Empowering African Climate Monitoring: A Recap of the TAHMO Training Workshop at ILRI’s Mazingira Centre
Climate / Climate change / Data / East Africa / Environment / Kenya / Mazingira / Research Infrastructure / SLS / Uncategorized

Empowering African Climate Monitoring: A Recap of the TAHMO Training Workshop at ILRI’s Mazingira Centre

On 24th July 2023, ILRI’s Mazingira Centre hosted a training workshop on the use, maintenance, and diagnostics of weather stations by TAHMO (Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory). The workshop aimed to strengthen the capacity of local technicians, students, and researchers to effectively maintain their TAHMO stations to allow them to collect high-quality weather data and contribute to … Continue reading

Full adoption of existing mitigation strategies can help meet livestock methane reduction targets by 2030
Africa / Climate change / Data / Emission Factors / GHG Emissions / Greenhouse Gas / ILRI / Livestock / Mazingira / Research Infrastructure / SLS

Full adoption of existing mitigation strategies can help meet livestock methane reduction targets by 2030

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

Africa / Emission Factors / Environment / GHG Emissions / Greenhouse Gas / Livestock / Mazingira / SLS

Recent progress and future priorities for greenhouse gas emissions from livestock in Africa

Ruminant livestock are essential for livelihoods of millions of people in Africa. However, African livestock systems are threatened by climate change due to increased heat stress and reduced feed for animals, among others. At the same time, livestock also contribute to climate change and are the main source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in many … Continue reading

GIZ’s program for returning experts supports the Mazingira Centre to improve capacity and delivery
Capacity strengthening / Climate change / Data / Emission Factors / Environment / GHG Emissions / Greenhouse Gas / ILRI / Kenya / Mazingira / Research Infrastructure / SLS

GIZ’s program for returning experts supports the Mazingira Centre to improve capacity and delivery

The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Centre for International Migration and Development (CIM) have jointly donated equipment worth more than €17,000 to the Mazingira Centre at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to enhance its animal nutrition laboratory and rangeland conditions surveillance capacity. Continue reading

Voices from the lab: highlights of my internship at Mazingira
Africa / Climate change / East Africa / Emission Factors / Environment / GHG Emissions / Greenhouse Gas / Kenya / Livestock / Mazingira

Voices from the lab: highlights of my internship at Mazingira

The natural, physical, and social studies of climate change, the environment, and our food systems are vital to tackling today’s environmental challenges. For young students looking to dive deep into research, gaining field and laboratory experience is essential. My internship at the International Livestock Research Institute’s (ILRI) Mazingira Centre offered me the means of doing … Continue reading

African livestock systems’ greenhouse gas emission intensities are not as high as believed and potential avenues to reduce them
Africa / Climate change / East Africa / Emission Factors / Environment / GHG Emissions / Greenhouse Gas / ILRI / Kenya / Livestock / Mazingira / SLS

African livestock systems’ greenhouse gas emission intensities are not as high as believed and potential avenues to reduce them

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

Mazingira Centre – a role model for environmental research infrastructure in Africa
Africa / Climate change / Emission Factors / Environment / Food Systems / GHG Emissions / Greenhouse Gas / ILRI / Mazingira / Research Infrastructure / SLS

Mazingira Centre – a role model for environmental research infrastructure in Africa

Climate change threatens the livelihoods of millions of people in Africa. The rise in global temperatures, changes in rainfall, and the increase of extreme weather conditions all pose a serious risk to the agricultural sector and food and nutrition security. At the same time, Africa is currently the most uncertain region with regard to global … Continue reading

A field visit to support climate-smart sustainable agro-pastoralism in East Africa
Climate change / East Africa / Emission Factors / Environment / GHG Emissions / Greenhouse Gas / Kenya / Livestock / Mazingira

A field visit to support climate-smart sustainable agro-pastoralism in East Africa

On 1 Sep 2021, scientists Sonja Leitner and Claudia Arndt from the Mazingira Centre of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya, hosted a group of international researchers on ILRI’s Kapiti Research Station in Machakos County. They were supported in the field by farm manager Nehemiah Kimengich and field technician Nelson Kipchirchir from … Continue reading

New study finds that severe undernutrition of cattle increases their methane production
Climate change / East Africa / Emission Factors / Environment / GHG Emissions / Greenhouse Gas / Kenya / Livestock / LIVESTOCKCRP / Mazingira / SLS

New study finds that severe undernutrition of cattle increases their methane production

A study by researchers at the International ILRI, and partners in Germany investigated the effects of moderate to severe levels of feeding below an animal’s energy requirement on enteric methane production in young Boran steers. The study found that methane produced by an animal per unit feed intake increases as the amount of feed consumed by an animal decreases. Continue reading

Setting up a soil analytical laboratory at University of Kabianga
Climate change / Countries / CRPs / East Africa / Environment / Food Systems / ILRI / Kenya / LIVESTOCKCRP / Mazingira / Regions / Research Infrastructure

Setting up a soil analytical laboratory at University of Kabianga

The Restoring African Degraded Landscaped (ReDEAL) project is an interdisciplinary and collaboratively coordinated research project that aims at helping smallholder to avoid further and possibly reverse land degradation without compromising livelihoods and food production. The project partners are Lancaster University, University of Manchester, CIFOR, ILRI and the university of Kabianga. Part of the project is … Continue reading