Livestock and dairy

This article discusses women’s struggle in food value chains, in particular the dairy value chain. Women in sub-Saharan Africa play a key role in informal and formal stages of food value chains, including as producers, processors, traders and consumers. At the same time, fostering food value chains has become both a priority and a challenge for many stakeholders in Africa. »

This article reviews how small-scale poultry can contribute to improved household food and nutrition security. Small-scale poultry production systems are mostly found in rural, resource-poor areas that often also experience food insecurity. These poultry systems are accessible to vulnerable groups of society, and provide households with income and nutritionally-rich food sources. »

This report presents results of field testing a new and affordable food grade plastic container (the “Mazzican“) to assess acceptability and validate its efficacy to improve the bacteriological quality of milk when it is used for handling and transportation of raw milk by agro-pastoralists and smallholder farmers. »

This paper in the Animal Genetic Resources Journal, characterizes dairy production systems in India, Tanzania, Kenya and Nicaragua, and describes the genetic and breeding technologies that hold promise for the advancement of global development goals. In all the countries, enhanced and adequately planned use of breeding and reproductive technologies, complemented with the relevant infrastructure, is needed to sustainably increase dairy productivity. »

This book by SNV and WUR intends to give an insight into the work that SNV’s Kenya Market-led Dairy Programme (KMDP) has been doing over the past four years. This book introduces 18 of these farmers, farmer cooperatives and companies to illustrate KMDP’s impact in the field. These inspirational stories trace the successes and struggles that have lead to changes in attitudes and significant improvements in management practices on dairy farms in different regions in Kenya. »

This info-note by CGIAR, USAID and FAO presents the results on the decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Program II (RDCP). It was estimated to have resulted in a strong decrease in the GHG emissions intensity of milk production. The increase in milk output was proportionally much larger than the associated increase in GHG emissions. This increase in the efficiency of dairy production systems was the basis for a transformation to more sustainable production patterns in intensive and extensive dairy systems. »