Ethiopia

Established in Ethiopia in 1974, ILRI has a rich history of projects that have delivered positive research and development outcomes in the livestock and agriculture sector. Today, ILRI’s research in Ethiopia is focused on:

• Building pastoral resilience through Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) works to protect livestock keepers from drought-related asset losses, particularly in Ethiopia’s drought-prone arid and semi-arid lands. IBLI triggers payouts to pastoralists and livestock keepers in the event of severe seasonal forage scarcity during the dry season, helping pastoralists purchase inputs and services required to keep animals alive.
• The forage genebank holds vital genetic resources to improve animal nutrition by conserving, characterizing and maximizing the use of forage diversity. The genebank holds a large collection of forage accessions and related information and makes it available as part of a global system of genetic resource conservation and sustainable use.

• One Health for Humans, Environment, Animals and Livelihoods enhances the well-being and resilience of vulnerable communities in pastoralist and agro-pastoralist regions of Ethiopia. The project brings together professionals in human and animal health and the environment to achieve better access to human and veterinary health services and sustainable natural resources management.

   

• Tropical Poultry Genetics Solutions (TPGS) works on identifying, developing and testing high-producing and farmer-preferred poultry genotypes and makes them available to smallholder farmers. The project delivers poultry at scale to farmers through its public and private sector partnerships in order to improve household income and nutrition and create more employment opportunities for women and youth.
• African-Asian Dairy Genetic Gains identifies genetically superior bulls and cows, and supports their multiplication, availability and wider use. It also focuses on capacity building and knowledge sharing to empower farmers to make informed decisions on the health and management of their animals and to take advantage of the latest breeding technologies.
• Enviro-Cow reduces feed costs and greenhouse gas emissions in smallholder dairy cattle by providing small-scale farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa with access to feed-efficient and well-adapted cows.
• Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSI) promotes innovative small-scale irrigation technologies to sustainably increase crop livestock productivity, increase the resilience of smallholder farmers to climatic shocks, strengthen the irrigated fodder value chain, build local capacity and create an enabling environment to increase the adoption of such technologies. The program will boost livestock productivity by 30%.