Nation (Kenya), Richard Bishop, Xinhua

Fulani boy in Niger herds his family’s animals (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

Mobility to unlock scattered food, feed, water and other scarce and scattered essential resources is a human strategy as old as humankind itself—and one that remains key for pastoral livestock herders the world over. As the world warms and its natural resources become ever scarcer, it would profit all of us to take a long hard look at how livestock herders track those resources over time and space, and how their movement and that of their animal herds helps them stay resilient in the face of some of the earth’s most unforgiving, and now increasingly unpredictable and extreme, climates.

It appears the rest of us are going to need to adopt strategies for resilience sooner rather than later. Last Thursday, reports Polly Ericksen, scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), was a red letter day. On that day, 9 May 2013, the level of emissions of carbon dioxide reached an average daily level above 400 parts per million, a concentration not seen on the earth for millions of years.

Red Letter Day
The new measurement came from analyzers atop Mauna Loa, the volcano on the big island of Hawaii that has long been ground zero for monitoring the worldwide trend on carbon dioxide, or CO2. . . . Carbon dioxide above 400 parts per million was first seen in the Arctic last year, and had also spiked above that level in hourly readings at Mauna Loa. But the average reading for an entire day surpassed that level at Mauna Loa for the first time in the 24 hours that ended at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday.’ — Heat-trapping gas passes milestone, raising fears, New York Times, 10 May 2013

Carbon dioxide, of course, is the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. So what do we know about what will happen as the world’s average temperatures rise with the increasing amounts of carbon trapped in our atmosphere? Well, not much, as even our most sophisticated and integrated models are unable to forecast likely changes after a certain threshold has been passed. But what we can surmise is grim, as the following plausible scenarios illustrate.

One degree, two degrees, three degrees, four . . .
With a global average rise of 2ºC, ‘Greenland’s glaciers and some of the lower lying islands would start to disappear. At 3ºC higher the Arctic would be ice-free all summer, the Amazon rainforest would begin to dry out and extreme weather patterns would become the norm. An increase of 4ºC would see the oceans rise drastically. Then comes the twilight zone of climate change, if the global temperature rises again by another degree. Part of once temperate regions could become uninhabitable, while humans fight each other for the world’s remaining resources. The sixth degree is what is called the doomsday scenario as oceans become marine wastelands, deserts expand and catastrophic events become more common.’ — Six degrees could change the world, National Geographic, 2012

Studies written by scientists at 14 of the 15 CGIAR centres and compiled and published last year by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) (Impacts of climate change on the agricultural and aquatic systems and natural resources within the CGIAR’s mandate, 2012) provide a snapshot of how climate change is likely to affect key food crops and livestock farming and natural resources in poor countries, where these staple foods and resources remain the backbone not only of food security but also of national economies.

While nothing is certain, a few things are probable, writes Philip Thornton, scientist at CCAFS and ILRI and leader of the research study. First and foremost is that old-fashioned foods and food production strategies are likely to make some major comebacks.

Crops and animals till now neglected by major research initiatives, and now considered ‘old-fashioned’ by many, are likely to play an increasingly important role on global food production once again. Drought-resistant camels and goats, ‘famine foods’ such as heat-tolerant cassava and millet, and dual-purpose crops such as protein-rich cowpea (aka black-eyed peas) and groundnut that feed people and animals alike are all likely to come back to the fore in regions with drying or more unpredictable climates. In some drying regions, smallholders will be forced to switch from crop growing to livestock raising, and/or from raising dairy cows to raising dairy or other goats. — As the cooking pot turns: Staple crop and animal foods are being ‘recalibrated’ for a warmer world, ILRI News Blog, 1 Nov 2012

So herding livestock, the so-called ‘pastoral’ food production system, is likely to become much more important as we warm the globe. But as Mike Shanahan, press officer for the International Institute for Environment and Development (UK), reports this week, if we’re going to increasingly rely on livestock herding across the world’s current vast drylands, and across the lands now drying up, to help feed our increasingly crowded planet and support the lives and livelihoods of its poorest people, we’d better start rethinking the ways we perceive, talk about and approach pastoralism, now a neglected sector in many fast-modernizing countries, which tend to view it as ‘backward’.

Shanahan recently investigated how media reports on pastoralism in India, China and Kenya. ‘These policy narratives overlook both the dynamics of dryland ecosystems and how dryland communities have long learnt how to live with and harness variability to support sustainable and productive economies, societies and ecosystems.

The narratives ignore the ways that mobile herding can increase people’s resilience in a changing climate. They also ignore the three E’s—the economic value of pastoralism, the environmental benefits that herding brings to rangelands and the equity that should be at heart of good policymaking.

‘Once upon a time, not so long ago,’ says Shanahan, ‘we were all mobile. Movement was what enabled our ancestors to track resources that were here today, gone tomorrow. In parts of the world where water, pasture or good hunting are not constantly available, mobility is still the key that unlocks scattered resources. It is the key to resilience. And as the climate changes, this ancient strategy could become more important.

‘Yet in many countries, governments marginalise mobile pastoralists and would prefer them to settle instead of roaming the land. Dominant policy narratives cast pastoralism as a backwards, unproductive activity that takes place in marginal fragile areas, where unpredictable rainfall leads people to overgraze and damage the land.

Media stories both contribute to and reflect the dominant policy narrative around pastoralism.

‘In Kenya, pastoralists feature mostly in ‘bad news’ stories of conflict and drought. They appear vulnerable and lacking in agency. Stories make almost no mention of the benefits that pastoralists bring.

‘In China, the media presented pastoralists as the cause of environmental degradation and as (generally happy) beneficiaries of government investment and settlement projects.

‘In India, newspapers tended to portray pastoralists with more pity, as people whose rights to grazing land had been taken away and whose livelihoods were at risk as pastures dwindle and locally resilient livestock breeds disappear. . . .

Yet opportunities to reframe pastoralism abound. In Kenya, for instance, an alternative narrative could show how the new constitution could work best for the drylands and their communities. In India, an alternative narrative could show how herding is part of the wider dryland agriculture system that can increase food security in the context of climate change. In China, an alternative narrative can relate how support for pastoralism can increase food security and better manage rangelands for economic benefits. . . .’

Read the whole article by Mike Shanahan on the Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems: Pastoralists in the media: Three E’s please, 13 May 2013.

See Mike Shanahan’s full research paper or a four-page summary.

Filed under: Asia, China, Climate Change, Drylands, East Africa, Environment, Food security, ILRI, India, Kenya, LivestockFutures, PA, Pastoralism, Policy, Report, South Asia Tagged: CCAFS, CGIAR, IIED, Mike Shanahan, National Geographic, New York Times, Polly Ericksen

Cover of a special issue of ‘Nature’ on GMOs, 2 May 2013.

The leading British science journal Nature has published a special issue on GM crops: Promise and reality  (2 May 2013). This hub of updated science-based information on GM crops includes feature news stories, commentaries, a podcast and more.

‘Foreign genes were successfully introduced into plants for the first time 30 years ago . . . .  Ever since, genetically modified (GM) crops have promised to deliver a second green revolution: a wealth of enhanced foods, fuels and fibres that would feed the starving, deliver profits to farmers and promote a greener environment. In many ways, that revolution has arrived. Crops engineered to carry useful traits now grow on 170 million hectares in at least 28 countries . . . .

‘But to many, GM crops have been a failure. The market is dominated by just a few insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant crops. The environmental benefits are disputed, and activists question the safety of GM foods. Politicized and polarized, the war of words that surrounds GM crops ignores the complex truths.

‘In this special issue, Nature explores the messy middle ground. . . .

The battles are by no means over, but the hope is that science and reasoned debate can inform the future of these technologies.

An editorial in this special issue, Fields of gold, argues that GM research needs to happen outside of the industry (in the non-profit sector) so that developments are driven by objectives other than profit:

‘There is reason to stand up for the continued use and develop­ment of GM crops. Genetic modification is a nascent technology for which development has moved very quickly to commercialization. That has forced most research into the for-profit sector.

Without broader research programmes outside the seed industry, developments will continue to be profit-driven, limiting the chance for many of the advances that were promised 30 years ago—such as feeding the planet’s burgeoning population sustainably, reducing the environmental footprint of farming and delivering products that amaze and delight.

Transgenic technologies are by no means the only way to achieve these aims, but the speed and precision that they offer over traditional breeding techniques made them indispensable 30 years ago. They still are today.

In another article, Transgenics: A new breed, Daniel Cressey argues that:

The next wave of genetically modified crops is making its way to market—and might just ease concerns over ‘Frankenfoods’.

‘When the first genetically modified (GM) organisms were being developed for the farm, says Anastasia Bodnar, “we were promised rocket jet packs”—futuristic, ultra-nutritious crops that would bring exotic produce to the supermarket and help to feed a hungry world.

‘Yet so far, she says, the technology has bestowed most of its benefits on agribusiness—almost always through crops modified to withstand weed-killing chemicals or resist insect pests. This has allowed farmers to increase yields and spray less pesticide than they might have otherwise.

‘At best, such advances have been almost invisible to ordinary consumers, says Bodnar, a biotechnologist with Biology Fortified, a non-profit GM-organism advocacy organization in Middleton, Wisconsin. And at worst, they have helped to fuel the rage of opponents of genetic modification, who say that transgenic crops have concentrated power and profits in the hands of a few large corporations, and are a prime example of scientists meddling in nature, heedless of the dangers . . . .

‘But that could soon change, thanks to a whole new generation of GM crops now making their way from laboratory to market. Some of these crops will tackle new problems, from apples that stave off discolouration to “Golden Rice” and bright-orange bananas fortified with nutrients to improve the diets of people in the poorest countries.’

In another article of this special issue, Biotechnology: Africa and Asia need a rational debate on GM crops, ‘Christopher Whitty, chief scientific adviser at the UK Department for International Development, and his colleagues argue that the negative attitudes towards GM crops in the developed world undermine the technology’s potential in the developing one.’

The authors state that policymakers in developing countries should resist being swayed by the politicized debate around GM food and crops in Europe, a continent where food insecurity and malnutrition are not widely present. They also argue that developments in GM crop research will be key to addressing the challenge of feeding rising populations in the face of climate change.

In a Nature News Feature in this issue, Case studies: A hard look at GM crops, Natasha Gilbert reports on how the evidence is holding up on the ‘goods’ and ‘bads’ of  GM crops.

‘In the pitched debate over genetically modified (GM) foods and crops, it can be hard to see where scientific evidence ends and dogma and speculation begin. In the nearly 20 years since they were first commercialized, GM crop technologies have seen dramatic uptake. Advocates say that they have increased agricultural production by more than US$98 billion and saved an estimated 473 million kilograms of pesticides from being sprayed. But critics question their environmental, social and economic impacts. . . .

‘Here, Nature takes a look at three pressing questions: are GM crops fuelling the rise of herbicide-resistant ‘superweeds’? Are they driving farmers in India to suicide? And are the foreign transgenes in GM crops spreading into other plants? These controversial case studies show how blame shifts, myths are spread and cultural insensitivities can inflame debate. . . .

Herbicide-resistant GM crops
‘On balance, herbicide-resistant GM crops are less damaging to the environment than conventional crops grown at industrial scale. A study by PG Economics, a consulting firm in Dorchester, UK, found that the introduction of herbicide-tolerant cotton saved 15.5 million kilograms of herbicide between 1996 and 2011, a 6.1% reduction from what would have been used on conventional cotton. And GM crop technology delivered an 8.9% improvement to the environmental impact quotient—a measure that considers factors such as pesticide toxicity to wildlife—says Graham Brookes, co-director of PG Economics and a co-author of the industry-funded study, which many scientists consider to be among the field’s most extensive and authoritative assessments of environmental impacts.

‘The question is how much longer those benefits will last. . . .

‘To offer farmers new weed-control strategies, Monsanto and other biotechnology companies, such as Dow AgroSciences, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, are developing new herbicide-resistant crops that work with different chemicals, which they expect to commercialize within a few years. . . .’

Bt cotton in India
Regarding claims that introduction in India of Bt cotton, which contains a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis to ward off certain insects, have led to an increase in farmer suicides, an ‘oft-repeated story of corporate exploitation since Monsanto began selling GM seed in India in 2002′,  scientists have found that ‘there has been essentially no change in the suicide rate for farmers since the introduction of Bt cotton.

That was shown by researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC, who scoured government data, academic articles and media reports about Bt cotton and suicide in India. Their findings, published in 2008 (ref. 4) and updated in 2011 (ref. 5), show that the total number of suicides per year in the Indian population rose from just under 100,000 in 1997 to more than 120,000 in 2007. But the number of suicides among farmers hovered at around 20,000 per year over the same period.’

ILRI head of South Asia Purvi Mehta-Bhatt (photo credit: ILRI).

One of the authors of that study is Purvi Mehta-Bhatt, who now heads the South Asia program of work of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Mehta-Bhatt says that India’s adoption of Bt cotton has helped move the country from being a net importer of cotton to being a net exporter, and that household incomes have increased some 20–25 per cent as a result.

We’ve been talking about this in India for a very long time now. We’ve been hearing about the dangers of releasing GM crops. What we fail to hear much about are the dangers to India of not releasing such crops. India now has other genetically modified crops in the offing, many being generated by the public sector. India needs to make decisions on the way forward, and needs to make its decisions based on evidence, not on emotions.—Purvi Mehta-Bhatt

The Nature article goes on to report the following. ‘[S]ince its rocky beginnings, Bt cotton has benefited farmers, says Matin Qaim, an agricultural economist at Georg August University in Göttingen, Germany, who has been studying the social and financial impacts of Bt cotton in India for the past 10 years. In a study of 533 cotton-farming households in central and southern India, Qaim found that yields grew by 24% per acre between 2002 and 2008, owing to reduced losses from pest attacks. Farmers’ profits rose by an average of 50% over the same period, owing mainly to yield gains . . . . Given the profits, Qaim says, it is not surprising that more than 90% of the cotton now grown in India is transgenic. . . .’

Transgenes in Mexican maize
‘The scientific community remains split on whether transgenes have infiltrated maize populations in Mexico, even as the country grapples with whether to approve commercialization of Bt maize. . . . “It seems inevitable that there will be a movement of transgenes into local maize crops,” says [Allison] Snow. “There is some proof that it is happening, but it is very difficult to say how common it is or what are the consequences. . . . Snow says that there is no evidence so far for negative effects. And she expects that if the transgenes now in use drift to other plants, they will have neutral or beneficial effects on plant growth. . . .

Conclusion

Tidy stories, in favour of or against GM crops, will always miss the bigger picture, which is nuanced, equivocal and undeniably messy. Transgenic crops will not solve all the agricultural challenges facing the developing or developed world, says [Matin] Qaim: “It is not a silver bullet.” But vilification is not appropriate either. The truth is somewhere in the middle.’

Read the IFPRI research study
Bt Cotton and Farmer Suicides in India: Reviewing the Evidence, by Guillaume P Gruère, Purvi Mehta-Bhatt and Debdatta Sengupta, IFPRI Discussion Paper 00808, October 2008, Washington DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Read more on this topic in the ILRI News Blog
New advances in the battle against a major disease threat to cattle and people in Africa, 1 May 2013.

And more on this topic from the ILRI Clippings Blog
GMOs good for Africa–Calestous Juma, Kenyan biotechnology expert and Harvard professor, 25 Apr 2013.
Kenya testing ground for GMOs, 15 Jan 2010.

Filed under: Agriculture, Article, Asia, Biotechnology, Environment, Genetics, ILRI, India, North America, PA, Seeds, USA Tagged: Bt cotton, GMOs, Herbicide-resistant GM crops, IFPRI, Mexico, Nature, Purvi Mehta-Bhatt, transgenic maize

Globally, the demand for meat products is growing at 1.8% per year due to increasing populations, economic growth and rapid urbanization. Agropastoral and pastoral systems cover 45% of the earth’s usable surface and supply 9% of global meat production, while mixed crop-livestock farming systems produce 54% of the total meat and 90% of the milk consumed in the world.

This demand for livestock products is expected to grow but climate change and competition for land is likely to limit the area available for livestock keeping. What are the options to feed more people, more efficiently from livestock farming?

Join Mario Herrero – a senior systems analyst with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on Wednesday,  28 Nov 2012, as he gives a presentation on ‘livestock and global change’, at the ILRI Nairobi campus Info Centre, from 1500-1600 hours.

Herrero leads ILRI’s Sustainable Livestock Futures program (SLF). The program conducts foresight studies on emerging livestock development challenges with uncertain future impacts and signals their importance for other ILRI programs and policymakers.

Mario Herrero, team leader for ILRI’s Sustainable Livestock Futures program (photo credit: ILRI).

He has coordinated several global integrated assessment projects such as the CGIAR global assessment of food production systems, ecosystems services and human well-being. Additionally, he has contributed to numerous international assessments such as the 2010 World Development Report, the 2007/2008 Human Development Report and the 2007 Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. He has participated in international task forces such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC’s) Task Force on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Guidelines and has served in several donor and science advisory committees on livestock and the environment.

Herrero has published more than 150 refereed papers, book chapters and reports in his areas of expertise and is currently on the editorial board of Agricultural Systems and is a guest editor for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal (PNAS) in the area of livestock, sustainability science and global change. He has also supervised over 60 academic theses on different aspects of animal production systems.

View Mario Herrero’s publications here: http://mahider.ilri.org/simple-search query=%28%28author%3A%22herrero%2C+M%22%29%29&rpp=10&sort_by=2

The presentation is part of ILRI’s ‘livestock live talks’, 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.

All ILRI staff, partners and donors, and interested outsiders are invited. Those non-staff who would want to come, please contact Angeline Nekesa at a.nekesa[at]cgiar.org (or via ILRI switchboard 020 422 3000) to let her know. If you would like to give one of these seminars, or have someone you would like to recommend, please contact Silvia Silvestri at s.silvestri[at]cgiar.org (or via ILRI switchboard 020 422 3000).

Filed under: Africa, Agriculture, Asia, Central America, Climate Change, CRP7, Environment, Farming Systems, ILRI, Livestock Systems, LivestockFutures, PLE, Research Tagged: livestock live talk, Mario Herrero, PNAS

On  26 September 2012, animal nutritionist Michael Blümmel with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) presented an ‘livestock live talk’ on Using crop by-products to intensify and sustain food production at the ILRI campus in Nairobi.

View the presentation:

 

‘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.

All ILRI staff, partners and donors, and interested outsiders are invited. Those non-staff wanting to come, please contact Angeline Nekesa at a.nekesa[at]cgiar.org (or via ILRI switchboard 422-3000) to let her know. If you would like to give one of these seminars, or have someone you would like to recommend, please contact Silvia Silvestri at s.silvestri[at]cgiar.org (or via ILRI switchboard 422-3000).

Filed under: Animal Feeding, Asia, Crop residues, Crop-Livestock, Event, Feeds, Fodder, Research, South Asia Tagged: livestock live talks, Michael Blummel

Increasing livestock production to meet rapidly growing demands in a socially equitable and ecologically sustainable manner has become major challenge for the Asia-Pacific region. To discuss these challenges and to outline elements of a response, FAO, together with ILRI, IFPRI and other partners organized a Regional Policy Forum in Bangkok on 16-17 August 2012.

Asia and the Pacific region has been the strongest growing region for milk and meat over the last two to three decades. Total consumption of meat in the region has grown from 50 million tonnes to 120 million tonnes between 1980 and 2010. Comparable figures for milk were 54 and 190 million tonnes. By 2050, the consumption of meat and milk in the region is projected to cross 220 and 440 million tonnes respectively. While this growth can potentially create new opportunities for farmers and provide more affordable and healthier diets for future generations, managing this growth also requires a complex institutional response that can stimulate income and employment opportunities in the rural areas, protect the livelihoods of small farmers, improve resource use efficiency at all levels of the value chain, minimize negative environmental and health consequences, and ensure adequate access by the poorer sections of society to the food they need to live healthy lives.

To discuss and debate these issues, promote collaboration and knowledge exchange among relevant national and international  agencies and to discover the ways of addressing future challenges, FAO, together with ILRI, IFPRI and other partners organized the Regional Livestock Policy Forum at Royal Orchid Sheraton hotel in Bangkok on 16-17 Aug 2012. The forum was attended by about 80 participants comprising stakeholders from governments, national and international research agencies, civil society organizations, multilateral institutions, think tanks, private sector and regional and global networks. The forum provided a platform to share experiences, debate issues of key concern and to provide guidance for the nature of required policy response in different countries and growth scenarios.

Three keynote addresses highlighted environmental, social and health aspects of uncontrolled livestock sector growth and a number of presentations covered good practices and ongoing initiatives from a grass roots level perspective. Three thematic panel discussions were organized to further elaborate on selected key issues.

See ILRI presentations by:

• Jimmy Smith on ‘Health at the livestock‐policy interface’
• Joachim Otte and Delia Grace on ‘Human health risks at the animal-human interface’
• Steve Staal and Vinod Ahuja on ‘Poverty, food security, livestock and smallholders’

 

 

The Conference Proceedings will be made available on the APHCA website in the coming months. The presentations made at the meeting, the detailed program and a list of participants is available online

Original story by: Vinod Ahuja, Livestock Policy Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP)

Filed under: Agri-Health, Agriculture, Animal Production, Asia, CRP4, Event, ILRI, Livestock, MarketOpps, Zoonotic Diseases Tagged: FAO

Innovation platforms are a complex and some would say a not-so-straightforward approach. Nevertheless, ILRI, other CGIAR centers and other partners are using this approach in various projects such as the Nile Basin Development Challenge, IMGoats and the recently-completed Fodder Adoption and Fodder Innovation projects.

What are innovation platforms exactly?

This poster gives some ideas.

 

In light of experiences shared and questions posed in the recent imGoats workshop, here we briefly take stock of some ILRI experiences.

The recent India-Mozambique goats (imGoats) project reflection and learning workshop (July 2012) in Udaipur helped shape some reflections. The project, which aims to “increase incomes and food security in a sustainable manner by enhancing pro-poor small ruminant value chains in India and Mozambique”, has been using innovation platforms in its three sites: Mozambique as well as Jharkhand and Rajasthan in India.

In the learning and reflection workshop, two sessions were dedicated to a) describing the innovation platform processes in the three sites and b) finding practical solutions to improve these processes.

Early reflections indicate that using innovation platforms is much appreciated because it helps solve different issues, creates awareness about a wider set of issues related to a specific research agenda, reduces the weight of project interventions against the environment in which they are taking place (as the local constituents are taking ownership of the IP agenda), informs planning for all IP members and – though arguably perhaps – reduces the timeline between raising an issue and finding a solution.

The imGoats participants also identified some challenges related to innovation platforms:

• How to stimulate consistent participation of IP members?
• Should we ensure the sustainability of the IP and if so, how?
• How to facilitate the IP meetings and ensure strong engagement and ownership of participants?
• How to facilitate activities in between IP meetings and, as much as possible, with value chain actors?

They also reflected what they would do differently if they were to start the IP process all over again, revealing interesting opportunities on the horizon:

• Spending more time on advocating, explaining and agreeing about the  approach at the onset;
• Getting to know all members better before developing secretariat and groups;
• Pre-identifying issues that matter to goat farmers before bringing them to an IP meeting.

imGoats participants at the learning and reflection workshop sharing views about innovation platforms in India and Mozambique

Other wider IP questions raised in Udaipur concerned the diversity and intensity of participation, clarity of the vision/roles/tasks, information sharing and communication processes, problem-solving capabilities and facilitation mechanisms.

In the coming months, the imGoats project will try and unpack these questions and further document innovation platforms through:

• A technical advisory note on collective action (including innovation platforms);
• An internal reflection meeting on our experiences with IPs, hubs and collective action;
• An article on IP processes in the imGoats project and on the outcomes registered;
• Leaflet about the IP processes (in English and in Hindi).

More generally, ILRI and other organizations like it may need to better specify the roles they want to play vis-à-vis these platforms – which require a lot of facilitation and partnership/stakeholder management.

Read more about innovation platforms and systems

Filed under: Africa, Animal Production, Asia, CRP11, Drylands, Event, Goats, ILRI, India, Innovation Systems, Knowledge & Information, Livestock, MarketOpps, Mozambique, South Asia, Southern Africa Tagged: imGoats, innovation platforms

Classical swine fever is a highly contagious, potentially fatal viral disease that affects pigs. This disease is a major constraint to the development of pig farming systems in northeast India where pig farming is a main source of livelihood for most households. About 80 per cent of households in northeast India rear pigs and pork is a key part of the local diet.

A 2011 participatory epidemiological study conducted in Assam, Nagaland and Mizoram by the International Livestock Research Instititute (ILRI) with support from Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) and Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust (NRTT) revealed that pig farmers in India incur huge losses from mortality, treatment and replacement costs—amounting to over 2 billion rupees each year.

This ILRI Policy Brief briefly explains measures to control classical swine fever and recommends policy interventions to prevent and control the disease.

The brief was produced as part of the Enhancing Livelihoods through Livestock Knowledge Systems project under the TATA-ILRI partnership program.

Download the Policy Brief

Filed under: Agriculture, Animal Diseases, Asia, ILRI, India, Pigs, Policy, South Asia, Vaccines Tagged: Classical swine fever, ELKS, TATA

This week, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) joins partners in India for the launch of the m-kisan project, part of an mFarmer Initiative funded by GSMA (the worldwide association of mobile operators).

In partnership with Handygo Technologies, a mobile value adding service provider for major network operators, ILRI will provide quality content mainly for small scale dairy, poultry and goat farming. With the additional information provided by CABI and Digital Green, the m-Kisan project will run in six Indian states for the next two years.

The project purpose is to develop a comprehensive agro-advisory service for smallholders using mobile devices. Different mobile channels such as voice and text messages and on-demand videos, a Farmer Helpline, including multiparty teleconferences will be used. This exciting suite of agricultural advisory services on mobile will offer affordable and effective advice to smallholders on relevant crop and livestock topics and provide a platform for service providers, interest groups and experts alike to exchange knowledge and experiences of interest for the majority of farmers in each area.

The mFarmer Initiative was launched in 2011 in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID. It exists to support mobile service providers, in partnership with public and private sector agriculture organisations, to utilise the mobile channel to extend the reach and improve the quality of information and advisory services for smallholder farmers in emerging markets. It is expected to reach two million poor farming households by 2015.

The mKisan project management team and GSMA mAgri management are meeting this week (26 – 28 June 2012) in New Delhi, India to kick off the India project. The group will discuss key strategies for marketing and developing crop and livestock content of the service, review the workplan milestones and agree on M&E procedures. The latter will be supported by GSMA by engaging a local agency that specializes in project M&E in rural areas.

More about GSMA, mAgri and mFarmer

View a recent presentation by ILRI’S Pier Paolo Ficarelli on content management on m-Agriculture platforms 

Filed under: Agriculture, Asia, Extension, ILRI, India, KMIS, Knowledge & Information, South Asia Tagged: gsma, ICT, mKisan, Mobile phones

The Punjab Livestock and Dairy Development Board (PLDDB) has launched Pakistan’s first online dairy farming guide.

‘Pak Dairy Info’ gives information on Pakistan’s livestock and dairy sector, breeds suitable for dairy farming, selection of animals, modern dairy farm housing, management of animals at different stages, record keeping, farm sanitation and hygiene, feed and nutrition, reproduction, diseases and reproductive disorders are different topics which have been covered in this website.

Visit the web site

Filed under: Animal Production, Animal Products, Asia, Dairying, Pakistan, South Asia

Participants of an African swine fever workshop held in July 2011 at ILRI’s Nairobi headquarters: (From left) Raymond Rowland (Kansas State University), David Odongo (ILRI), Richard Bishop (ILRI), Maria-Jesus Munoz (Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal-Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias) and Jose-Manuel Vizcaino (head of the World Animal Health Organisation’s African Swine Fever World Reference Centre, in Madrid) on a visit to the new laboratories at ILRI and Biosciences eastern and central Africa (photo credit: ILRI/Edward Okoth).

‘Scientists from around the world came to Kansas State University’s Biosecurity Research Institute (BRI) May 15–17 to take a global look at the highly contagious viral disease, African swine fever (ASF). The researchers assembled to give updates on research and in some cases, the status of ASF in their countries.

‘ASF has not been found in the United States, but is a serious problem in Africa and outbreaks have occurred in other countries, including Spain, Italy, Russia and the Dominican Republic. There is no vaccine or treatment. Changes in production practices and increasing globalization have increased the risk of introducing ASF into North America and other parts of the world, according to the Center for Food Security and Public Health at Iowa State University. . . .

‘Humans are not susceptible to the African swine fever virus (ASFV), but when an outbreak occurs in any region or country, the financial and physical implications can be devastating to the swine industry and those related to it. During outbreaks in Malta and the Dominican Republic, for example, the swine herds of the entire countries were completely depopulated. . . .

Richard Bishop, senior molecular biologist with the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya spoke of the importance of the swine herd in Africa, adding that even one pig can make a significant difference in a family’s income. He said that the pig population in Africa increased 284% from 1980 to 1999 and that pork consumption during the period almost doubled. . . .’

Read the whole article at National Hog Farmer (USA): African swine fever represents growing global threat, 18 May 2012.

Filed under: Africa, Animal Diseases, Asia, Biotech, Disease Control, Emerging Diseases, Europe, Event, ILRI, North America, PA, Pigs, Russia, Vaccines Tagged: African swine fever, INIA, Richard Bishop

Demand for milk and meat continues to rise in developing countries (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

The New Agriculturist recently reported on a Safe Food, Fair Food Project led by scientists at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

‘Rising demand for livestock products is providing opportunities to improve the livelihoods of smallscale livestock farmers across Africa. However, with generally low levels of hygiene throughout the value chain, this new market opportunity for farmers could come at a high price in terms of food-borne disease. In response, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is implementing a ‘Safe food, fair food’ programme, to improve the safety of livestock products, maximise market access for livestock keepers and minimise the risk of food-borne disease.

Safer food can generate both health and wealth for the poor, but attaining safe food in developing countries requires a radical change in food safety assessment, management and communication,’ explains Delia Grace, Safe food, fair food principal investigator. ‘We are doing this by adapting risk-based approaches, successfully used for food safety in developed countries and international trade, to domestic informal markets, where most livestock products are sold.’

‘The project has conducted national workshops to engage policymakers to raise awareness about the potential food safety hazards that exist along the entire value chain, from farm to fork. “Use of participatory methods at a community level provides ways in which better food safety management in informal markets in sub-Saharan Africa can be promoted,” Grace adds. . . .’

Read the whole article at New Agriculturist: Safe food, fair food: Improving livestock health and livelihoods, Nov 2011.

Watch a short photofilm on this subject: Dying for meat, which is narrated by ILRI’s Delia Grace and features small-scale butchers and consumers interviewed in Nairobi about issues that connect animal and human health. This film was made for ILRI by duckrabbit, a UK-based multimedia production company.

Or read a chapter written by Delia Grace and her colleague John McDermott, Agriculture-associated diseases: Adapting agriculture to improve human health, which was recently published in a conference proceedings volume titled Reshaping Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, edited by S Fan and R Pandya-Lorch, Washington DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), pp 103–111.

Filed under: Africa, Agri-Health, Asia, Consumption, CRP4, Film and video, Food Safety, ILRI, MarketOpps, Nutrition (human), PA, Project Tagged: 2011 IFPRI 2020 Conference on Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health (Delhi), agnutrhealth2011, Delia Grace, Dying for Meat Photofilm, Fair Food Project, IFPRI, New Agriculturist, Safe Food, Safe Food Fair Food

Since 1999, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)  has partnered with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) to provide capacity building on the sustainable use of Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR).

This report by Julie Ojango, Birgitta Malmfors, Okeyo Mwai, and Jan Philipsson on Training the trainers – An innovative and successful model for capacity building in animal genetic resource utilization in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia was released by ILRI and SLU on 31 December 2011.

Scientists from 46 developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia have been trained on animal breeding and genetics developments, implementation of breeding strategies, and on teaching and communication methods.

Livestock accounts on average for about 30% of the agricultural GDP in developing countries, yet the productivity of many livestock populations is inadequate due to a complexity of factors. The genetic variability between and within species and breeds is largely unexploited at the same time as a continuous loss of genetic diversity takes place. Livestock productivity must increase to meet the projected demand for doubled meat and milk production within a few decades in developing countries, while minimizing environmental impact. These challenges require highly skilled people to lead the development in the desired direction. Unfortunately, developing countries suffer from a shortage of trained people, not least in the area of animal breeding and genetics, both at research and higher education institutions and in organizations responsible for livestock development.

It is in this context that the ILRI-SLU project has developed its philosophy of ‘training the trainers’ to effectively multiply knowledge and concepts to new generations of students, researchers and policy makers. This synthesis report provides insights and reflections on the project’s outputs and outcomes, and informs on the ways forward in terms of further investment in developing and strengthening human capacity in the field of AnGR.

Download the research report

More on this topic:

• AGTR – the ILRI-SLU Animal genetics training resource

• DAGRIS – the domestic animal genetic resources system

• Our animal genetic resources virtual library

Filed under: Africa, Animal Breeding, Asia, Biodiversity, Biotech, Capacity Strengthening, ILRI, Indigenous Breeds, Livestock, Report, Research Tagged: AnGR, SLU

This new report from the ACIAR – the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research – argues that  the “improvement of production and profitability in smallholder beef enterprises is typically not limited by a lack of promising feeding and management technologies. It is more due to low access to, and uptake of, these technologies. There has generally been little understanding of how these technologies can be adapted to and integrated into smallholder systems.”

The case studies in this publication highlight approaches that have been taken by recent ACIAR-funded projects in Indonesia, Vietnam and China
to better understand the social, economic and technical drivers and inhibitors of uptake of these promising technologies.

 

Download the report …

Filed under: Animal Production, Asia, Books and chapters, China, Crop residues, Crop-Livestock, Indonesia, Livestock Systems, Southeast Asia, Value Chains, Vietnam Tagged: ACIAR, Beef

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at ILRI, Iain Wright, Siboniso Moyo and Abdou Fall prepared an issue brief on ILRI’s regional activities …

As a global research institute, ILRI focuses its research on challenges of global importance At the same time, it serves the needs of its stakeholders and poor livestock keepers in different regions of the world. It has to find a balance between international – global – public goods and the delivery of local or regional goods.

Download Issue Brief 7.

In this video, Iain Wright reflects on ILRI’s strategy for livestock development in Asia:

On 9 and 10 November 2011, the ILRI Board of Trustees hosts a 2-day ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ to discuss and reflect on livestock research for development. The event will synthesize sector and ILRI learning and help frame future livestock research for development directions.

The liveSTOCK Exchange will also mark the leadership and contributions of Dr. Carlos Seré as ILRI Director General.  See all posts in this series / Sign up for email alerts

Filed under: Africa, Asia, ILRI, Livestock, Partnerships, Report, Research Tagged: livestockX

‘Maasai herding’, painting by Kahare Miano (photo credit: ILRI/Dave Elsworth).

A new 19-page briefing paper provides a synthesis of key lessons learnt from evaluations of relief and recovery responses to past slow-onset disasters—particularly drought, and food and livelihoods insecurity. The paper is intended for people working in relief and recovery operations for slow-onset disasters—those who have to decide if, when and how to intervene. The paper was developed by two organizations—the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (www.alnap.org) and the ProVention Consortium (www.proventionconsortium.org).

Among the lessons they highlight are (1) to move away from ‘food-first’ responses, laying greater stress on water and livelihoods and (2) to intervene early to save money as well as lives.

‘ALNAP pored over 200 evaluations and lessons-learned reports since 2007 . . . . [with] the development-to-relief continuum . . .  now pretty much accepted as the way forward in drought situations.’

Several of the lessons learned in this briefing paper jibe with those offered by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in a study of the response to Kenya’s last devastating drought, in 2008–2009, especially the need for drought-cycle management. The ILRI study found that investments aimed at increasing the mobility of livestock herders—a way of life often viewed as ‘backward’ despite being one of the most economical and productive uses of Kenya’s drylands—could be key to averting future food crises in arid lands. The report, An Assessment of the Response to the 2008–2009 Drought in Kenya, suggests that herding makes better economic sense than crop agriculture in many of the arid and semi-arid lands that constitute 80 per cent of the Horn of Africa, and supporting mobile livestock herding communities in advance and with timely interventions can help people cope the next time drought threatens.

Here are 13 lessons reported by IRIN and outlined in the ALNAP/ProVention Consortium briefing paper.

’1. Food aid does not meet many of the humanitarian needs caused by drought, according to European Union humanitarian agency ECHO. Beneficiaries in the Horn of Africa drought in 2008–9 said they were grateful for the food, but really needed water, seeds and fodder. Agencies should move away from “food-first” responses—most assessments focus “disproportionately” on food security, which can lead to “inappropriate interventions”, says ALNAP. Up to 70 percent of the Horn of Africa humanitarian appeals have focused on food since 2005, and only 15 percent on livelihoods. Assessments should equally evaluate health, water, fodder, market needs and nutrition indicators.

’2. While there has been a lot of learning about the best ways to help pastoralists in droughts—setting up fodder storage and water points on migration routes; hay-making; timely destocking; cash transfers; cross-border response; applying LEGS minimum standards for livestock; these are rarely, if ever, implemented on a sufficient scale to make a significant difference.

’3. Agencies and donors still do not pay enough attention to livelihoods: there is no livelihoods cluster and the Central Emergency Response Fund does not prioritize them as they are not considered “life-saving”, but this does not tally with people’s priorities on the ground.

’4. Agencies and donors should get creative with their market interventions: consider index-based insurance (i.e. weather or crop insurance); food, milk and seed vouchers; subsidizing food; handing out cash.

’5. Timely cash injections can save the need for more costly interventions later. Many beneficiaries respond best to a combination of cash and other responses. For instance, in Somalia in 2009 children receiving therapeutic feeding with Save the Children UK gained weight 45 percent more quickly when their families were also receiving cash vouchers. While the use of cash in emergencies has increased 100-fold over the last decade, more careful market analysis is still needed to make cash injections work well.

’6. Timely water interventions—such as rebuilding water points, and setting up water management systems—are rarely well-funded or successfully implemented, so agencies often resort to trucking in water, which is expensive. Too often water programmes also reinforce social hierarchies—water assessments should take these factors into account.

’7. Early warning triggers are much better than they used to be, but are still not necessarily acted upon. Getting in early in most interventions, saves cash: in southern Ethiopia, Save the Children US found it cost US$1 to help a pastoralist destock, which released enough money to feed their families for two months—the equivalent in food aid would have cost the agency $165.

’8. Donors should be flexible with their development funding to respond to drought scenarios. ALNAP gives credit where credit is due: governments, donors and aid agencies are trying to move beyond the humanitarian-development divide in the current Horn of Africa drought response. Agencies should also practice “drought cycle management”—in other words, base responses on the cyclical nature of droughts. Oxfam in Wajir, Kenya, used flexible funds to repeatedly change its objectives from supporting livestock markets, to increasing trade, to helping pastoralists destock; to vaccinating animals as the crisis developed.

’9. The better the vulnerability assessment, the more likely donors are to respond to it. For instance, the high-quality work produced by the Southern Africa “Vulnerability Assessment Committee”—with 36 members from government, NGOs, UN and donors—has sped up donor response to drought in the region. Agencies should be vigilant that assessments do not overlook vulnerable groups—such as poorer pastoralists, the elderly, or the displaced. NGO HelpAge International found high levels of malnutrition in the elderly in Borana, Ethiopia, in the 2000 drought, as they had been skipping meals to feed children, but only under-five malnutrition was originally assessed.

’10. Accountability to beneficiaries is much better, still not good enough: It needs to improve with stronger (and more culturally appropriate) communication with local communities, participatory assessments and better trained staff.

’11. Again, repeated for over a decade: response should aim to support local coping techniques—such as building on traditional knowledge and coping systems—rather than imposing new ones.

’12. Cut down the paperwork: to relieve aid agencies from spending a “disproportionate amount of time on timelines, log-frames and budgets”. Donors should consider more pooled funds to decrease reporting requirements.

’13. And finally, not enough is known about what local NGOs are doing to help reduce the impact of droughts; how locals help themselves and each other in drought situations; and too little attention has thus far been paid to the cost-effectiveness of different drought responses (measuring this against impact). More research is needed in each of these areas, says ALNAP.’

Read the article at IRIN: Drought response—lessons still to learn, 20 Oct 2011.

Read the briefing paper:  Slow-onset disasters: Drought and food and livelihoods insecurity—Learning from previous relief and recovery responses, ALNAP and ProVention Consortium, 2007.

Read the ‘lessons paper’: Humanitarian action in drought-related emergencies, ALNAP, Oct 2011.

Read ILRI’s report: An assessment of the response to the 2008–2009 drought in Kenya: A report to the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Kenya, 2010, by Lammert Zwaagstra, Zahra Sharif, Ayago Wambile, Jan de Leeuw, Mohamed Said, Nancy Johnson, Jemimah Njuki, Polly Ericksen and Mario Herrero.

Filed under: Africa, Asia, CRP11, Drought, Drylands, Food security, ILRI, Impact Assessment, Kenya, LivestockFutures, PA, Pastoralism, PLE, Vulnerability Tagged: ALNAP, DroughtInHorn2011, IRIN, ProVention Consortium

From 13–15 October 2011, several staff of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) attended the 7th International Conference of the Asian Society of Agricultural Economists, in Hanoi, Vietnam.

ILRI organized two parallel sessions:
(1) Food safety policy in a developing-country context: Examples from case studies in livestock value chains
(2) Assessing the impact of livestock research for development.

And ILRI presented two contributed papers:
(1) Are smallholders willing to pay for animal disease control? Empirical evidence from a study of mass vaccination for avian influenza in Indonesia
(2) On the economics of small-scale household pig production in Vietnam: Survey results, analysis, and assessment.

Pictured at the ILRI display table at the conference are, from left to right, seated, Nancy Johnson (Poverty, Gender & Impact Unit) and Ranjitha Puskur (Markets Theme), and standing, Delia Grace, Lucy Lapar and Ram Deka (all of Markets Theme).

Please visit the conference website for more details: http://7thasae.ipsard.gov.vn/index.htm

Filed under: Agriculture, Animal Diseases, Asia, Emerging Diseases, Event, Food security, ILRI, Indonesia, Livestock, Markets, PLE, Value Chains, Vietnam Tagged: Bird flu, Delia Grace, Lucy Lapar, Nancy Johnson, Ram Deka, Ranjitha Puskur

Early detection of zoonotic pathogens emerging in wild and domestic animal populations before they become a threat to human health is a priority for the public health and animal health sectors. An effective and credible laboratory service is an essential component of such early detection systems.

As part of the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are collaborating on a project known as ‘IDENTIFY’ that strengthens national laboratory capacity for rapid and accurate detection of targeted diseases in the Congo Basin in central Africa and in countries in South and South-East Asia.

Download a leaflet on laboratory capacity building (PDF)

More on the IDENTIFY project

Filed under: Africa, Agri-Health, Animal Diseases, Asia, Capacity Strengthening, CRP4, Emerging Diseases, Health (human), Livestock, South Asia, Southeast Asia, West Africa, Zoonotic Diseases Tagged: FAO, IDENTIFY Project, OIE, USAID, WHO

For the past several years, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has worked on a project to better livelihoods through improvement of livestock production and marketing in northeast India that is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

In this 8-minute video, ILRI’s Pier-Paolo Ficarelli, a knowledge management specialist based in India, reports from a research site in Umlathu, a village in the forested, hilly state of Meghalaya, in northeastern India. The film explores with villagers the multiple realities of livestock farming, focusing on pig farming and local perspectives and demands for its development.

Filed under: Animal Production, Asia, Film and video, ILRI, India, Livestock Systems, Markets, Pigs, PLE, Project, Research, South Asia Tagged: IFAD, Meghalaya

Planting soy in the state of Paraná, Brazil (photograph via Flickr by Dami Izolan).

Daniel Kfouri reports in the New York Times that Brazil’s ‘$7 billion agreement signed last month—to produce six million tons of soybeans a year—is one of several struck in recent weeks as China hurries to shore up its food security and offset its growing reliance on crops from the United States by pursuing vast tracts of Latin America’s agricultural heartland.

‘Even as Brazil, Argentina and other nations move to impose limits on farmland purchases by foreigners, the Chinese are seeking to more directly control production themselves, taking their nation’s fervor for agricultural self-sufficiency overseas. . . .

‘While many welcome the investments, the aggressive push comes as Brazilian officials have begun questioning the “strategic partnership” with China encouraged by former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Chinese have become so important to Brazil’s economy that it cannot do without them—and that is precisely what is making Brazil increasingly uneasy. . . .

‘China’s moves to buy land have made officials nervous. Last August, Luís Inácio Adams, Brazil’s attorney general, reinterpreted a 1971 law, making it significantly harder for foreigners to buy land in Brazil. Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, followed suit last month, sending a law to Congress limiting the size and concentration of rural land foreigners could own.

‘A World Bank study last year said that volatile food prices had brought a “rising tide” of large-scale farmland purchases in developing nations, and that China was among a small group of countries making most of the purchases. . . .

‘[A]s more of its people eat meat, China is expected to increase its soybean imports, mostly for animal feed, by more than 50 percent by 2020, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Last month, Chongqing Grains signed a $2.5 billion agreement to produce soybeans in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Last October, a Chinese group agreed to develop about 500,000 acres of farmland in Río Negro Province in Argentina.

‘In both cases, Chinese officials proposed buying large tracts of land before local officials steered them toward production agreements. . . .

‘In Goiás State, nearly 70 percent of the soy grown went to the Chinese last year, and the Chinese are seeking to use about 20 million acres of pastureland that has not been cultivated for decades. . . .

‘Farmers here say they share Chinese officials’ goal of breaking the stranglehold of international trading companies like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland. . . .’

Read the whole article at the New York Times: China’s interest in farmland makes Brazil uneasy, 26 May 2011.

Filed under: Agriculture, Animal Feeding, Asia, Brazil, China, Latin America, PA, Trade, USA Tagged: Land grabs, NYT, Soybeans