A recent study by the Crowdsourcing for Rangeland Conditions project—implemented through a collaboration between ILRI, Cornell University and the University of Sydney—applied a crowdsourcing approach to collect detailed information on forage conditions in northern Kenya. Continue reading
Africa currently only attracts around 5 per cent of climate funding. This is despite the fact that six of the 10 countries most affected by climate change are in Africa, and every single African nation that submitted climate adaptation strategies to the UNFCCC in Paris last year, included agriculture in its plans. Continue reading
Developed in partnership with International Livestock Research Institute, Cornell University and University of California Davis, IBLI uses data gathered by satellite to create a vegetation index that can be used to track the density of vegetation available to pastoralists. Continue reading
Andrew Mude, a Kenyan economist, has a way of explaining satellites. When he’s talking to pastoral in his country’s north — people who roam the earth with a dozen head of cattle and very little else — he talks about the stars that don’t act like other stars. “They’re actually taking pictures of the ground,” Mude says. Herders, a stargazing people, understand. Continue reading
Pastoral populations of Sub-Saharan Africa are particularly vulnerable to environmental shocks, which contribute to livestock mortality and therefore losses in both wealth and productive assets. Although conventional insurance mechanisms covering individual losses are generally not cost effective (page 2) in low-income pastoral communities that engage in extensive grazing, index insurance for livestock offers a promising … Continue reading
Originally posted on ILRI news:
Andrew Mude, speaking at an event announcing his award held at ILRI in Nairobi, Kenya, 30 Aug 2016 (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). Researcher Andrew Mude and colleagues are also receiving today a USAID ‘Award for Scientific Excellence’. Both awards honour innovative use of satellite technology and community outreach to develop livestock insurance…
Sophie Mbugua Sep. 2, 2016 A Kenyan economist has won the 2016 Norman Borlaug Award from the World Food Prize for an innovative program that provides pastoralists with livestock insurance…. Continue reading
