Denis Mujibi, right, talking to a farmer during a project field visit in western Kenya (photo credit: BMGF/Lee Klejtnot).
Denis Mujibi, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) geneticist is among the 13 winners of the $10,000 Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development (BREAD) Ideas Challenge announced in July. Mujibi’s submission was among hundreds of submissions received from researchers from all over the world selected for articulating novel or under-studied scientific challenges facing smallholder farmers in the developing world.
Background
‘Smallholder dairy farmers suffer productivity losses through long calving intervals and lack of access to artificial insemination. A major cause of this lack of access is the current requirement for cryopreservation of sperm, which is costly and complex in the developing world.
Challenge
‘Develop knowledge and means for a cold-chain-free artificial insemination process, making this process available to communities without infrastructure and for tropical cattle prone to silent heat.
‘The challenge, part of the Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development (BREAD) program and co-funded by NSF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, asked participants from around the world to describe, in 100 words or fewer, the most pressing, novel issues facing small-holder farms–farms typically the size of a football field or smaller–in developing countries.
Read about the announcement in the National Science Foundation news: ‘BREAD Ideas Challenge’ Winners Announced: Each Receives $10,000 Prize
ILRI BioSciences 