Rothamsted Research & University College Dublin

Research Partnership Initiation

2024

Dr Tersur (Theo) Akpensuen (Rothamsted Research) was awarded an International Institutional Partnership Award to strengthen existing international partnership activities with international high-quality researchers, institutions, and/or other stakeholders within the UKRI-BBSRC remit. The grant enabled Rothamsted Research and UC Dublin colleagues to convene and discuss potential collaborative research projects.

The Marshal Papworth initiative

2023 onwards

The Marshal Papworth initiative started in 2001. It was established to provide agricultural education and training to students from developing countries, with a focus on sustainable farming practices and rural development. This initiative offers scholarships and training programs to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to address agricultural challenges in their home countries. Since 2023, the GFP is supporting this initiative.

The integration of PA tools and technologies for resilient and sustainable agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa

2023 – 2024

In West Africa, outdated farming practices deter youth from agriculture, affecting crop yields and incomes. Precision Agriculture (PA) offers promise by optimizing farming approaches. This project plans a stakeholder forum in Ghana, integrating PA into West African farming, promoting sustainability, climate resilience, and ICT use. Future initiatives aim to empower farmers, particularly women, for sustainable livelihoods and food security.

Recovery of Human Health and Wellbeing though Sustainable Livestock Production in sub-Saharan Africa; the Food not Feed Approach

2022-2023

The aims of this project were to:

– Identified the main potentially human-edible foods in smallholder livestock diets in the three participating African countries and alternative feed sources that might be substituted for them, 

– Draft a publication to an appropriate open-access peer-reviewed academic journal and,

–  Identify possible follow-up funding sources and drafted an outline funding proposal.

Approaching zero: Reducing water contamination and greenhouse gas emissions from Midwest dairy farms

2018-2023

The long-term goal of this proposed research is to investigate the effects of three dairy production systems (confined dairy with conventional till crop production, confined dairy with no-till crop production, and hybrid grazed dairy) on water quality and nutrient cycling and develop meaningful, integrated, environmental, economic, and social instruments for the implementation of long-term improved land and water resource use at the catchment, regional, continental, and global scale.

Smallholder Dairy Opportunities for improved pasture and controlled grazing systems to address nomadic pastoralist and arable
farmer conflicts in West Africa

2020-2022

This Networking Grant provided an exciting opportunity to bring together a diversity of expertise and practical knowledge in the form of agricultural researchers, social scientists and practitioners from West Africa and the UK, along with pastoralists and arable farmers to share their experience and knowledge on livestock production grazing systems, and to explore how the introduction of improved pasture and controlled grazing systems in West Africa can contribute towards the sustainable intensification of livestock production whilst facilitating the amicable co-existence of crop growers and herdsmen.

Plant-based solutions to integrate livestock disease control, nutrition and environmental sustainability in Africa

2019-2022

Smallholder livestock production in Africa faces climate-induced challenges, jeopardizing nutrition from grazing and escalating disease threats. Conventional interventions are unsustainable. This project builds on successful targeted treatment approaches, aiming to integrate native antiparasitic plants, offering a sustainable solution. The study includes socio-economic assessments, ultimately promoting resilient smallholder production and food security.

Smallholder Dairy Cooperatives in Addressing Sustainable Development Goals in ODA Countries

2019

The objectives of this project are to define and share best practice in the organisation and management of SSF cooperatives across three ODA countries, ultimately to be rolled out to many more with further funding, and to assess the feasibility of utilising SSF cooperatives as “farm units” for data collection in research aimed at defining optimal livestock management. WUN has supported the Global Farm Platform (GFP), a network of institutions and research farms across 6 continents

Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture award: Measuring sustainability metrics for ruminant livestock production systems in brazil and UK for a global assessment

2018 – 2019

Rothamsted Research – North Wyke (UK) and Embrapa Southeast Livestock (Brazil) are working together to measuring different metrics of sustainability, particularly water footprint of beef production systems.

Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture award: System-wide evaluation of Brazilian cattle industry based on high-resolution primary data

2018 – 2019

Rothamsted Research – North Wyke (UK) and Embrapa Southeast Livestock (Brazil) are working together to apply the new method of LCA developed by Rothamsted Research to the high-resolution data being collected at Embrapa’s Southeast Livestock station

UK Space Agency

Pasture for Life: Earth observation to deliver solutions for East African livestock farms

2017

This 6-month project aimed to join efforts to develop a larger bid to address serious issues impacting ruminant production systems in sub-Saharan Africa. We are looking at an integrated solution with ILRI, Rothamsted Research, the University of Bristol and SSLLP.

GCRF-IAA: Soil Organic Carbon – devising a single proxy measure for the sustainability of pastoral systems

2017

At the GFP workshop in KVASU in 2015, a focus group defined the minimum number of variables needed to predict soil health and its relationship to plant health and thus animal health.

Developing metrics and use of long term datasets in grassland systems

2016 – 2018

Professor Michael Lee chaired the session dedicated to review the Farm Platform project and future steps for the project. The session introduced new topics that could change the way many people think about agriculture and food. Michael also presented the Global Farm Platform to the attendees.

WUN Global Challenge: Responding to Climate Change

2016 – 2017

The major activity will be focused grant-­writing workshops to target specific funding streams for each of the sub-­projects:

New Unified Dairy Genetics – Towards the ‘Dairy Stabiliser’ for the Tropics

Towards State-­‐of-­‐the-­‐Art Breeding in Grassland Production Systems

Sustainable Intensification of Agro-ecosystems: The Role of Instrumented Farms at the Local, Regional, and Global Scale

2016 – 2018

Research Objectives:

Build capacity through the establishment of plot-scale research

Initiate coordinated data collection within the GFP; and align this data collection effort with existing USDA/ARS LTAR data sets

Newton

2015 – 2017

The Newton Fund project involved partnership between Rothamsted Research (RRes) and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Columbia, a CGIAR consortium member. Researchers from Rres and CIAT worked collaboratively to assess the potential for multiple ecosystem service benefits from growing the tropical forage grass Brachiaria in ‘push-pull’ systems.

Sustainable intensification of temperate and tropical livestock production

2015 – 2017

The overarching goal for this collaboration was to deliver new kinds of management tools that support farmers in the UK and Africa to sustainably intensify livestock production.

India Partnering Award: Health and welfare consequences of maladaptation of high-producing cross-bred dairy cattle to environmental stressors in India

2015 – 2017

This is the first stage in developing a range of welfare and risk assessments for dairy farming in India

Global Farm Platforms for Sustainable Ruminant Livestock Production

2014 – 2016

University of Bristol (UK), University of Wisconsin Madison (USA), Kerala Veterinary and Animal Science University (INDIA), Zhijiang University (CHINA)

• Enrolled 15 members and 7 research farms in the Global Farm Platform.
• Developed over 15 research projects with income of over £1.4 million.
• Ran 13 workshops across every continent and a major international conference in 2016 (Bristol).
• Released a special issue of the journal Animal (July 2018) as an output of the conference.
• 12 research papers including Nature, Global Change Biology and Science Advances.
• 25+ abstracts at international conferences including two sessions at the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP).

GLOBAL FARM PLATFORMS FOR OPTIMISATION OF GRAZING LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

2013

This proposal will develop a formal global network of farm platforms covering a range of grazing livestock systems within five eco-regions across six continents:

Temperate grasslands – Subtropical grasslands – Humid tropics – Mediterranean Biome – Feedlot systems