Opportunity and Constraints of Livestock Feed Resources in Abol and Lare Districts of Gambella Region, Ethiopia

This research was done to identify livestock problems with the objective of assessing livestock production and associated constraints. The study was done using a formal survey, focus group discussions and field visit through open and closed ended questionnaires data collection. Purposive sampling was employed to select 90 households (HHs) having livestock and the data was analyzed by SPSS version 16. The average family size in the Abol (5.37) was significantly (P<0.05) lower than Lare (9.5) district. The levels of education in both districts were very low which nearly 57% of the households were without any kind of education. Trends in communal, arable and vegetation coverage were decreasing. Livestock rearing was them the means of livelihood of the population in Lare (78.7%) than Abol (21.7%) district. The average number of goats, sheep and chicken in Lare district were significantly (p<0.05) higher than Abol district. Natural pasture was the dominant feed resources in the area. The major livestock production constraints in the study area were ranked as health, feed, flood, drought, and theft and predators. From this study it was concluded that feed shortages occurs due to dry period and flood. Consecutively, poor conservation practices, storage of crop residues and improved forages which need effective training and demonstration to improve the productivity of livestock sector.

This research was done to identify livestock problems with the objective of assessing livestock production and associated constraints. The study was done using a formal survey, focus group discussions and field visit through open and closed ended questionnaires data collection. Purposive sampling was employed to select 90 households (HHs) having livestock and the data was analyzed by SPSS version 16. The average family size in the Abol (5.37) was significantly (P<0.05) lower than Lare (9.5) district. The levels of education in both districts were very low which nearly 57% of the households were without any kind of education. Trends in communal, arable and vegetation coverage were decreasing. Livestock rearing was them the means of livelihood of the population in Lare (78.7%) than Abol (21.7%) district. The average number of goats, sheep and chicken in Lare district were significantly (p<0.05) higher than Abol district. Natural pasture was the dominant feed resources in the area. The major livestock production constraints in the study area were ranked as health, feed, flood, drought, and theft and predators. From this study it was concluded that feed shortages occurs due to dry period and flood. Consecutively, poor conservation practices, storage of crop residues and improved forages which need effective training and demonstration to improve the productivity of livestock sector.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10713
Author(s):  
Belay Duguma ◽  
Geert P. J. Janssens

In the current study area, livestock are an integral part of the mixed farming system, and play very important roles as sources of draught power, nutrition, cash income, employment and poverty alleviation. However, feed shortage, especially during the dry season, is the most important constraint to optimal productivity. This study aimed to investigate livestock feed resources and feeding practices, coping strategies with seasonal scarcity, and to identify major constraints to livestock production in a mixed farming system around the Gilgel Gibe catchment, southwest Ethiopia. Data were collected from 342 households using a structured questionnaire. The results showed natural pasture, crop residues, stubble grazing, and roadside grasses were the main feed resources, in that order. None of the respondents practiced improved forage cultivation due to insufficient land and lack of knowledge on forage production and utilization. Free grazing was the most predominant feeding system. Almost all respondents experienced dry season feed scarcity. Conserving crop residues and hay, purchasing roughages, reducing herd size and renting grazing land were the major coping strategies to feed scarcity. The farmers’ perceived major constraints to livestock production were feed shortage, animal diseases, and low productivity of local breeds. Institutional, technical and technological interventions are suggested to alleviate the constraints to livestock production in mixed crop-livestock systems in the study area and outside with similar settings.


2004 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 247-258
Author(s):  
R.H. Phipps ◽  
A. Cockburn

The limitations to livestock production are numerous and varied but are applicable to a greater or lesser extent in both developed and developing countries. Crop factors that limit livestock production include inadequate quality (e.g. crop residues such as maize stover) and quantity of feed resources with an inconsistent supply due to extremes of climate (e.g. low rainfall and high temperatures), the presence of anti-nutritional factors and toxins (e.g. trypsin inhibitors, glucosinolates, gossypol, mycotoxins), and deficiencies of specific nutrients (e.g. amino acids and minerals).


Author(s):  
J. Raju ◽  
P. Ravi Kanth Reddy ◽  
N. Nalini Kumari ◽  
J. Narasimha ◽  
D. Nagalakshmi

An assessment of livestock and poultry feed resources availability was done based on the extrapolation of secondary data from livestock census, 2012 and land utilization and crop production pattern in Telangana state. Overall dry matter (DM) availability in the state is about 19.47 million tonnes (Mt) from various feed resources. Availability of green forage, dry forage and concentrate feed resources were 2.38, 15.0 and 2.1 million tonnes respectively. Crop residues contributed to 77% of total DM supply for livestock in Telangana. Straws from paddy and maize crops are the major crop residues available in the state. The DM availability per RLU/day for the region as a whole is 6.1 kg with the values ranging from 2.8 kg in Adilabad district to 13.2 kg in Nizamabad district. Total DM availability including livestock and poultry was 84% and the deficit was around 16%. It could be concluded that there is severe shortage of green forages and concentrates to meet the requirements of livestock and poultry.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tunde Adegoke Amole ◽  
Adetayo Adekeye ◽  
Augustine Abioye Ayantunde

The expected increase in livestock production to meet its increasing demand could lead to increased water depletion through feeds production. This study aimed at estimating the amount of water depletion through feeds and its corresponding productivity in livestock within the three dominant livestock management systems namely sedentary-intensive, sedentary-extensive, and transhumance in Yatenga and Seno provinces in the Sahelian zone of Burkina Faso. Using a participatory rapid appraisal and individual interview, beneficial animal products, and services were estimated, and consequently, livestock water productivity (LWP) as the ratio of livestock products and services to the amount of water depleted. Our results showed feed resources are mainly natural pasture and crop residues are common in all the management systems though the proportion of each feed type in the feed basket and seasonal preferences varied. Consequently, water depleted for feed production was similar across the systems in both provinces and ranged from 2,500 to 3,200 m−3 ha−1 yr−1. Values for milk (40 US$US$/household) and flock offtake (313 US$/household) derived from the transhumant system were higher (P &lt; 0.05) than those from other systems in the Seno province. With higher returns from the beneficial outputs, LWP was higher (0.11 US$ m−3) in the transhumant system than other systems in Yatenga, but similar with sedentary-intensive in Seno Province Multiple regression analysis results showed that LWP had a significant positive relationship with flock offtake in Yatenga but milk and flock offtake in Seno. The study concluded that sedentary-intensive and transhumant system with more market-oriented beneficial outputs and much dependence on less-water-depleted feed resources will improve livestock water productivity in dry areas. Besides, interventions to improve livestock water productivity through beneficial outputs must recognize the unique socio-cultural context of the livestock farmers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-15
Author(s):  
Asemahegn Mersha Hailegiorgis ◽  
Debissa Lemessa

The major livestock feed next to natural pasture in central highlands of Ethiopia is cereal crop residue; however, supplementation with additional nutritional entities is most often recommended.  The present study aims to examine the nutritive value of lentil haulm and how this value varies among the varieties and locations. For this, 80gms of haulm samples of Alemaya, Derash and local lentil varieties were collected with four replications from Bishoftu, Akaki, and Chefe-Donsa from on farm trial sites of Ethiopian institute of agricultural research. To test for the variation in haulm nutritional values among the varieties, two-way ANOVA was employed. The results showed that the interaction of variety and location had significant effect on crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), metabolizable energy (ME) and in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) (P<0.05). Here, CP content of lentil haulm was higher for a local variety when compared with the two commercial varieties. The haulm yield (4.38t/ha) and haulm dry matter yield (3.97 t DM/ha) were higher for Derash when compared with that of the local variety (P<0.05). Overall, the present finding denoted that although in some cases the lentil haulm nutritional values and yields vary among varieties and were dependent on growing locations, it can be observed to have optimum feeding values to supplement livestock feed with the cereal crop residues in central Ethiopia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Wubetie ADNEW ◽  
Bimrew ASMARE ◽  
Yeshambel MEKURIAW

Still food security has not been attained fully in many tropical African countries including Ethiopia. However, the issue of food security achievement has been able to realize due to various setbacks among which low productivity of crops and livestock take the lion share. Among the various constraints the parasitic weed Striga, and Stemborer pests are responsible for lower crop yields in the region. Regarding livestock feed, shortage in terms of quantity and quality are the major impediment to the livestock sector. To achieve food security, increasing crop yield and livestock production is vital in Ethiopia and other tropical countries. Crop yields can be enhanced through the control of weeds using biological systems to increase food crop yield apart from chemical inputs. In case of livestock, full production and reproduction potential of animals can be met through fulfilling nutritional requirements of livestock. The major livestock feed resources in Ethiopia are natural pasture and crop residues. Both feed resources; however, are poor in nutritional value and they are listed as low maintenance feed category. Therefore, it is vital to intensify integrated crop- livestock production systems for sustainable economy and environment. Introducing forage grasses in the crop production system has been practiced in the tropics as push pull technology. In Ethiopia, Brachiaria grass is an emerging forage for integrated agricultural production that has been getting considerable recognition as an option to overcome the pests in crop production in the tropics due to its high adaptive and yielding as well as climate smart forages. In the country, Brachiaria is recently introduced by different organization in different agro-ecology of the country mainly as push-pull integrated agricultural system and considering its fodder potential for the livestock feed. Therefore, this review paper aimed to looking for the available research knowledge in Ethiopia and somewhere else in the glob for better utilization of Brachiaria grass in the integrated agricultural system. All available information regarding the research and utilization of Brachiaria grass were reviewed in the published papers. The review reveal that Brachiaria has many advantages over other grass species in terms of adaptation to drought and low fertility soils, ability to sequester carbon; increase nitrogen use efficiency through biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) and arrest greenhouse gas emissions. The knowledge has been established in quantifying the multiple contributions of Brachiaria grass inclusion as push pull technology in different parts of the world (South America, Kenya, Rwanda). Limited report showed that cut-and-carry system is the utilization practice of brachiaria grass grown the push pull integration. The potential of improved Brachiaria grass in Ethiopia to address the challenge of livestock feed scarcity and other environmental managements; however, remain unexploited/limited which calls researchers to work on. The review concluded that B. cultivars could have a significant contribution on both animal and cereal production in the tropics but limited research and utilization in Ethiopia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aman Gudeto ◽  
Sandip Banerjee ◽  
Tadele Mirkena ◽  
Tesfaye Alemu Tucho

The study was conducted in Adami Tulu Jidokombolcha (ATJK), Bora, Dodola, Shala and Negele-Arsi districts with objective to assess main cattle feed resources, water sources and housing systems. A pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire was used to conduct survey.  About 240 respondents were identified using random sampling techniques. Collected data was analyzed by SPSS statistical software (Ver. 24). Study result indicates that household in average had three hectares of land and allocated about two hectares of land for crop cultivation. Most respondents reported that cattle herding is not common during dry season while it is common during wet season.  Survey result indicate that natural pasture, weed and maize tiller and stored crop residues are main feed resources in wet  season while crop after math, crop residue and fodder trees are main resources during dry season. Brackish, local mineral and common salt are mineral sources for cattle in study areas. Lake, river and boreholes are important water sources in dry season where as ponds and rivers are main water sources during wet season for their cattle. The observed cattle watering frequency is mainly once a day. Housing system practiced in the study areas is mainly Kraal. The information generated from this study on land size per household, cattle herding system, feed resources, mineral sources, water sources, water utilization and housing type can be used as a baseline for any livestock development programs in those and similar areas. 


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