|
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
“ILRI works at the crossroads of livestock and poverty, bringing
high-quality science and capacity-building to bear
on poverty reduction and sustainable development.
ILRI works in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the
Caribbean, with offices in East and West Africa,
South and Southeast Asia, China and Central America,
and projects in Southern Africa, North Africa and
the Near East.”
“ILRI is a non-profit-making and non-governmental
organization with headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya,
and a second principal campus in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.”
ILRI has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, and a
second principal campus in Addis Ababa. It is one of
the 15 international agricultural research centres
supported by the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
Mission
“To work at the
crossroads of livestock and poverty, bringing
high-quality science and capacity-building to bear
on poverty reduction and sustainable development for
poor livestock keepers and their communities”
Go to
ILRI’s web site.
Genetic resource activities
Forage diversity
“Poor-quality feed and fluctuating feed supplies are
the major constraints to increasing livestock
productivity in many tropical countries.
Understanding and managing forage diversity is
essential for developing new forage resources to
alleviate these constraints and maintain diversity
in forage/pasture ecosystems.”
“The ILRI Genebank conserves more than 18 thousand accessions of
forages from over 1000 species. This is one of the
most diverse collections of forage grasses, legumes
and fodder tree species held in any genebank in the
world and includes the world’s major collection of
African grasses and tropical highland forages. In
1994, the germplasm collection held by ILRI was
placed in trust under the auspices of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
as part of their international network of
ex situ
collections.” Since October 2006, the collection is
held under agreements with the Governing Body of the
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for
Food and Agriculture.
“ILRI aims to maintain a securely conserved diverse forage
collection with related information and make them
available as part of a rational global system of
genetic resources conservation and sustainable use.
ILRI maintains both an active and base genebank at
its site in Addis Ababa. In addition, ILRI maintains
a field genebank for grasses that rarely produce
seeds or whose seeds are short-lived. Where seed
storage is not appropriate, ILRI uses
in vitro
culture systems to collect, conserve and disseminate
germplasm as well as to eliminate virus and fungal
diseases.”
“ILRI freely distributes about 3000 samples of germplasm globally
for evaluation and further development and use by
smallholder farmers.”
Find out more about
ILRI’s forage diversity
activities.
Livestock genetic resources
“As the world’s only institute with a global mandate for
international livestock research, ILRI is in an
optimal position to exploit the livestock, gene and
information revolutions for the poor.”
Find out more about ILRI’s work on
livestock genetic resources.
Economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources
ILRI has published many reports on the economic
valuation of farm animal genetic resources. Go to
their
on line listing.
Find out more about SGRP’s activities in the
economic valuation of genetic
resources.
Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System
(DAGRIS)
“DAGRIS is an information system designed to
facilitate the compilation, organization and
dissemination of information on the origin,
distribution, diversity, present use and status of
indigenous farm animal genetic resources from past
and present research results in an efficient way.
The underlying concept is that such information
provides the necessary basis for developing breed
improvement as well as conservation programmes.”
Go to the
DAGRIS web site.
Inter-Centre Working Group on Genetic Resources
Each of the CGIAR Centres has a representative on
the Inter-Centre Working Group on Genetic Resources,
SGRP’s steering committee.
ILRI is represented by two members, one representing
the plant genetic resources sector and one
representing the livestock sector. The Committee
sets the strategy and priorities for SGRP and meets
annually to review its workplan.
To find out who are ILRI’s representatives,
please go to our
Contacts page. |
