ILRI has worked in Tanzania since 1994 on issues ranging from market mechanisms to food safety and livestock policy. Today, ILRI research in Tanzania focuses on sustainable intensification of mixed crop– livestock systems through increasing productivity and value chain development. ILRI also works on improving the nutrition and health of poor people by exploiting and enhancing the synergies between agriculture, nutrition and health. ILRI’s focus in this area is on the control of agriculture-associated diseases within the same value chains.
ILRI focuses on these two areas because it is critically important to shape the trajectory of Tanzania's livestock development in the coming years in ways that maximize benefits (e.g. food and nutrition security, employment and livelihoods, asset building) and minimize harms (e.g., illness due to consuming unsafe meat, milk or eggs, environmental destruction, or the spread of zoonotic diseases).
ILRI research in Tanzania is delivered in association with national and other partners including African Breeders Services Total Cattle Management Ltd, China Agricultural University, Farm Africa, Green Dreams Tech Ltd., Heifer International, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), International Food Policy Research Institute, Land O'Lakes Inc, Natural Resources Institute, Nelson Mandela Africa Institute of Science and Technology, Scotland’s Rural College, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania Livestock Research Institute, TechnoServe, Texas A&M Agrilife Research, University of New England and Wageningen UR.
ILRI research in Tanzania is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Department for International Development (UK), German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), government of Tanzania, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Land Coalition (ILC), Irish Aid and United States Agency for International Development. ILRI researchers are also actively involved in several CGIAR research programs (Livestock; Agriculture for Nutrition and Health; Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security; and policy institutions and markets) and the CGIAR Genebank platform.
