ISRA’s research units engaged in Africa-milk: Two research units of ISRA are engaged in the development of dairies and pastoral systems and will be involved in Africa-Milk: The National Laboratory for Livestock and Veterinary Research (LNERV), which conducts the livestock program of ISRA and the Pastoralism and dry areas Platform in West Africa (PPZS), including CIRAD, UCAD, CSE and ISRA. LNERV’s research in animal nutrition has led to the development of collection of forage seeds, balanced feed rations from crop residues and agro-industrial by-products for meat and milk production, a fodder value table for forage and feeds ; housing model for dairy cows to improve milk production and manure recycling. PPZS works on resilience and innovation in pastoral livestock systems, pastoral resource use efficiency, governance and dynamics of values chains (incl. dairy).

Some ongoing or recent projects on milk in Africa involving ISRA:

• VALPAC – Valorization of sugar cane straw to feed dairy cows in the north of Senegal
• Optilait - Densified Total Mixed Ration Blocks to promote dairy production
• Impromilk - Promoting the local milk value chain by improving productivity and added value to enhance food security

ISRA brings to Africa-Milk the following expertise:

• On pastoral and agro-pastoral systems and local dairy value chains (Task 1)
• On ongoing trends in dairy milkshed and milk collection systems (Task 2)
• On cattle feeding systems, production and conservation of forage (Task 3)
• On Senegalese dairy-sector network to monitor and up-scale the findings of the project (Task 4)