International Livestock Research Institute

Demand for animal-source foods (ASF) is growing globally, and the consumption can improve food and nutrition security. However, there are growing food safety risks associated with milk contamination. Studies assessing food safety measures (FSM) at the farm level are still limited. This study investigated FSM adoption in Kenyan smallholder dairy farms. Data were collected through focus group discussions (FGDs) and a farm survey involving 652 farmers, which considered 11 milking hygiene, 6 milk storage, 6 environmental hygiene, and 7 animal health measures. The Food Safety Index (FSI) was 51.67%, which reveals average FSM adoption and a good agricultural practices (GAPs) compliance gap that exposes consumers to public health risks. FSM adoption was associated with participation in formal and/or informal milk value chains, socio-economic and demographic factors, knowledge of milk quality standards and regulations, farm biophysical conditions, market dynamics and institutional factors. There is a need for increasing FSM adoption through improving farmers' knowledge, supporting their access to financial resources, and providing infrastructure and services, including roads, inputs, extension and animal health services. Policymakers should design and implement policies that address specific farmers' needs. There is also a need to provide economic incentives and ensure that the market rewards dairy producers who adopt high levels of FSM that lead to safer milk. Finally, promoting the One Health approach can help farmers address human, environmental and animal health risks, which can reduce food safety risks in dairy value chains.

There are livestock species such as rabbit, guinea fowl, and grasscutter in Sub-Saharan Africa which are traditionally consumed but have not received as much attention and support from policy and research compared to conventional livestock species such as cattle, sheep, goat, pig and poultry. Despite the growing interest in such neglected livestock species (NLS), evidence on their integration, production, and drivers of adoption remain sparse. This comparative study investigates the production characteristics, profitability, and determinants of farmers' choices between conventional and NLS production in Ogun and Oyo States, Nigeria. We conducted a quantitative survey of 183 smallholder livestock producers, selected using simple random and snowball sampling procedures across Ogun and Oyo States. Data were collected through questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and cost-benefit analysis. The findings show that women were disproportionately engaged in NLS production. Intensive and semi-intensive production systems were the most prevalent, driven by land scarcity and the adaptability of NLS to confined production environments. Feed emerged as the dominant cost component across both species, significantly impacting profitability. Logistic regression analysis showed that the choice of NLS production was positively and significantly associated with mode of land acquisition, profit, and access to credit. Profitability analysis revealed that NLS systems achieved a higher return on investment than conventional systems, offering a viable pathway for enhancing income, food security, and resilience among smallholders in the study areas. Conclusively, with an appropriate policy framework, neglected livestock species could contribute to a transformative shift in Southwestern Nigeria's livestock landscape.

Research for Development support to smallholder farming systems is, with 70-90% of the global public and philanthropic funds, heavily skewed towards technical solutions i.e. seeds, fertilizers, technologies; while it is people and social systems that make or break “change”. In their decision-making, smallholders are often restricted by a lack of knowledge to fully and sustainably use the potential of their agricultural resources. In low-and-middle-income countries extension services are in place to fill knowledge gaps, yet these are chronically understaffed, farm households are often remote, extension budgets limited and language barriers exist. Digital extension tools are meant to serve as a low-cost, innovative way to reach more farmers. In practice, most digital extension tools have a low social fit: they are inaccessible (low digital literary, poor network, unaffordable), commercial (non-impartial) and non-inclusive (women less frequently owning smartphones), resulting in a limited uptake and impact. As part of the CIRNA project (CIRcularity of Nutrients in Agroecosystems and co-benefits for animal and human health), we analysed phone ownership and use for agricultural extension in Kenya and Uganda. 99% of the households we interviewed owned a basic (feature) phone, while smartphone ownership was much higher in Kenya (82%) than in Uganda (28%). We teamed up with a Social Enterprise from Kenya, specialized on inclusive ICT solutions for development, to create two locally grounded digital extension pathways for smallholders: An AI-driven WhatsApp chatbot for Kenya, capitalizing on higher smartphone adoption, and an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) hotline for Uganda to ensure accessibility for feature phone users. The chatbot in Kenya has an SMS dial-in option, too, so also feature phone users can participate. The extension tools are built on a social business model where revenue from content scaling is re-invested into the platform. Early demand testing in Uganda has already engaged over 29,000 farmers, signalling a robust appetite for the proposed digital advisory service. We explore the potential of these tools to not only "scale out" numbers but "scale deep" by impacting social norms, specifically targeting women and youth to ensure inclusive development.

The control of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) remains constrained by institutional, financial and technical barriers in many livestock-keeping regions of sub-Saharan Africa, despite its detrimental impact on trade, pastoral livelihoods and food security. Therefore, livestock keepers are relying on suboptimal use of antimicrobials to manage CBPP outbreaks. We conducted an outbreak investigation to understand epidemiological and management practices in 95 herds with ongoing or recent cases of CBPP in five counties of Kenya. A wide range of antimicrobials including tetracycline, penicillin-streptomycin (pen & strep), tylosin, and diminazen were used in majority of herds (90/95; 94.7%), with half of these herds receiving sequential administration of two or more types of drugs to address failure of the first use. Only 33/95 (34.7%) of farmers reported to have vaccinated their animals and most of them vaccinated in response to outbreaks in their herds rather than the expected routine preventive program (28/33, 84.8%). The average case fatality rate (CFR) for CBPP was estimated at 36%, with only treatment with tylosin resulting in a significant reduction in mortalities due to CBPP (p = 0.035). Majority of livestock keepers (83.3%) continued to consume milk from their animals during and after the treatment period, without observing the stipulated withdrawal periods. Policy emphasis should shift toward prudent use of antimicrobials and preventive vaccination as the cornerstone of CBPP control, while using multifaceted One Health strategy that bridges veterinary, public health, and environmental sectors.

Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) act as molecular chaperones that protect other proteins from damage caused by stress-induced denaturation. Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon L.) is a broadly adopted forage and turfgrass known for its capability to withstand various abiotic stresses. However, the biological pathways by which sHSPs promote drought tolerance in bermudagrass remain unclear. In this study, 99 sHSPs were characterized in the bermudagrass genome. Drought stress led to the induction of the majority of these genes with CdsHSP16.970 showing the most significant induction. Overexpression (OE) of CdsHSP16.970 promoted root elongation and improved seedling growth performance in transgenic Arabidopsis lines under osmotic stress, with reduced electrolyte leakage (EL) and lower malondialdehyde (MDA) deposition compared with the control. Meanwhile, several stress-related genes were significantly induced in CdsHSP16.970-OE plants when subjected to osmotic stress compared to the control group. Two basic leucine zipper transcription factors, CdbZIP04 and CdbZIP65, were also induced by drought stress in bermudagrass. Further investigation using electrophoretic mobility shift assay, yeast one-hybrid and dual-LUC assays revealed that they directly and specifically bind to the upstream regulatory region of CdsHSP16.970, consequently promoting its expression. In summary, our results suggest that the CdbZIPs-CdsHSP16.970 cascade positively regulates the osmotic stress signaling pathway in bermudagrass.

Aquaculture extension enables the shift from subsistence to competitive production in East Africa. Yet, coverage and quality remain uneven, limiting technology adoption, farm productivity, and knowledge transfer among small-scale producers. We assessed the development and performance of aquaculture extension in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, and identified design features that accelerate impact using Egypt as a benchmark. We conducted a systematic literature review with structured searches of major databases and grey literature from 1990 to March 2025, with Explicit Inclusion Criteria and the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Findings show pluralistic yet weakly coordinated ecosystems. Public services protect equity, biosecurity, and standards, but face chronic underfunding and farmer-to-agent ratios often above one to one thousand. Donor and NGO programs spread farmer field schools and demonstration ponds, yet gains often fade after projects end. Private embedded and fee-based advisory delivers timely and site-specific support in commercial clusters but raises conflict of interest risks and limits access for poorer or remote farmers. Compared with Egypt, where sustained state coordination, production zones, and strong research-to-extension links prevail, East African trajectories are fragmented and cyclical. Across channels, blended digital and human delivery achieves stronger adoption than digital only. Evidence on costs, sustained adoption, inclusion of women and youth, and environmental outcomes remains thin. Heterogeneity and short follow-up limit inference. The review outlines a practical agenda that protects public goods, accredits and co-finances private advice, strengthens research to extension to farmer platforms, invests in competency-based training and inclusive multilingual digital human blends, and adopts shared metrics for cost and impact.

The invasion of Prosopis juliflora poses a growing threat to dryland ecosystems and pastoral livelihoods across East Africa. This study presents an integrative approach that combines satellite remote sensing, machine learning, and citizen science to detect and map the spatial extent and socio-ecological impacts of Prosopis juliflora in Baringo County, Kenya. We evaluated the performance of three satellite platforms, Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and PlanetScope, using a Random Forest classifier trained on field collected presence–absence data and vegetation indices. Sentinel-2 outperformed the other sensors, achieving a classification accuracy of 90.65%, with key variables including the Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index (VARI), the Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI), and red-edge bands emerging as the most important predictors. Through Participatory GIS (PGIS), a citizen-science based approach, we engaged gender-disaggregated community groups to capture local perceptions of invasion hotspots and blocked access to grazing routes and water sources, enhancing contextual understanding and validating model outputs. The comparison of satellite-derived maps and PGIS outputs revealed strong spatial congruence, particularly along water bodies, roads, and croplands. Our findings demonstrate the potential of combining Earth observation and citizen science to generate actionable knowledge for managing invasive species in data scarce dryland environments. This hybrid framework supports inclusive and spatially targeted interventions for rangeland restoration and ecosystem resilience.