Visiting Brisbane in November for the International Tropical Agriculture Conference for 2017, Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute Dr. Jimmy Smith discussed with Devex a range of new and exciting programs his organization is delivering to help create climate and disease resistant livestock for Africa.

In the past, livestock research has not had the benefit of the crop world where generation intervals are short. In cattle, the generation intervals are long, so to breed can take years and years. Using genomics now, we can find genes that improve livestock and move them around quickly. This allows us to make genetic improvements at a much faster rate than we could have with traditional breeding.

Important in identifying the animals with particular genetic traits of interest is the collection of data from farmers. For ILRI, this is meant changing traditional approaches to livestock reporting.

Smith explained. “They don’t keep breeding or production records, so we had no basis of information on livestock populations to begin with.”

Designing a method that would encourage farmers, including smallholder farmers, to collect and share information on their livestock populations has been important to the ongoing research.

Read the source article on climate and disease resistant livestock by Lisa Cornish at Devex International Development