Habtamu Sibilu sets a dynamic cone penetrometer upright on a flat patch of grass. He lifts up the weight, drops it, and records how many centimetres into the soil the penetrometer penetrates. After doing this as many times as it takes to reach 20 cm deep into the soil, Sibilu looks over his shoulder to … Continue reading
Flying a mere 9 meters above the grasslands at Kapiti, ILRI’s Research Station and Wildlife Conservancy, a drone not only took pictures of the landscape and livestock inhabitants, but was also measuring methane emissions from herds of ruminants (camels, goats, cows and sheep that digest plant-based food in a specialized stomach, resulting in methane production … Continue reading
The hidden connection: Cattle, methane, and our well-being At first glance, the relationship between cattle, methane emissions and human health might not seem obvious. However, delve a little deeper, and the links become clear. Agriculture significantly contributes to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with a hefty slice of this pie attributed to ruminants like cattle, … Continue reading
As we jumped up and down on the bumpy roads at Kapiti Research Station and Wildlife Conservancy, our team was on a quest to map the different soil types across the conservancy. We were headed on what we coined a ”Soil Safari.” Amidst seeing herds of zebras and giraffes the team, led by new doctoral candidate Fiona … Continue reading
Loyapin Bondé, a plant ecologist from the Université Joseph KI-ZERBO in Burkina Faso, recently visited the Mazingira Centre, the International Livestock Research Institute’s (ILRI) environmental and climate research facility in Nairobi, Kenya. The purpose behind this visit? To connect with climate scientists to learn more about ILRI’s gas chromatography laboratory. Gas chromatography machines are designed to detect and measure greenhouse … Continue reading
In a meta-analysis published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Claudia Arndt, Leader of the Mazingira Centre at the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya, and a score of experts from top-level institutes around the world reviewed hundreds of peer-reviewed studies for strategies designed to decrease product-based and absolute enteric methane emissions by ruminants. The research was initiated by Alexander N. Hristov at Penn State University. They found that livestock production could help meet the 1.5°C target by 2030—with the provision that the identified most effective product-based and the most effective absolute mitigation strategies be fully adopted, a goal that would require concerted action to identify and remove adoption barriers. Continue reading
Research shows that the GHG emissions intensities (EI) of smallholder livestock farms vary widely with up to 50% of the sampled smallholder livestock farms having EI similar to mean Pan-Europeans emissions intensities. Continue reading
The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect on 25 May 2018. To comply with this new regulation and ensure our privacy standards reflect the highest possible levels of protection for your data, we would like to share our new privacy statement with you, and offer you an opportunity to unsubscribe from our services. Continue reading
Mazingira Centre 