Nairobi: The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has announced its participation in a new USD 27.4 million global initiative aimed at reducing methane emissions from livestock by leveraging natural variations in how animals digest food.
According to Kenya News Agency, methane is a potent greenhouse gas, more than 80 times as powerful as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Cattle are the largest contributors to livestock-related methane emissions, yet some animals within the same herd naturally emit up to 30 percent less methane than others. Scientists suggest that selecting and breeding these lower-emitting animals can lead to permanent reductions in climate impact, similar to how farmers have traditionally bred for milk yield or fertility.
The initiative, backed by the Bezos Earth Fund and the Global Methane Hub, will support research and breeding programs across Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Oceania. The goal is to identify and scale climate-efficient livestock. Hayden Montgomery, Agriculture Program Director at the Global Methane Hub, described this effort as central to a global push to accelerate research on enteric methane.
ILRI’s Director General, Appolinaire Djikeng, stated that the initiative marks a pivotal moment for climate-smart livestock development in Africa. By using genetics and data, the program equips farmers with tools to breed more productive, resilient, and lower-emission animals. This aligns Africa’s livestock systems with global climate goals while enhancing livelihoods and food security.
The Global Methane Genetics Initiative, an international collaboration, aims to make methane efficiency a standard part of livestock breeding. It plans to screen over 100,000 animals, collect methane emissions data, and integrate findings into breeding programs to provide long-term, low-cost climate benefits.
The initiative is complemented by the Low Methane Forage project, which identifies and deploys anti-methanogenic, high-yielding tropical forages suited for smallholder and pastoral systems. Dr. Andy Jarvis, Director of the Future of Food at the Bezos Earth Fund, emphasized that reducing methane from cattle is a key solution to slowing climate change. This effort uses age-old selection practices to identify and promote naturally low-emitting cattle, thus locking in climate benefits for future generations.
Prof. Roel Veerkamp, leader of the initiative at Wageningen University and Research (WUR), noted that this work unites science, industry, and the global breeding community to accelerate genetic improvement for methane efficiency worldwide. Over time, this approach could reduce methane emissions from cattle by 1.0 to 2 percent each year, totaling a 30% reduction over the next two decades without altering diets, infrastructure, or productivity.
