POOR CLIMATE, lack of disease knowledge and poor biosecurity are a few of the many factors which are leading to high mortality rates and slow economic growth for small herd farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

In order to improve the sustainability of the region's livestock production, an initiative is now being delivered in three countries – Ethiopia, Tanzania and Nigeria. Over the course of three years, a team of specialists led by Professor Andy Peters of Edinburgh University will receive funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to carry out data collection with a view to providing solutions for the problems facing small scale farming.

The Gates Foundation is commonly known for its philanthropy in the human health sector, particularly in developing vaccines against important diseases. However, less well known is its interest in agriculture where it currently invests many millions of dollars a year for livestock development worldwide.

The overall premise of this Gates initiative is that livestock farming can be a way out of poverty for small villages, and improved productivity will lead to improved economic growth. Currently livestock productivity is reduced 25% on a global basis by disease. If the initiative is successful, it will create a sustainable platform for the future where vaccine production and distribution to these far-reaching villages in Africa will be more feasible.

Professor Peters has worked with the organisation for several years specialising in livestock vaccines – and now leads this $8million initiative which will fund three programmes over three years.

The first looks to improve disease surveillance in cattle, identifying the cause of high mortality rates and poor reproductive health. There is a parasitic disease called East coast fever, spread by ticks, which in East Africa alone kills around one million cattle a year, alongside other diseases like brucellosis, foot-and-mouth and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, which are rife in this region.

The programme aims to gather information quantifying the level and severity of these diseases, to set the scene for creating a sustainable plan to control the most economically damaging ones in the future.

The second programme aims to improve the quality of information which is collated. Worldwide there are many organisations that gather data on agricultural development, and an attempt will be made to harmonise the information which is gathered, to standardise systems of data management across borders. Through establishing a network of practitioners – The Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) community – it hopes to increase global monitoring of livestock performance.

The third project will fund researchers to look at technology innovations and how new interventions may be used in developing countries. The focus of their work will incorporate small holder farms where farmers will often have less than ten cattle, which is the sector where attention is needed due to the lack of knowledge surrounding disease prevention, poorer access to nutritious diets and random breeding.

With many factors stacked against these farmers, if this initiative can identify ways to control disease through new innovative technology, then long term the hope is that these small herds will have increased productivity, higher incomes and will be able to provide better nutrition for their children.