CGIAR Sustainable Animal and Aquatic Foods

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Working with governments, communities, and global partners to sustainably transform animal and aquatic food systems—making them nutrient-dense, climate-smart, and inclusive—to improve lives, health, and the environment in low- and middle-income countries. Part of the CGIAR 2025-2030 Research Portfolio, the CGIAR Sustainable Animal and Aquatic Foods Program aims to boost access to nutritious foods

while reducing emissions and supporting inclusive livelihoods. By combining diverse livestock and aquatic systems, we will create opportunities to address local challenges with integrated solutions tailored to specific contexts.

In Baringo County, Kenya, Tuitoek Chirchir had never seen a sheep like it. At 75 kilos, the ram at ILRI's Kapiti Researc...
30/07/2026

In Baringo County, Kenya, Tuitoek Chirchir had never seen a sheep like it. At 75 kilos, the ram at ILRI's Kapiti Research Station and Wildlife Conservancy and several other model farms near Nairobi was nearly double the size of the animals he raises back home, where he typically sells his sheep and goats for as little as $23.

Tuitoek travelled two days with fellow farmers expecting to learn about livestock management. Instead, one animal changed how he thinks about his whole flock. The difference wasn't luck or land. It was breeding, matched with good management and knowing what a well-raised animal is actually worth at market.

This exchange visit was organised by ILRI, working with the Resource Conflict Institute, with support from us here at Sustainable Animal and Aquatic Foods (SAAF) — helping pastoralists across Kenya's drylands see what's possible when genetics and management work together.

Read Tuitoek's story: https://www.cgiar.org/news-events/news/75-kilo-sheep-changed-pastoralists-mind

What would better breeding be worth to a herder in your community?

CGIAR CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes

24/07/2026

Some tropical grasses seem to help cattle produce less methane. Rosa Jauregui wants to know why.

For millions of smallholder families, cattle mean food on the table and income, so this matters. The grasses and legumes that feed livestock, known together as forages, hold real promise. Rosa and her team at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT have found forages that appear to lower the methane cattle release as they digest.

Her study focuses on a grass called Urochloa, to uncover the genetics behind that trait. Understand it there, and the same approach could open the door to other forages, on smallholder farms from Latin America to Africa and Asia.

Her project is one of three winners of the first Sustainable Animal and Aquatic Foods Innovation Challenge, which backs high-risk, high-reward ideas others are not yet ready to fund.

As she puts it, the aim is for tropical forages to be part of the climate solution while keeping productivity, nutrition and value for farmers.

You can read more about the SAAF Innovation Challenge here: https://www.cgiar.org/news-events/news/saaf-names-three-winners-its-2026-innovation-challenge

ILRI | CGIAR | International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA |

Picture this. Your fish are dying, your family's income is in that pond, and the nearest animal doctor is hours away. Wh...
23/07/2026

Picture this. Your fish are dying, your family's income is in that pond, and the nearest animal doctor is hours away. Who do you turn to?

For many tilapia farmers in Bangladesh, the answer is the local shop that sells chemicals. A new study found that when disease hit, most farmers never got proper help. Nearly half lost fish in their last harvest. So they reach for whatever might work, often strong chemicals, used without advice.

Here is why it matters for all of us. When these chemicals are overused, the germs they target slowly learn to survive them. Over time, the medicines people and animals depend on start to fail.

The good news: the fix is simple and close to hand. Give farmers someone qualified to call, and simple ways to keep disease out of their ponds.

Who do farmers turn to for help where you live?

Read the study: https://cgspace.cgiar.org/items/3c747bf7-5e30-4612-a2c1-c659caf82b33

10/07/2026

Climate change is already changing where animal diseases spread across Africa.

This 15th July, join WorldFish and ILRI for a virtual webinar on what a warming climate means for the health of livestock and fish, drawing on new research across Ghana, Zambia, and Kenya.

Learn which climate hazards matter most, how disease risk is shifting for both livestock and aquaculture, where farmers are most vulnerable, and which adaptation measures can protect animals, livelihoods, and public health.

David Verner-Jeffreys, Acting Director of Aquatic Food Biosciences and Aquatic Animal Health Science Team Lead, and Netsayi Noris Mudege, Senior Scientist, are representing WorldFish in the discussion.

Together with partners from Ghana, Zambia and Kenya, they'll share insights on protecting aquatic animal health, livelihoods and food security in a changing climate.

Register here: https://on.cgiar.org/4f2QBDm

06/07/2026

Let's break the pork tapeworm cycle.

Today is World Zoonoses Day. Taenia solium — the pork tapeworm — is one of the most overlooked zoonotic diseases, yet it's responsible for 30% of epilepsy cases in the countries where it's endemic.

Watch this explainer video and see why breaking the cycle starts with Uganda's pork value chain.

https://hdl.handle.net/10568/175554

ILRI CGIAR

Eucabeth Cheptoo knows the farms in her area the way neighbors know each other. She visits every week. Checks the cows, ...
04/07/2026

Eucabeth Cheptoo knows the farms in her area the way neighbors know each other. She visits every week. Checks the cows, reviews the records, helps troubleshoot whatever needs fixing. Then she moves to the next farm.

One of the farmers she works with is Daniel Kiptoor. Since Eucabeth started visiting, he has planted super Napier grass for fodder, built a cow shed, and acquired a chaff cutter. Small changes that add up to a more productive, more resilient farm.

Eucabeth is a Dairy Farmer Assistant, deployed through Ainabkoi Cooperative in Uasin Gishu, Kenya, as part of a model developed by ILRI, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA under CGIAR SAPLING, work now continuing under SAAF.

The cooperative made it possible. It is the structure that connects her to the farmers who need her most.

Today is the International Day of Cooperatives. Theme: "Cooperatives for a Peaceful World."

Read the full story:
https://www.ilri.org/news/dairy-farmer-extension-services-model-successful-research-trial-kenyas-dairy-sector

ILRI | Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT | International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA CGIAR

Every morning in Vietnam's Northwest Highlands, before other farm work begins, women in upland communities head out to c...
30/06/2026

Every morning in Vietnam's Northwest Highlands, before other farm work begins, women in upland communities head out to collect fodder. They walk to distant fields, cut grasses, and carry loads back. In some villages, this takes several hours every single day.

On demonstration plots, high-yielding grasses like Green Elephant produced over 100 tons of fresh biomass per hectare in the rainy season. They can be planted close to the homestead, cutting the time women spend on daily fodder collection. The feed they produce also lasts through the dry season, when natural grazing runs short and animals lose condition.

More than 150 households across Son La province have adopted improved forages. Animals are healthier. Women have more time.

Read the full story: cgiar.org/news-events/news/growing-resilience-ground-how-improved-forages-are-transforming-upland-livestock-0

Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT | CGIAR

Gloria Akanji produces fish feed in Nigeria. She can tell a good feed before she tests it."You can tell a quality feed b...
26/06/2026

Gloria Akanji produces fish feed in Nigeria. She can tell a good feed before she tests it.

"You can tell a quality feed by the aroma," she said.

That instinct comes from years of sourcing ingredients, watching fish respond, and adjusting formulas in a market where reliable inputs are hard to find. Feed is one of the biggest costs facing fish farmers in Nigeria. What goes into it shifts with the season. When rains fail or supply chains break, producers substitute ingredients and fish growth suffers.

Gloria was one of 140 farmers, feed producers and transporters that researchers interviewed over five months in Nigeria. They visited farms, processing facilities and markets to document what people like her actually deal with every week, not what the feed system looks like in reports, but what it looks like on the ground.

Those conversations are now shaping how WorldFish and partners will design and test sustainable feed systems across Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia. Feed that works in the conditions producers actually have.

Read the full article: https://www.cgiar.org/news-events/news/listening-feed-system-field-insights-nigeria

A herder in Sikasso raises the goat. A trader sells it. A vet keeps it alive, a financier funds it. They almost never si...
25/06/2026

A herder in Sikasso raises the goat. A trader sells it. A vet keeps it alive, a financier funds it. They almost never sit at the same table.

Last week in Bamako, they sat down together.

Over two days (17–18 June), traders, vets, input suppliers, financiers and livestock fatteners mapped what holds Mali’s small ruminant trade back and sketched business models that give the herder a real stake, instead of treating them as a customer to sell to.

They left with stronger agreement on more collaborative business models, and a shared roadmap to put into practice in the next phase.

More soon. 🐐🇲🇱

_______

À Sikasso, un éleveur élève la chèvre. Un commerçant la vend. Un vétérinaire la soigne, une institution financière la finance. Ils ne s’assoient presque jamais à la même table.

La semaine dernière à Bamako, ils se sont assis ensemble.

Pendant deux jours (17 et 18 juin), commerçants, vétérinaires, fournisseurs d’intrants, financiers et emboucheurs ont cartographié ce qui freine le commerce des petits ruminants au Mali et esquissé des modèles d’affaires qui donnent à l’éleveur une vraie place, au lieu de le réduire à un simple client.

Ils en sont repartis avec un accord renforcé autour de modèles d’affaires plus collaboratifs, et une feuille de route commune à mettre en œuvre lors de la prochaine phase.

À suivre. 🐐🇲🇱

ILRI |

What does it take to feed the world without breaking it?We are introducing the SAAF leadership team: the Program Directo...
18/06/2026

What does it take to feed the world without breaking it?

We are introducing the SAAF leadership team: the Program Director and six Area of Work leads who will drive the research on animal and aquatic food systems across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

SAAF is a CGIAR Science Program working to make animal and aquatic food systems inclusive, low-emission, healthy, and resilient, in the countries where that change matters most.

Swipe through to meet each of them.

Rodrigue Yossa | Karen Marshall | - Charlotte Buisson | Rossignoli | @ Alessandra Galiè | Arango | Nguyễn Việt Hùng

Learn more about SAAF: https://www.cgiar.org/cgiar-research-portfolio-2025-2030/sustainable-animal-and-aquatic-foods

ILRI | WorldFish | Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT | International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA | International Water Management Institute (IWMI) | International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) | ICRISAT

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Jalan Batu Maung, Bayan Lepas
Batu Maung
11960

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