CLIFOOD Block Seminar 4: Sustainable Intensification of African Livestock Systems in a Changing World

The CLIFOOD Block Seminar entitled “Sustainable Intensification of African Livestock Systems in a Changing World” was conducted at Hawassa University on November 26 -30, 2018. The program of the block seminar was opened by Dr. Tesfaye Abebe (the former Vice President), HU Scientific leader of CLIFOOD at Hawassa University. Further welcome speeches were given by Dr. Sintayehu Yigrem and Dr. Susanne Dreschl-Bogale, CLIFOOD coordinators at Hawassa University and the University of Hohenheim as well as scientific leaders of the Block Seminar Prof. Dr. Aberra Melesse (Hawassa University) and Prof. Dr. Uta Dickhöfer (University of Hohenheim).

During the block seminar international experts presented to the participants the latest research findings and best practices as well as approaches in addressing urgent challenges of African Livestock Systems. The Block seminar covered sub themes on ‘Nutrition and feed science’, ‘Animal breeding and husbandry’, ‘Livestock systems development’ and ‘Environmental impacts of livestock farming’.

The sub-theme on ‘Future contribution of livestock to sustainable food and nutrition security’ with a key note speaker from the Human Nutrition Program of Ethiopia, Save the Children (Ethiopia) and Wrap-up session of the scientific leaders of the Block Seminar was presented during the official day. On this day also participants of the Network Meeting of the Bilateral SDG Graduate Schools: “Making SDGs reality?” representing seven SDG Graduate Schools, supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) joined the seminar program and presented the outcomes of the Network Meeting from 29.11.2018.

The Block Seminar “Sustainable Intensification of African Livestock Systems in a Changing World” is part of the qualification program for the SDG Graduate School CLIFOOD, it is the fourth of seven Block Seminars planned per generation of PhD Scholars between the Hawassa University (HU) in Ethiopia and the University of Hohenheim (UHOH) in Germany.