In his doctoral thesis at the Vetmeduni Vienna, our Tanzanian employee John Laffa examined which plants the Maasai use to smoke-treat their calabashes. Calabashes serve as vessels to store the milk of the Maasai's cattle.

The trees and shrubs used are also important medicinal plants for the Maasai. They have a wide range of healing properties, including analgesic,...

John Laffa lives in Tanzania and has been a competent employee of Veterinarians without Borders for years. The graduate expert in agriculture, livestock and animal breeding is enroled for a doctorate course in veterinary medicine at the Vetmeduni Vienna (VMU). At the Institute of Milk Hygiene at the VMU he now wrote his doctoral thesis on indigenous Maasai milk hygiene and...

Are you familiar with this: You want to take a good cup of coffee, add some milk and only then you realize that it has turned sour. Each of us who has encountered problems with the shelf-life of dairy products during the hot summer months can imagine the challenges the Maasai in the East African steppe face every day.

The Maasai live there under extreme environmental conditions....

How do pastoralists in Northern Tanzania perceive the influence of climate change on their herds? A recently published study with the title "Climate change perception and impacts on cattle production in pastoral communities of Northern Tanzania" addressed this issue.

The respondents bemoaned more erratic and reduced amounts of rainfall, rise in temperature and prolonged and frequent...

Lesen Sie diesen interessanten Artikel über die jahrhundertealten Praktiken der Maasai zur Aufbewahrung und Haltbahrmachung von Milch, erschienen am 17.2.2018 (Die Presse): <link...

PASTRES (Pastoralism, uncertainty and resilience: Global lessons from the margins) is a research project aiming to learn from the ways that pastoralists respond to uncertainty, applying such 'lessons from the margins' to global challenges.

It aims to foster a conversation with other policy domains where uncertainty is pervasive, including financial systems, critical infrastructure...

"The Governance of Rangelands" is the title of the currently released book by Herrera, Davies and Manzano Baena. The authors highlight in a total of 11 case studies the global diversity and complexity of pastoral systems in the light of different political and climatic backgrounds. They also highlight similarities and emphasise the importance of participatory approaches in which traditional...

Did you know that the world's 20 largest meat and dairy corporations were responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions in 2016 than Germany? Or that the three largest producers of meat and dairy products emitted more greenhouse gases last year than all of France?

The justification that the need to feed the world and to meet the growing demand for animal products is flimsy. In fact, such...

With the implementation of the so-called "Tanzania Livestock Master Plan" 2 million jobs are to be created in Tanzania over the next five years. Small rural farmers are to benefit most from these measures. The aim of this master plan is to increase the contribution of the dairy sector to Tanzania's GDP by 75%.

A chance for many, but what impacts can be expected for traditional livestock...

Austria and the EU support African countries with development measures to build up local markets and to improve people's outlook on life. At the same time, there are policies in Austria and at European level that are in conflict with these efforts. The umbrella organisation AG Globale Verantwortung is the Austrian platform for development and...