Enhancing livelihoods of poor livestock keepers through increasing use of fodder: Ethiopia Report on Output 2

Options for effective delivery systems including innovative communication strategies and on farm interventions to improve

fodder supply

Fodder Adoption Project (FAP) (IFAD Technical Assistance Grant 853)

Presentation by Alan Duncan, Kebebe Ergano, Aberra Adie and Abate Tedla at the FAP End of Project Workshop, Luang Prabang, Laos, 15-19 November 2010

Output 2. Options for effective delivery systems including innovative communication strategies and on farm interventions to improve fodder supply

Activity 1 - Innovative approach for evaluation of year-round feed inventory, assessment

and database

Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST)

Originally developed at cross-country workshop in Hyderabad

PRA plus quick quantitative assessment of feed resources

PRA

Quantitative assessment

Has been extensively improved and a sharing site created

Countries where FEAST has been applied

Rice straw

(grown)17%

Wheat straw

(grown)3%Maize Stover

(grown)8%

Green fodder (grown)

22%Con-cen-

trates (pur-

chased)

22%

Rice straw (pur-

chased)

28%

Gitanagar, Nepal

Rice straw

(grown)57%

Green fodder (grown)

26%

Con-cen-

trates (pur-

chased)1%

Open grazing

16%

Khairpara, Bangladesh

Dietary composition of dairy cows

Dietary composition of dairy animals according to season

Am

an

Bo

ro

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Khairpura, Bangladesh

Concen-tratesGreen fodderOpen Graz-ingRice straw

Win

ter

Sp

rin

g

Ra

iny0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Gitanagar, Nepal

Concen-tratesGreen fodderMaize StoverWheat strawRice straw

Khairpura, Bangladesh

Issues identified in PRA

Opportunities

Farmer knowledge on dairy cow management

Training

Disease; vaccine availability

Work with local livestock health centre

Feeding strategies: designing optimal rations

On-farm experimentation with different rations

Gitanagar, NepalIssues identified in PRA

Opportunities

Disease; mastitis Work with local livestock health centre on training provision

Breed: poor AI, lack of good genetic stock

Broker discussions between farmers and AI providers to identify solution

Feed: optimal ration balancing

On-farm participatory experimentation with ration formulation

Activity 2 - Collection of baseline data

Baseline data

Socio-economic baseline data was collected in a total of 560 households in 3 sites. Findings show:– a near absence of improved genetic

stock at study sites – minimal marketing of livestock products– high proportion of feed resources being

used to support draught animals. – very little planted fodder

Percentage of households citing various constraints to high productivity

Lack of feed

Disease/water - Mieso

X-breds – Ada’a

Prioritizing livestock classes for feeding

Draught oxen are major demand on feed

Perceptions of importance of income from livestock productsNo dominant product

Previous forage development efforts

Surprising number have tried but currently not present

Also conducted baseline innovation capacity diagnosis

Already talked about under Output 1

Reflections on baseline survey

We could have done it better! Difficult to where and what to ask at the

start of the project Project evolved to focus on actors – meant

we focused more on baselining innovation processes

We have some good data on initial target and random households that could be followed up later on through re-survey

Activity 3 - Evaluation of fodder and seed delivery/input supply

mechanisms

Seed supply activities

Forage seed supply remains an issue in Ethiopia

Seed supply mechanisms have been the focus of discussion in all 3

stakeholder groups

Farmer-to-farmer seed exchange on cross-site learning visit

Training on seed multiplication was given in Mieso and Alamata

Assessing Rhodes grass for seed harvest

Stooking method demonstration for uniform

seed maturity

Other actors are also investigating fodder seed supply as a commercial

enterprise – Eden Field Seeds

Cowpea seed production by Eden Field at Melkawerer

NGO’s dominate market

Fodder Roundtable on seed supply

“Fodder has a low adoption rate in Ethiopia, despite efforts, because national capacity was never strongly built and the real demand for fodder seed from farmers is still not well quantified. ”

NGO’s are major buyers of forage seed in Ethiopia – they pay above affordable levels and this distorts the market..

“Risks associated with the long seed-fodder-livestock commodity chain are significant for potential seed producers who cannot predict future demand”

Experience from study sites ...

Once there is demand for forages, seed supply issues begin to resolve

Farmer-to-farmer exchangeDevelopment of local markets

Other input supply activities

Other input supply issues have been addressed through stakeholder platforms– Supply of cross-bred cows at Debre Zeit– AI study commissioned at Debre Zeit– Input supply mechanisms were addressed at a

Fodder Roundtable Meeting in June 2010

Key messages

Preliminary open-minded diagnosis of the feeding/livestock issues (e.g. Feast) useful starting point

We became rather locked into planted forages – using Feast early on might have widened the array of intervention options and led to faster progress

Conventional baseline surveys were of limited use in the way we applied them – need smarter approaches

Seed issues tend to sort themselves out provided forages are perceived as valuable by farmers