A young boy watches over his family’s herd. A new Livestock-Climate Change CRSP project led by South Dakota State University will help pastoralists in Mali adapt to a changes in climate and land-use that threatened this traditional way of life. Photo courtesy of Niall Hanan.

The Livestock-Climate Change Collaborative Support Program (LCC CRSP), has awarded over $1.3 million to South Dakota State University and Syracuse University for projects that incorporate innovative scientific research with capacity building and institutional strengthening to improve the lives and livelihoods of livestock producers and increase the resilience of livestock systems in West Africa in the face of climate variability and long-term climate change. Projects are targeted toward reducing vulnerability, increasing adaptive capacity, and augmenting the income of livestock producers in West Africa, where dryland agricultural systems are especially vulnerable to climate change-induced drought, flooding, and other weather extremes and over 50% of the population lives in poverty. Both projects take an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving, seek to develop and/or expand innovation, and build capacity.

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Donors won’t be the only ones financing research in Mali anymore. The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research is now managing a fund to support capacity building and the establishment of partnerships between research institutions, universities, companies, and other stakeholders.

According to SciDevNet, Aly Kouriba, the scientific director of the Institute of Rural Economy (IER), in Bamako, and partner on the Livestock-Climate Change CRSP Mali Livestock and Pastoralist Initiative-Phase (MLPI-2) project, welcomed the fund. But he suggested that the government should ensure that the fund gets a bigger proportion of tax revenues in the coming years.

“For a country to develop, one per cent of GDP [gross domestic product] must be devoted to scientific research. Already, in Mali, the agricultural GDP has reached one per cent.”

Kouriba said that the fund is “an innovation as far as research funding as an economic activity is concerned in Mali. Prior to that, only donors financed research. As a result of this, they were the only party to dictate the priorities, areas of intervention and even the duration of the research financed by them.”

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The Livestock-Climate Change CRSP is pleased to announce a new funding opportunity designed to build scientific capacity in West Africa: the International Graduate Student Fellowship Program-West Africa (IGSFP-WA). The LCC CRSP is committed to building research capacity in the regions where we work, including West Africa because well trained, innovative scientists and leaders are essential to achieving broader research and development goals and building a sustainable, prosperous future.

The IGSFP-WA for Adapting Livestock Systems to Climate Change is intended to provide opportunities for graduate education that prepare students in West Africa for interdisciplinary careers within the vision and objectives of the Livestock Climate-Change CRSP (see LCC CRSP Research Strategy).

Fellows will be expected to become specialists who can contribute to research regarding the adaptation of livestock systems to climate change in the LCC CRSP countries of focus in West Africa (Mali and Senegal). Selected fellows must propose to conduct research in Mali or Senegal. In this way, the LCC CRSP aims to build research capacity.

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Boubacar Dembele, University of Bamako (Mali), “Evaluation of the nutritive value of foods and fodder available and the needs of livestock in Mali.”

Boubacar is a partner on the MLPI-2 project. His research is focused on animal nutrition and forage quality.

Boubacar grew up in Ouadiala, a small farming village, where he helped to herd his family’s livestock. Boubacar is a member of the Livestock-Climate Change CRSP’s Mali Livestock and Pastoralist Initiative, Phase 2 (MLPI-2) research team, working to provide livestock producers with best practices for fattening animals. Boubacar has been studying animal nutrition for several years, conducting research on sheep, goat, cattle, and poultry feeds and forages. Boubacar’s Fellowship research will improve livestock production in Mali through better use of supplemental feeds, including natural pasture, crop residue, fodders, and feed supplements. Boubacar will analyze various feedstuffs and develop reference tables of their nutritional values and qualities.  Boubacar is an assistant professor of ruminant nutrition at the Rural Polytechnic Institute of Katibougou in Mali (IPR), where he plans to continue teaching after receiving his Ph.D. Students at IPR will help analyze samples, further building capacity for the next generation of Malian researchers.

The Livestock-Climate Change CRSP has selected four men and two women, all Ph.D. candidates, as the first cohort of International Graduate Student Fellows. The fellows hail from East and West Africa where the LCC CRSP’s work is focused, representing the countries of Kenya and Ethiopia in East Africa, and Mali in West Africa. The International Fellowship in Graduate Research is intended to provide opportunities for graduate education that prepare students for interdisciplinary careers within the vision and objectives of the Livestock Climate-Change CRSP. The Fellowship program will provide three years of support for these students, with annual renewal based on a positive review of progress, continued applicability to the Livestock-Climate Change CRSP research goals, continued funding availability, and a high level of academic performance.

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Data on factors that affect a region’s vulnerability to climate change (poverty, hunger, agricultural resource, etc.) are often dispersed and difficult to find. To aid researchers who study livestock systems and climate change, we have gathered the latest maps and datasets on factors such as poverty, hunger, and land use for seven countries: Nepal, Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Senegal, Mali, Ethiopia, and Kenya. This collection is far from comprehensive; however, a search is conducted every month to update the collection with new material.

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The Livestock-Climate Change CRSPs latest program brief, “Livestock, Climate Change, and Nutrition: Leveraging Livestock to Improve Livelihoods,” describes how livestock research in West Africa, East Africa, and Central Asia is contributing to improving nutrition and health for families and communities.

This week, the Livestock-Climate Change CRSP released “Livestock, Climate Change, and Nutrition: Leveraging Livestock to Improve Livelihoods.” The publication was authored by Sarah Lupis, Shana Gillette, and Jessica Davis of the Livestock-Climate Change CRSP along with Michael Lacy from the University of Georgia and Sarah McKune from the University of Florida. read more »

Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia has received more than $440,000 as part of a collaborative research, outreach and education program aimed at encouraging sustainable poultry production in the West African country of Mali. This project is part of the Livestock-Climate Change Collaborative Research Support Program at Colorado State University (CSU) and funded by the United States Agency for International Development bilateral mission in Mali under a $5.25 million Poultry and Pastoralism Associate Award.
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The Adapting Livestock Systems to Climate Change Collaborative Research Support Program at Colorado State University has awarded a total of $720,000 to nine U.S. universities and their host-country partners in east Africa, west Africa and central Asia to improve the livelihoods of small-scale livestock producers. Two of the awards were given to researchers at Colorado State University.

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