– ILRI Addis Ababa Campus marks 50th anniversary
ADDIS ABABA– The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) sector researches have immensely contributed to transform the lives of numerous farmers and boost the country’s livestock sector, experts said.
Ministry of Agriculture State Minister Fikru Regassa (PhD) said that ILRI has bold history and strong relationships for the past 50 years working with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA).
“Ethiopia has benefited more from ILRI’s presence. ILRI’s research outputs on improved breeds of livestock immensely contributed to boost the country’s dairy and poultry sector that finally helps to ensure food and nutrition security,” he said.
As to him, ensuring animal health, supply of improved animal feeds, introduction of index-based livestock insurances, capacity buildings, among others are the major contributions of ILRI in Ethiopia.
According to him, Ethiopia is estimated to be home for more than 70 million livestock population out of which some 3 million are genetically modified best livestock breeds.
In doing so, expanding best livestock breeds will have significant contributions to meet the country’s food and nutrition security, he added.
“ILRI has also been a trusted partner working closely with the Ethiopian government through providing tangible inputs in designing National Dairy and Poultry Development Strategies as well as the Ethiopian Livestock Master Plan.”
The State Minister also emphasized the need to strengthening collaborations in climate smart solutions towards accelerating the national development endeavors.
Currently, increasing population, urbanization, and climate change are exerting pressures to boost productivity in both crop and livestock sector, according to him.
ILRI Director General’s Representative to Ethiopia, CGIAR Ethiopia Country Convener and CGIAR Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Namukolo Covic (PhD) said that ILRI has been working to contributing better lives through livestock in Ethiopia.
“As climate crisis has become a growing concern during this time, we must have climate smart solutions to adapt and mitigate.”
On his part, ILRI and CGIAR Senior Director of Livestock-Based Systems Prof. Appolinaire Djikeng highlighted that livestock is everything for farmers and ILRI will continue to support Ethiopian farmers thrive in livestock development.
Accordingly, ILRI was founded in 1973 through the establishment of the International Livestock Center for Africa (ILCA) in Ethiopia and the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) in Kenya and the merger of these two organizations created ILRI in 1994.
BY TEWODROS KASSA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2024
