lively newsletter, issue #4: first researchers & students ...animal diseases was failing to improve...
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LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross
finish lineResearcher’s Corner Highlights of
Research-for-Development Capacity Building Publications and Events
New Staff
Researcher's Corner
In Cambodia, Dr. Dahl discusses dairy production improvements with Dr. Pheng Vutha at the Nagoya dairy farm, Royal University of Agriculture
(Credit: S. Hendrickx/UF-IFAS)
Leader in Dairy Sciences Expands Our International Reach
The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems owes much of its success to dedicated faculty members within the University of Florida (UF) and beyond who have opened doors and advanced its research agenda. A pivotal figure even before our launch in October 2015, Dr. Geoffrey Dahl helped to establish and guide the Innovation Lab at UF. He serves dual roles for the Innovation Lab as a member of the Internal Advisory Committee and the lead for the Animal Source Food Production & Marketing Area of Inquiry, and he recently stepped down after serving for 12 years as the Chair of the Department of Animal Sciences at UF. Dr. Dahl’s research in Florida showed how heat stress severely constrains milk production by dairy cows. The Innovation Lab has drawn from his wealth of dairy production and management experience in providing relevant guidance for the dairy sectors in several of the Innovation Lab’s target countries. He conducted a needs assessment of the dairy industry in Rwanda and is currently working on an evaluation tool for dairy farmers to
improve their production system, working closely with Jean-Baptiste Ndahetuye from the University of Rwanda, who leads the project “Milk Production Practices, Udder Health and Their Impact on Milk Quality, Safety and Processability in Rwanda.”
Recently, Dr. Dahl was awarded a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for a market- oriented dairy project in Sri Lanka that builds on previous USAID projects to develop dairy entrepreneurs. This project will leverage findings from and complement the work of the Innovation Lab, especially with Dr. Dahl in a key position in both projects. He is excited to see the Innovation Lab mature after its first few years. “I think four to five years is the inflection point. You’ve got to hit that and then you’ll see some real progress,” he said. In addition to the new project in Sri Lanka, he will continue his work as a professor, mentor, and leading advocate of the Innovation Lab at UF. In June, he became the president of the American Dairy Science Association.
Highlights of Research-for-Development
Completed Projects:
Two Dairy Projects Support Healthier Cows & Buffaloes in Nepal Trailblazing to Improve Disease Reporting in Nepal & Ethiopia
Ongoing Projects by Thematic Areas:
Food safety: Milk & meat quality Feeds Marketing Consumption
Congratulations are due to our first research teams to complete short-term projects in Nepal and Ethiopia. The four projects were led by these Principal Investigators:
Dr. Keshav Prasad Sah, Heifer International Nepal Mr. Bhola Shankar Shrestha, Heifer International Nepal Dr. Richard A. Bowen, Colorado State University Dr. Corrie Brown, University of Georgia
Several other short-term projects, lasting one to two years, are concluding within the coming months. Here we expand on the four completed projects.
Video shows how Nepali farmers acquired tools to halt disease and improve feeding of cows and buffaloes. (Credit: Heifer Intl. Nepal)
Two Dairy Projects Support Increased, Safer Milk from Cows and Buffaloes in Nepal
The Himalayan nation of Nepal imports almost 3,000 tons of powdered milk every year. As in many countries, one of Nepal’s major hurdles to achieving self-reliance in dairy productivity is mastitis, or inflammation of the udder of dairy cows and buffaloes. In Nepal, the disease is widespread and persistent because many farmers do not know the signs and cannot detect it. Yet it can severely reduce milk production by cows sand buffaloes.
Revealing a Threat with Education and Collaboration Researcher Keshav Sah was convinced that educating farmers was the solution, and he persuaded his employer, Heifer International Nepal, to refocus its attention on dairy cows instead of goats. In 2016, his team received funding for a project titled Improving Dairy Animal Productivity and Income of Dairy Farmers through Effective Control of Mastitis Disease, which concluded on March 31, 2018. Successes include increasing awareness about sub-clinical mastitis, witnessing 25% declines of sub-clinical mastitis within six months of farmer training, and securing governmental and Heifer International Nepal support to expand the program to thousands of dairy farmers. He credits
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
partnerships with government and academic institutions as a key to their success. “There was great collaboration,” he said. “Everyone seemed happy, and this doesn’t happen normally.” For the first time, Heifer International Nepal partnered with an academic institution: the Himalayan College of Agricultural Science and Technology. In turn, it was the college’s first partnership with an international non-governmental organization. The project also created a unique public service announcement about mastitis that has been broadcasted on radio stations across Nepal (see Publications on the project webpage). Dr. Sah says that the project has and will continue to improve the productivity of smallholder farmers and contribute to better health and incomes.
Customizing a Feeding Support Tool While trying to teach smallholder farmers about how to better feed their dairy cows and buffaloes, Bhola Shrestha from Heifer International Nepal realized that a solution would be to develop a smartphone app that would be used to formulate balanced rations. The project, Feeding Support Tool Development for Enhancing Dairy Animal Productivity for Improved Livelihood of Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Nepal, adapted software, developed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for feeding dairy cows, to the Nepali context. The research included commonly used Nepali feed stuffs in the database and adapted the software for buffalo rations. They then connected with youthful tech developers in Kathmandu and created a smartphone app, the Feeding Support Tool, tailored to Nepali smallholder farmers who may lack computers but have mobile phones. He reports that 95% of farmers who used the tool reported that the milk production by their cows and buffaloes increased. After he explained the tool to officials at a results-sharing workshop in March, the Government of Nepal approved funding for 300 technicians nationwide to train farmers to use the tool. Although this research project is ending, the technology introduced has been broadly welcomed and is being scaled up across the country.
Workshop for Scaling Success As one of the final activities of both projects, Heifer International Nepal organized a results-sharing workshop on March 27 to prepare for widespread dissemination of the dairy innovations. Read more about the discussions in this blog co-written by one of the principal investigators, Dr. Sah, and our coordinator in Asia, Varijaksha P. Padmakumar: “Results-sharing workshop paves way for scaling dairy innovations in Nepal.”
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
Women sentries who detect and report livestock diseases in villages in the district of Nuwakot, Nepal. (Credit: J. Harper/UF-IFAS)
Trailblazing Disease Reporting Strategies in Nepal and Ethiopia
An entire farm’s cattle and or buffaloes may die overnight if they contract a disease called Hemorrhagic Septicemia. Other Transboundary Animal Diseases, such as Foot and Mouth Disease or Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), also require vigilance. Empowering smallholder farmers to recognize and report livestock diseases may improve prevention and control, and two projects applying this approach have concluded their research in Nepal and in Ethiopia.
Women Use App to Combat Disease In Nepal, Dr. Richard Bowen of Colorado State University and his project team trained 15 female village sentries to recognize livestock diseases in two districts and provided them with smart phones with a disease-reporting app. Since the project started in 2017, the sentries logged 1,042 reports in the system. In January, the Department of Livestock Services (DLS) responded to an outbreak of Hemorrhagic Septicemia in buffaloes, an acute, highly fatal disease of high economic importance, after it was reported through the system. Officials were able to control the outbreak at the source through emergency vaccination. Discussions are ongoing regarding scaling of the disease-reporting app to support similar efforts by DLS to improve disease reporting.
Refocusing Research in Ethiopian Districts In Ethiopia, it appeared at first that training farmers to recognize Transboundary Animal Diseases was failing to improve disease reporting. Dr. Corrie Brown from the University of Georgia, with colleagues from Mekelle University, trained 345 smallholder farmers (22% female) and 101 veterinarians (13% female) in the Tigray region. They subsequently collected data on disease reporting to veterinary offices from 15 districts, called woredas, and compared them to
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
those from 10 randomly-selected woredas where training did not take place. For all 25 woredas, reports for six months after training were compared to a five-year average, and the analyzed data revealed no statistical differences. As a result, the research team searched for explanations and discovered a complicated reporting structure, with two levels of screening prior to reporting to a Regional Veterinary Officer. Based on this new information, the team recently evaluated one woreda to compare trained and untrained individuals. Trained individuals responded positively by training between 4 and 6 other individuals. Although, not significant, 92% of the trained individuals reported diseases compared to 75% of the untrained individuals. As the samples sizes were small, further sampling and analysis is needed to determine whether or not there is a true difference.
The results of the latter study highlight the importance of clear disease reporting channels. Now the Ministry of Agriculture and the FAO’s Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Disease in Ethiopia are interested in expanding the project and supporting the translation of the project’s manual into local languages.
Food safety: Milk and meat quality
Interviewers record the reported eating habits of a household in Cambodia. (Credit: C. Ty/CelAgrid)
Popular Pork Under the Microscope in Cambodia
Many Cambodians like to start their day with bai sach chrouk, or pork and rice, from a street corner stall. After fish, pork is the main animal-source food in Cambodia. Hence, based on a systematic literature review and stakeholder
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
consultations on the main food safety hazards in Cambodia, the Safe Food Fair Food for Cambodia project, led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), chose to study Salmonella bacteria in pork and to search for related hazards.
Led by ILRI’s Dr. Delia Grace and Dr. Hung Nguyen, in collaboration with the National Animal Health and Production Research Institute (NAHPRI) and the Center for Livestock and Agriculture Development (CelAgrid), the project team started collecting information to estimate the cost of foodborne illness based on data from the National Pediatric Hospital, and surveys of 200 households. To assess microbial risks, they are collecting pork samples at various stages from production to consumption, estimating microbial counts, conducting experiments on cross-contamination, and collecting data on food consumption habits. These studies and other project activities will help fill gaps and create an important body of evidence on the status of food safety in Cambodia, and eventually influence public health.
Conducting experiments on container sanitation are student Kasech Amdhun (left) and mentor Dr. Kebede Amenu from Addis Ababa University. (Credit: Addis Ababa U.)
Smoke or Mirrors? Traditional Dairy Containers Face Off with Metal in Ethiopia
Yoghurt has deep roots in Ethiopia, particularly for pastoral communities, and
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
now its handling is facing deep scrutiny from a research team at Addis Ababa University (AAU). Led by Dr. Kebede Amenu, the team is using bacterial counts to compare the safety of yoghurt stored in aluminum containers versus traditional yoghurt containers that women treat with a smoking process for sanitation. The team carried out a lab-based experiment to assess the effect of smoking of containers using different tree species on the microbial load of milk and yoghurt kept in smoked containers. Building its case, the milk safety project collected milk and feces from 217 cows and camels in May and completed microbiological analysis for E.coli O157 and Salmonella. Comparing the results of this analysis to that on microbes present in the containers will help to determine the efficiency of the sanitation process. Ultimately, Dr. Amenu hopes to improve the sanitation of dairy products in remote parts of Ethiopia. The project, as summarized in this blog post, supports women and families to overcome food insecurity. It also funds three master’s students (see Capacity Building section below).
Feeds
A farmer near Kampong Thom, Cambodia, works with her pigs. (Credit: Royal University of Agriculture)
Scrutinizing Pig Farm Practices in Cambodia
Seeking healthy and better-fed pigs, our short-term study titled “Improved Pig Health and Nutrition: The Major Drivers of Profitability and Sustainability for Smallholder Farmers in Cambodia” is investigating best practices to improve both disease management and pig nutrition. Dr. Michael Tokach, Kansas State University, is the principal investigator, and he works closely with Cambodia’s
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
Royal University of Agriculture. In January, 44 students (41% female) at the Royal University of Agriculture learned about livestock diseases and reducing infections from veterinarian Lisa Tokach. In-person surveys have been completed with 150 farmers, 55 feed stores, and 27 animal health workers to document current health practices, diseases, and vaccine strategies, and final surveys will be conducted during the late rainy season in August and September. So far, the project has determined the nutritional value of 31 ingredients from 104 pig feed samples collected from small farms. A highlight of the project will occur in Siem Reap on November 30, when a “Swine Day” will help to educate the farming community about improved pig production and it will also give Cambodian stakeholders the opportunity to participate in the extension and outreach process.
Seedlings for a living fence are planted around rice paddies in Cambodia. (Credit: D. Ader/UT)
Living Fences Do Double Duty as Feed and Protection
In many countries, cattle and goats roam freely and cause conflicts between livestock keepers and crop farmers when livestock graze on crops. The simple solution of keeping livestock out of crop farms with fences made with materials like barbed wire is often too expensive for smallholder farmers. Led by Drs. Tom Gill and David Ader from the University of Tennessee, a project funded by the Innovation Lab is researching the use of forage trees (Moringa oleifera, Leucaena leucocephala and Acacia pennata) as living fences. Using this innovation around paddies may allow farmers to use them for forage production in the dry season. The living fence experiment is taking place at the Center of Excellence on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition, within the University of Battambang’s Technology Park as well as on farmers’ farms. On
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
station, some of the introduced forages are growing satisfactorily; however, only a few farmers have planted them, and these are around homesteads rather than paddies. As the project runs until the end of March 2019, the team is confident that they will succeed in recruiting enough farmers that will plant the forage trees around paddies, completing on-farm trials as well as conducting a cattle feeding trial using the the most promising tree species for supplementation.
Marketing
The goat marketing app supports sales by smallholders. (Credit: J. Harper/UF-IFAS)
New App for Selling Goats Helps Smallholders Compete
A new app for small-scale goat marketing in Nepal is ready to roll out. The smartphone app uses a short messaging system (SMS) to connect smallholder sellers and buyers of goats. On May 25, master trainers from Heifer Nepal International introduced the app to female managers of goat cooperatives, who in turn plan to train 1,400 representatives from support groups for goat smallholders by the end of July. The app development is part of the multi-year project – Designing and evaluating innovations for development of smallholder female livestock cooperatives in Nepal – led by Dr. Conner Mullally from the University of Florida. Its two other main components focus on evaluating forage
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
options to optimize feeding of goats and providing distance learning to women so they can stay at home and fulfill their various domestic obligations while acquiring the training to become village animal health workers. Plans call for the distance learning tool to enter a training phase in August. The winter fodder crop trial (oats, ber, vetch) and feeding trial with fodder from these crops has been completed, and summer fodder crop trials (cowpea, red bean and teosinte) are underway.
Consumption
Project team member Ben Bizinde (Technoserve) shows a carpenter’s creation for measuring the height of adults. (Credit: E. Ouma/ILRI)
Creativity to Overcome Problems and Collect Data in Rwanda
When Dr. Emily Ouma from the International Livestock Research Institute and her research team could not purchase a stadiometer, the correct equipment for measuring the height of adults, they found a way to build it. They shared photos of a stadiometer with a carpenter in Rwanda, who fabricated 12 portable versions at a fraction of the typical cost. Problem solved. Height is an important indicator of stunting, and now it can be recorded accurately in the field by 13 enumerators, who were trained during March on how to collect comprehensive nutritional information from mothers and young children. Joining the training
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
was Lambert Izerimana from the University of Rwanda, the project’s research assistant. Earlier, the project surveyed 30 dairy cooperatives' professional competencies and found that they performed better than expected in areas such as market linkages and member loyalty, but improvement was needed in areas such as documentation, finance and access to services. With this knowledge, the project “Enhancing Quality and Consumption of Milk for Improved Income and Nutrition in Rwanda” has chosen 16 cooperatives for marketing training and 4 for intensive interventions.
Capacity Building
First Students Graduate with Livestock Systems Innovation Lab Experience Ethiopian Researchers Learn Software from U.S. Census
Diribua Hunduma is earning a Master of Science degree in veterinary microbiology from Addis Ababa University. (Credit: K. Amenu/AAU)
First Students Graduate with Livestock Systems Innovation Lab Experience
More than 50 university students have been affiliated with the Innovation Lab since 2016, and some of them are graduating this year. For example, in June 2018 two students in Ethiopia defended their Master’s theses: Getacho Firo earned a Master of Science (MSc) degree in analytical chemistry from Ambo University, and Diribua Hunduma earned an MSc in veterinary microbiology from Addis Ababa University. Both graduates were mentored by Dr. Silvia Alonso, International Livestock Research Institute, and Dr. Kebede Amenu, Addis Ababa University, who are co-leaders of the milk safety project.
Ten students are pursuing doctoral degrees in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Nepal, and the U.S. One who expects his PhD in 2019 from the University of Rwanda, Jean Baptiste Ndahetuye, has the added distinction of being a research project Principal Investigator. At Nepal’s Agriculture and Forestry University, three PhD students are becoming experts in their respective fields: Jahannath Banjade, in animal nutrition; Birendra Khanal, in pastures and forages; and Saroj Sapkota, in goat production and reproduction. These three students interact with the multiyear project Designing and evaluating innovations for development of smallholder female livestock cooperatives in Nepal, led by Dr. Conner Mullally from the University of Florida. Such international collaborations and mentorships exemplify our goal of connecting kindred spirits, minds, and experts across borders and institutions.
Ethiopian Researchers Learn Software from U.S. Census
In Ethiopia, 34 socio-economists have learned how to use Census and Survey Processing System (CSPro), a sophisticated software package supported by the U.S. Census and used in more than 160 countries for entering, editing, tabulating and disseminating census and survey data. They met at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, a partner institution that had requested the training from the project Improving the Evidence and Policies for Better Performing Livestock Systems in Ethiopia, led by principal investigator Dr. Bart Minten of the International Food Policy Research Institute. The training is part of the project’s goal to increase the capacity of Ethiopian researchers to use surveys effectively. In July, Dr. Minten will present his project’s progress and hold a training on GIS and productivity analysis at the annual Ethiopian Economics Association meeting.
Publications and Events
Gender and Nutrition Experts Explore Research Cycle in Webinars A series of three webinars about gender and nutrition issues in livestock systems research are now available on our website’s Events page. They were co-hosted in May and June by University of Florida leaders of our cross-cutting themes: Dr. Kathleen Colverson, for Gender in Livestock Systems, and Dr. Sarah McKune, for Human Health and Nutrition. The webinars addressed the integration of gender and nutrition into the 1) design, 2) data collection and analysis, and 3) final reporting of livestock research. Hundreds of people saw one of the webinars during live broadcasts on our Facebook page, where they are also stored. Learn about future webinars on our website’s Events page.
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
Large Value Chain Project in West Africa Officially Underway Read about the launch on May 14 of the multi-year project in Niger and Burkina Faso titled Enabling Value Chains to Create Sustainable Income for Vulnerable People in Crop-Livestock Systems. “We believe that the project has the ability to drive transformational change from the current systems to profitable and market oriented crop-livestock systems,” said Dr. Malick Ba, from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), in the blog post. ICRISAT’s Dr. Vincent Bado leads the project.
Food Quality Follows from Animal Feed Quality For the first time, we co-produced blog posts with the International Livestock Research Institute in ILRI Clippings. The two articles posted on July 3 and 5 review content from our Global Nutrition Symposium, held in Ethiopia in January, about increasing the supply of quality feeds.
Photo credits: M. Eilitta/UF-IFAS; V. Bado/ ICRISAT; A. Habtamu/ILRI
New Staff
We are pleased to announce new staff members joining the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems. A new coordinator for the research in West Africa funded by
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
This newsletter is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems managed by the University of Florida and the
International Livestock Research Institute. The contents are the responsibility of the University of Florida and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Copyright © 2018 University of Florida, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is: Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems
Department of Animal Sciences P.O. Box 110910
Gainesville, Florida 32611-0910
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LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
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Researcher's Corner
In Cambodia, Dr. Dahl discusses dairy production improvements with Dr. Pheng Vutha at the Nagoya dairy farm, Royal University of Agriculture
(Credit: S. Hendrickx/UF-IFAS)
Leader in Dairy Sciences Expands Our International Reach
The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems owes much of its success to dedicated faculty members within the University of Florida (UF) and beyond who have opened doors and advanced its research agenda. A pivotal figure even before our launch in October 2015, Dr. Geoffrey Dahl helped to establish and guide the Innovation Lab at UF. He serves dual roles for the Innovation Lab as a member of the Internal Advisory Committee and the lead for the Animal Source Food Production & Marketing Area of Inquiry, and he recently stepped down after serving for 12 years as the Chair of the Department of Animal Sciences at UF. Dr. Dahl’s research in Florida showed how heat stress severely constrains milk production by dairy cows. The Innovation Lab has drawn from his wealth of dairy production and management experience in providing relevant guidance for the dairy sectors in several of the Innovation Lab’s target countries. He conducted a needs assessment of the dairy industry in Rwanda and is currently working on an evaluation tool for dairy farmers to
improve their production system, working closely with Jean-Baptiste Ndahetuye from the University of Rwanda, who leads the project “Milk Production Practices, Udder Health and Their Impact on Milk Quality, Safety and Processability in Rwanda.”
Recently, Dr. Dahl was awarded a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for a market- oriented dairy project in Sri Lanka that builds on previous USAID projects to develop dairy entrepreneurs. This project will leverage findings from and complement the work of the Innovation Lab, especially with Dr. Dahl in a key position in both projects. He is excited to see the Innovation Lab mature after its first few years. “I think four to five years is the inflection point. You’ve got to hit that and then you’ll see some real progress,” he said. In addition to the new project in Sri Lanka, he will continue his work as a professor, mentor, and leading advocate of the Innovation Lab at UF. In June, he became the president of the American Dairy Science Association.
Highlights of Research-for-Development
Completed Projects:
Two Dairy Projects Support Healthier Cows & Buffaloes in Nepal Trailblazing to Improve Disease Reporting in Nepal & Ethiopia
Ongoing Projects by Thematic Areas:
Food safety: Milk & meat quality Feeds Marketing Consumption
Congratulations are due to our first research teams to complete short-term projects in Nepal and Ethiopia. The four projects were led by these Principal Investigators:
Dr. Keshav Prasad Sah, Heifer International Nepal Mr. Bhola Shankar Shrestha, Heifer International Nepal Dr. Richard A. Bowen, Colorado State University Dr. Corrie Brown, University of Georgia
Several other short-term projects, lasting one to two years, are concluding within the coming months. Here we expand on the four completed projects.
Video shows how Nepali farmers acquired tools to halt disease and improve feeding of cows and buffaloes. (Credit: Heifer Intl. Nepal)
Two Dairy Projects Support Increased, Safer Milk from Cows and Buffaloes in Nepal
The Himalayan nation of Nepal imports almost 3,000 tons of powdered milk every year. As in many countries, one of Nepal’s major hurdles to achieving self-reliance in dairy productivity is mastitis, or inflammation of the udder of dairy cows and buffaloes. In Nepal, the disease is widespread and persistent because many farmers do not know the signs and cannot detect it. Yet it can severely reduce milk production by cows sand buffaloes.
Revealing a Threat with Education and Collaboration Researcher Keshav Sah was convinced that educating farmers was the solution, and he persuaded his employer, Heifer International Nepal, to refocus its attention on dairy cows instead of goats. In 2016, his team received funding for a project titled Improving Dairy Animal Productivity and Income of Dairy Farmers through Effective Control of Mastitis Disease, which concluded on March 31, 2018. Successes include increasing awareness about sub-clinical mastitis, witnessing 25% declines of sub-clinical mastitis within six months of farmer training, and securing governmental and Heifer International Nepal support to expand the program to thousands of dairy farmers. He credits
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
partnerships with government and academic institutions as a key to their success. “There was great collaboration,” he said. “Everyone seemed happy, and this doesn’t happen normally.” For the first time, Heifer International Nepal partnered with an academic institution: the Himalayan College of Agricultural Science and Technology. In turn, it was the college’s first partnership with an international non-governmental organization. The project also created a unique public service announcement about mastitis that has been broadcasted on radio stations across Nepal (see Publications on the project webpage). Dr. Sah says that the project has and will continue to improve the productivity of smallholder farmers and contribute to better health and incomes.
Customizing a Feeding Support Tool While trying to teach smallholder farmers about how to better feed their dairy cows and buffaloes, Bhola Shrestha from Heifer International Nepal realized that a solution would be to develop a smartphone app that would be used to formulate balanced rations. The project, Feeding Support Tool Development for Enhancing Dairy Animal Productivity for Improved Livelihood of Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Nepal, adapted software, developed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for feeding dairy cows, to the Nepali context. The research included commonly used Nepali feed stuffs in the database and adapted the software for buffalo rations. They then connected with youthful tech developers in Kathmandu and created a smartphone app, the Feeding Support Tool, tailored to Nepali smallholder farmers who may lack computers but have mobile phones. He reports that 95% of farmers who used the tool reported that the milk production by their cows and buffaloes increased. After he explained the tool to officials at a results-sharing workshop in March, the Government of Nepal approved funding for 300 technicians nationwide to train farmers to use the tool. Although this research project is ending, the technology introduced has been broadly welcomed and is being scaled up across the country.
Workshop for Scaling Success As one of the final activities of both projects, Heifer International Nepal organized a results-sharing workshop on March 27 to prepare for widespread dissemination of the dairy innovations. Read more about the discussions in this blog co-written by one of the principal investigators, Dr. Sah, and our coordinator in Asia, Varijaksha P. Padmakumar: “Results-sharing workshop paves way for scaling dairy innovations in Nepal.”
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
Women sentries who detect and report livestock diseases in villages in the district of Nuwakot, Nepal. (Credit: J. Harper/UF-IFAS)
Trailblazing Disease Reporting Strategies in Nepal and Ethiopia
An entire farm’s cattle and or buffaloes may die overnight if they contract a disease called Hemorrhagic Septicemia. Other Transboundary Animal Diseases, such as Foot and Mouth Disease or Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), also require vigilance. Empowering smallholder farmers to recognize and report livestock diseases may improve prevention and control, and two projects applying this approach have concluded their research in Nepal and in Ethiopia.
Women Use App to Combat Disease In Nepal, Dr. Richard Bowen of Colorado State University and his project team trained 15 female village sentries to recognize livestock diseases in two districts and provided them with smart phones with a disease-reporting app. Since the project started in 2017, the sentries logged 1,042 reports in the system. In January, the Department of Livestock Services (DLS) responded to an outbreak of Hemorrhagic Septicemia in buffaloes, an acute, highly fatal disease of high economic importance, after it was reported through the system. Officials were able to control the outbreak at the source through emergency vaccination. Discussions are ongoing regarding scaling of the disease-reporting app to support similar efforts by DLS to improve disease reporting.
Refocusing Research in Ethiopian Districts In Ethiopia, it appeared at first that training farmers to recognize Transboundary Animal Diseases was failing to improve disease reporting. Dr. Corrie Brown from the University of Georgia, with colleagues from Mekelle University, trained 345 smallholder farmers (22% female) and 101 veterinarians (13% female) in the Tigray region. They subsequently collected data on disease reporting to veterinary offices from 15 districts, called woredas, and compared them to
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
those from 10 randomly-selected woredas where training did not take place. For all 25 woredas, reports for six months after training were compared to a five-year average, and the analyzed data revealed no statistical differences. As a result, the research team searched for explanations and discovered a complicated reporting structure, with two levels of screening prior to reporting to a Regional Veterinary Officer. Based on this new information, the team recently evaluated one woreda to compare trained and untrained individuals. Trained individuals responded positively by training between 4 and 6 other individuals. Although, not significant, 92% of the trained individuals reported diseases compared to 75% of the untrained individuals. As the samples sizes were small, further sampling and analysis is needed to determine whether or not there is a true difference.
The results of the latter study highlight the importance of clear disease reporting channels. Now the Ministry of Agriculture and the FAO’s Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Disease in Ethiopia are interested in expanding the project and supporting the translation of the project’s manual into local languages.
Food safety: Milk and meat quality
Interviewers record the reported eating habits of a household in Cambodia. (Credit: C. Ty/CelAgrid)
Popular Pork Under the Microscope in Cambodia
Many Cambodians like to start their day with bai sach chrouk, or pork and rice, from a street corner stall. After fish, pork is the main animal-source food in Cambodia. Hence, based on a systematic literature review and stakeholder
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
consultations on the main food safety hazards in Cambodia, the Safe Food Fair Food for Cambodia project, led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), chose to study Salmonella bacteria in pork and to search for related hazards.
Led by ILRI’s Dr. Delia Grace and Dr. Hung Nguyen, in collaboration with the National Animal Health and Production Research Institute (NAHPRI) and the Center for Livestock and Agriculture Development (CelAgrid), the project team started collecting information to estimate the cost of foodborne illness based on data from the National Pediatric Hospital, and surveys of 200 households. To assess microbial risks, they are collecting pork samples at various stages from production to consumption, estimating microbial counts, conducting experiments on cross-contamination, and collecting data on food consumption habits. These studies and other project activities will help fill gaps and create an important body of evidence on the status of food safety in Cambodia, and eventually influence public health.
Conducting experiments on container sanitation are student Kasech Amdhun (left) and mentor Dr. Kebede Amenu from Addis Ababa University. (Credit: Addis Ababa U.)
Smoke or Mirrors? Traditional Dairy Containers Face Off with Metal in Ethiopia
Yoghurt has deep roots in Ethiopia, particularly for pastoral communities, and
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
now its handling is facing deep scrutiny from a research team at Addis Ababa University (AAU). Led by Dr. Kebede Amenu, the team is using bacterial counts to compare the safety of yoghurt stored in aluminum containers versus traditional yoghurt containers that women treat with a smoking process for sanitation. The team carried out a lab-based experiment to assess the effect of smoking of containers using different tree species on the microbial load of milk and yoghurt kept in smoked containers. Building its case, the milk safety project collected milk and feces from 217 cows and camels in May and completed microbiological analysis for E.coli O157 and Salmonella. Comparing the results of this analysis to that on microbes present in the containers will help to determine the efficiency of the sanitation process. Ultimately, Dr. Amenu hopes to improve the sanitation of dairy products in remote parts of Ethiopia. The project, as summarized in this blog post, supports women and families to overcome food insecurity. It also funds three master’s students (see Capacity Building section below).
Feeds
A farmer near Kampong Thom, Cambodia, works with her pigs. (Credit: Royal University of Agriculture)
Scrutinizing Pig Farm Practices in Cambodia
Seeking healthy and better-fed pigs, our short-term study titled “Improved Pig Health and Nutrition: The Major Drivers of Profitability and Sustainability for Smallholder Farmers in Cambodia” is investigating best practices to improve both disease management and pig nutrition. Dr. Michael Tokach, Kansas State University, is the principal investigator, and he works closely with Cambodia’s
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
Royal University of Agriculture. In January, 44 students (41% female) at the Royal University of Agriculture learned about livestock diseases and reducing infections from veterinarian Lisa Tokach. In-person surveys have been completed with 150 farmers, 55 feed stores, and 27 animal health workers to document current health practices, diseases, and vaccine strategies, and final surveys will be conducted during the late rainy season in August and September. So far, the project has determined the nutritional value of 31 ingredients from 104 pig feed samples collected from small farms. A highlight of the project will occur in Siem Reap on November 30, when a “Swine Day” will help to educate the farming community about improved pig production and it will also give Cambodian stakeholders the opportunity to participate in the extension and outreach process.
Seedlings for a living fence are planted around rice paddies in Cambodia. (Credit: D. Ader/UT)
Living Fences Do Double Duty as Feed and Protection
In many countries, cattle and goats roam freely and cause conflicts between livestock keepers and crop farmers when livestock graze on crops. The simple solution of keeping livestock out of crop farms with fences made with materials like barbed wire is often too expensive for smallholder farmers. Led by Drs. Tom Gill and David Ader from the University of Tennessee, a project funded by the Innovation Lab is researching the use of forage trees (Moringa oleifera, Leucaena leucocephala and Acacia pennata) as living fences. Using this innovation around paddies may allow farmers to use them for forage production in the dry season. The living fence experiment is taking place at the Center of Excellence on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition, within the University of Battambang’s Technology Park as well as on farmers’ farms. On
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
station, some of the introduced forages are growing satisfactorily; however, only a few farmers have planted them, and these are around homesteads rather than paddies. As the project runs until the end of March 2019, the team is confident that they will succeed in recruiting enough farmers that will plant the forage trees around paddies, completing on-farm trials as well as conducting a cattle feeding trial using the the most promising tree species for supplementation.
Marketing
The goat marketing app supports sales by smallholders. (Credit: J. Harper/UF-IFAS)
New App for Selling Goats Helps Smallholders Compete
A new app for small-scale goat marketing in Nepal is ready to roll out. The smartphone app uses a short messaging system (SMS) to connect smallholder sellers and buyers of goats. On May 25, master trainers from Heifer Nepal International introduced the app to female managers of goat cooperatives, who in turn plan to train 1,400 representatives from support groups for goat smallholders by the end of July. The app development is part of the multi-year project – Designing and evaluating innovations for development of smallholder female livestock cooperatives in Nepal – led by Dr. Conner Mullally from the University of Florida. Its two other main components focus on evaluating forage
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
options to optimize feeding of goats and providing distance learning to women so they can stay at home and fulfill their various domestic obligations while acquiring the training to become village animal health workers. Plans call for the distance learning tool to enter a training phase in August. The winter fodder crop trial (oats, ber, vetch) and feeding trial with fodder from these crops has been completed, and summer fodder crop trials (cowpea, red bean and teosinte) are underway.
Consumption
Project team member Ben Bizinde (Technoserve) shows a carpenter’s creation for measuring the height of adults. (Credit: E. Ouma/ILRI)
Creativity to Overcome Problems and Collect Data in Rwanda
When Dr. Emily Ouma from the International Livestock Research Institute and her research team could not purchase a stadiometer, the correct equipment for measuring the height of adults, they found a way to build it. They shared photos of a stadiometer with a carpenter in Rwanda, who fabricated 12 portable versions at a fraction of the typical cost. Problem solved. Height is an important indicator of stunting, and now it can be recorded accurately in the field by 13 enumerators, who were trained during March on how to collect comprehensive nutritional information from mothers and young children. Joining the training
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
was Lambert Izerimana from the University of Rwanda, the project’s research assistant. Earlier, the project surveyed 30 dairy cooperatives' professional competencies and found that they performed better than expected in areas such as market linkages and member loyalty, but improvement was needed in areas such as documentation, finance and access to services. With this knowledge, the project “Enhancing Quality and Consumption of Milk for Improved Income and Nutrition in Rwanda” has chosen 16 cooperatives for marketing training and 4 for intensive interventions.
Capacity Building
First Students Graduate with Livestock Systems Innovation Lab Experience Ethiopian Researchers Learn Software from U.S. Census
Diribua Hunduma is earning a Master of Science degree in veterinary microbiology from Addis Ababa University. (Credit: K. Amenu/AAU)
First Students Graduate with Livestock Systems Innovation Lab Experience
More than 50 university students have been affiliated with the Innovation Lab since 2016, and some of them are graduating this year. For example, in June 2018 two students in Ethiopia defended their Master’s theses: Getacho Firo earned a Master of Science (MSc) degree in analytical chemistry from Ambo University, and Diribua Hunduma earned an MSc in veterinary microbiology from Addis Ababa University. Both graduates were mentored by Dr. Silvia Alonso, International Livestock Research Institute, and Dr. Kebede Amenu, Addis Ababa University, who are co-leaders of the milk safety project.
Ten students are pursuing doctoral degrees in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Nepal, and the U.S. One who expects his PhD in 2019 from the University of Rwanda, Jean Baptiste Ndahetuye, has the added distinction of being a research project Principal Investigator. At Nepal’s Agriculture and Forestry University, three PhD students are becoming experts in their respective fields: Jahannath Banjade, in animal nutrition; Birendra Khanal, in pastures and forages; and Saroj Sapkota, in goat production and reproduction. These three students interact with the multiyear project Designing and evaluating innovations for development of smallholder female livestock cooperatives in Nepal, led by Dr. Conner Mullally from the University of Florida. Such international collaborations and mentorships exemplify our goal of connecting kindred spirits, minds, and experts across borders and institutions.
Ethiopian Researchers Learn Software from U.S. Census
In Ethiopia, 34 socio-economists have learned how to use Census and Survey Processing System (CSPro), a sophisticated software package supported by the U.S. Census and used in more than 160 countries for entering, editing, tabulating and disseminating census and survey data. They met at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, a partner institution that had requested the training from the project Improving the Evidence and Policies for Better Performing Livestock Systems in Ethiopia, led by principal investigator Dr. Bart Minten of the International Food Policy Research Institute. The training is part of the project’s goal to increase the capacity of Ethiopian researchers to use surveys effectively. In July, Dr. Minten will present his project’s progress and hold a training on GIS and productivity analysis at the annual Ethiopian Economics Association meeting.
Publications and Events
Gender and Nutrition Experts Explore Research Cycle in Webinars A series of three webinars about gender and nutrition issues in livestock systems research are now available on our website’s Events page. They were co-hosted in May and June by University of Florida leaders of our cross-cutting themes: Dr. Kathleen Colverson, for Gender in Livestock Systems, and Dr. Sarah McKune, for Human Health and Nutrition. The webinars addressed the integration of gender and nutrition into the 1) design, 2) data collection and analysis, and 3) final reporting of livestock research. Hundreds of people saw one of the webinars during live broadcasts on our Facebook page, where they are also stored. Learn about future webinars on our website’s Events page.
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Large Value Chain Project in West Africa Officially Underway Read about the launch on May 14 of the multi-year project in Niger and Burkina Faso titled Enabling Value Chains to Create Sustainable Income for Vulnerable People in Crop-Livestock Systems. “We believe that the project has the ability to drive transformational change from the current systems to profitable and market oriented crop-livestock systems,” said Dr. Malick Ba, from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), in the blog post. ICRISAT’s Dr. Vincent Bado leads the project.
Food Quality Follows from Animal Feed Quality For the first time, we co-produced blog posts with the International Livestock Research Institute in ILRI Clippings. The two articles posted on July 3 and 5 review content from our Global Nutrition Symposium, held in Ethiopia in January, about increasing the supply of quality feeds.
Photo credits: M. Eilitta/UF-IFAS; V. Bado/ ICRISAT; A. Habtamu/ILRI
New Staff
We are pleased to announce new staff members joining the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems. A new coordinator for the research in West Africa funded by
LIVELY Newsletter, Issue #4: First researchers & students cross finish line
This newsletter is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems managed by the University of Florida and the
International Livestock Research Institute. The contents are the responsibility of the University of Florida and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Copyright © 2018 University of Florida, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is: Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems
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