Sustainable livestock systems

Sustainable livestock systems

Objective

The program brings together technologies and approaches from other ILRI programs (and elsewhere) in a systems context to address synergies and trade-offs to optimize the economic, social and environmental roles of livestock. It also addresses the two-way interactions between livestock and the environment; while livestock production is often a driver of environmental change, future climate change will have significant impacts on livestock production.

Recent accomplishments

Development of index-based livestock insurance (IBLI). Since its inception, IBLI has covered 20,000 pastoral households in Kenya and Ethiopia and made payouts to at least 12,000.

Establishment of the Mazingira Centre, the only facility in Africa to measure greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, complementing modelling work and generating unique data on emission factors for African livestock systems.
 

Related Publications

Greenhouse gas emissions from cattle enclosures in semi-arid sub-Saharan Africa: The case of a rangeland in South-Central Kenya

  • Leitner, Sonja M.
  • Carbonell, Victoria
  • Mhindu, Rangarirayi L.
  • Zhu, Yuhao
  • Mutuo, Paul
  • Butterbach-Bahl, Klaus
  • Merbold, Lutz

Farmer-led livestock feed and feeding practices in Kenya: Dairy

  • Lukuyu, Ben A.
  • Gichuki, Francis N.
  • Kiptoo, Emmaculate
  • Habermann, Birgit
  • DuttaGupta, Tanaya
  • Bullock, Renee

Scaling with households: socially inclusive locally led scaling of climate adaptation practices in dairy systems of Kenya

  • DuttaGupta, Tanaya

  • Bullock, Renee
  • Habermann, Birgit
  • Gichuki, Leah
  • Kiptoo, Emmaculate

Haymaking

  • Lukuyu, Ben A.
  • Gichuki, Leah

Silage making: Above ground method

  • Lukuyu, Ben A.
  • Gichuki, Leah

Desmodium for livestock feed

  • Lukuyu, Ben A.
  • Gichuki, Leah

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