LIVESTOCK FEED and VEGETABLE IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES

Ben Lukuyu (ILRI); Leonard Marwa, Gregory Sikumba and Victor Afari-sefa

Africa RISING ESA Review and Planning Meeting,Arusha, Tanzania, 9-11 September 2014

Exploiting the use of FORAGES as a LAND MANAGEMENT strategy (addressed elsewhere)

Exploiting potential of FORAGES as animal FEED

Enhancing use of CROP RESIDUES (cereals, legumes and vegetable waste) as animal FEED

Cattle Indigenous poultry

…from the Livestock angle!

To enhance productivity of livestock and vegetables in crop livestock systems

To optimize utilization of scarce resource (land, feed, vegetables interactions)

Land management Vegetable production and utilisation Feed quantity Feed quality

Why livestock feed and vegetable improvement?

Technology development….forages, vegetables and crop residues

Fodder Trees (Leucaena leucocephala) established on demo

plots in Babati

Crop residues on farm in Babati

Forages varieties screened on station; moved on farm along with bulking and introduced on a few selected farms in Babati.

Improved forages…

Performance of new technologies

Out of 96 villages (30-40,000 farmers) – targeting 5 villages with 1,500 farmers

So far focusing on 3 villages with 1,000 farmers

Next rain season’s target: Planting materials will be

distributed to 245 farms in 3 villages

Establish 6 demo and bulking plots in three (3) new villages – Matufa, Shauri Moyo and Hallu

Farmers benefiting from technology

Farmers attending one of our activities in Babati

Due to a diversity of AEZ conditions and niches there is need for More forage options and different treatments(monocrop,

intercrop, different input levels etc.) Model potential impacts of improved forages on farms

and landscapes Monitor environmental impacts (incl. soil, water, GHGe) Participatory evaluation, i.e. feeding results of above

analysis in the participatory processes

Emerging issues….

Integrating vegetables ……

Vegetables as nutritious food and feed for livestock

Baseline socioeconomic survey: 300 households from 10 villages in the 3 districts (Babati, Kiteto and Kongwa) Pest and disease survey of 20 farms per district, including a questionnaire on pesticide

application regimes conducted (July-Aug., 2013) Community sensitization on nutritional importance of vegetables (Sept.-Oct.,

2013) Training (Theory and practical learning): 71 farmers were trained on good

vegetable production practices with complementary start-up seed kits (Sept.-Oct., 2013)

Follow up visit to observe farmer adoption of preferred varieties & performance of seeds and trickle down. Adoption increased from 71 farmers to 140 farmers (Dec., 2013)

Farmers selected 3 preferred varieties for integration: tomato (Tengeru 2010), amaranth (Madiira II) and African eggplant (Tengeru white) (Dec., 2013)

Site selection and setting of layout of experimental demos (Feb., 2014)

What has been done so far?

Yield estimates for Tomato in MatufaTreatment description Demo plot

area cultivated

ha)

Harvested yield (kg)

% yield increase over base

(farmer seeds & practice)

Elite variety (Tengeru 2010) + Healthy seedling treatment + ICPM

0.0012 510 1,360

Elite variety (Tengeru 2010) + Healthy seedling treatment + Farmer practice

0.0012 270 771

Elite variety + Farmer managed seedlings + Farmer practice

0.0012 37.5 0

Detailed data collection on yield estimates - 12 demo plots and replicated farmer plots

Profitability analysis of demo trials Validate identified pest and disease findings Develop ICPM recommendations for farmers Training in postharvest handling and vegetable utilization for improving

shelf-life and enhanced produce utilization for improved nutrition and potential for vegetables as poultry feed

On-farm evaluation of preferred elite vegetable varieties for optimal agronomic adaptability into maize-based systems.

Cost-benefits analyses on best-bet vegetable integrated systems & promotion

Further work…

Characterized different potential feed resources available in the study sites

Quality determination is underway

Crop residue utilization

PRA in Hallu village

Key findings

• There exist plenty of cereal and legume by products on farms

• There is plenty of un utilized vegetable waste

• Poorly processed crop residues (a lack of technology)

• Poorly stored resources

Adapt and refine proven feed processing technology Produce and test with farmers locally and make

improvements Formulation of feed rations based on locally available

resources Cattle Indigenous chickens

Test rations with farmers Upscale the rations

Pending issues….

Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation

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