The Summer edition of BAM!, a publication of the Bamako AID Mission in Mali, features the Global Livestock CRSP's Mali Livestock & Pastoralist Initiative (MLPI) and team members. Jay Angerer, Principal Investigator for MLPI from Texas A&M University, authored the newsletter article.

The Mali Livestock and Pastoralist Initiative (MLPI) is a project developed by the USAID Mission in Mali and the Global Livestock CRSP. With the utilization of LEWS and LINKS technologies and the risk assessment techniques demonstrated through PARIMA projects, the GL-CRSP intends to successfully develop a more efficient means of productivity and increased stability in income for pastoralists in Mali. MLPI plans on developing a Livestock Market Information System (LMIS) and through the collaboration of the MLPI teams with the BENKADY Cooperative, this system will serve as a type of economic advising system for pastoralists by identifying which components in livestock sale create the most beneficial price.

In addition to the establishment of LMIS, the MLPI project plans on embarking on a number of activities including examining feeding strategies for value-added marketing of livestock, improved methods for burgu (a plant used for animal fed) use and management, and livestock fattening operations in market towns.

The team members of this project include scientists from the following institutes:
•    Texas A&M University
•    Syracuse University
•    L’ Observatoire du Marche’ Agricole
•    Direction Nationale des Productions et des Industries Animales
•    L’ Institut d’ Economie Rurale
•    L’ Institut Polytechnique Rural de Katibougou

Click here to download the June-August 2008 edition of BAM!.

To read more on MLPI, click here to download the Summer edition of Ruminations, the official newsletter of the GL-CRSP.