Africa’s livestock producers are unable to meet the rapidly increasing demand for meat and dairy products. One major obstacle is access to feed of sufficient quality and quantity.
An article in Spore magazine, produced by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), highlights work by the World Agroforestry Centre and partners to introduce leguminous fodder trees into crop-livestock systems in East Africa. “Fodder trees are highly nutritious for livestock, easy to grow and, by fixing atmospheric nitrogen, help improve soil fertility,” says the article.
An estimated 200,000 farmers (mainly dairy farmers) in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda are now using these fodder trees to boost milk yields. They have seen incomes rise by €25-100 per household per year as a result.
The article also discusses progress by researchers, NGOs, policymakers and others with regard to: avoiding conflict over the use of grain to feed monogastric animals such as pigs and poultry; crops bred specifically to produce high-nutrient residues that can be fed to livestock; the potential for crops such as sweet potato vine; and possibilities for making use of agro-industrial waste.
A range of information products and tools have been developed to assist farmers in deciding on which feeds provide the best option for them, including:
- Feeding Dairy Cattle in East Africa - produced through the East African Dairy Development (EADD) programme
- Feedipedia – an online encyclopedia of animal feeds
- Techfit – a decision-support tool developed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and partners which provides ‘best bet’ feed options for each local context.
Read the full story: Feeding Africa’s livestock: Fodder and forage solutions
To find out more about the World Agroforestry Centre’s work on fodder trees, download the booklet: Fodder For a Better Future: How agroforestry is helping to transform the lives of small-scale dairy farmers in East Africa
