Scientist Assesses West African Laboratories and Builds Management Program
Richard P. Fethiere of the Agronomy Department of IFAS at the University of Florida collaborated with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems as a laboratory technical and management expert to assess the forage lab capacity in two countries in West Africa: Burkina Faso and Niger. The outcome of this 2019 assessment was a training program on forage lab management and a curriculum on forage quality and lab analysis developed by Fethiere. A total of 54 specialists in the two countries attended the training.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded EQUIP project, part of the Innovation Lab, is investing in forage lab development in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. Some of the specialized pieces of equipment being acquired through EQUIP—in-vitro digestibility test, NIRS machine, GreenFeed—will require human capacity development to operate and maintain in order to foster research and student training to explore new levels of scientific discoveries in the livestock sector. Fethiere’s work will contribute to building the human capacity needed to support this expanding infrastructure.
Reports about the assessments in Burkina Faso and Niger are available from the webpage of the Human and Institutional Capacity Development, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems, https://livestocklab.ifas.ufl.edu/themes/hicd/:
- Fethiere, R. and Ludgate, N. 2019. Report on the Assessment of Forage and Non-Forage Laboratories in Burkina Faso. Gainesville, FL, USA: Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems.
- Fethiere, R. and Ludgate, N. 2019. Report on the Assessment of Forage and Non-Forage Laboratories in Niger. Gainesville, FL, USA: Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems.
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