(Photo credit: ILRI/Alan Duncan)

The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) has been widely applied across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia as a way to support improved livestock feed interventions among smallholder farmers. At its heart, FEAST supports lively and insightful local focus group discussions with livestock keepers where participants eagerly engage with each other and with researchers. These discussions guide communities, helping them reflect on how things are and how to weigh-up the challenges in improving livestock production for the years to come. These discussions give opportunities for knowledge sharing and act as a catalyst for change within communities.

As a side-effect – a rich residue that scientists can harvest, the FEAST tool generates a wealth of data. This is particularly valuable, since livestock feed data is hard to come by and can be of low quality. Data collected through FEAST is highly structured and standardized across many locations. To help researchers and policy makers realise the full value of this information, we have made substantial revisions to the FEAST Global Data Repository.

Version 2.0.0 of the FEAST Global Data Repository was developed with three priorities in mind – data integrity, functionality and extendibility. Maintaining a high standard of data integrity was of the highest priority in the development process. This focus on data integrity means that all data cleaning and spatial data additions have been built in a way to leave the raw data untouched in a secure database. Our focus on data integrity also led us to make some substantial adjustments ‘under the hood’ to accept non-Latin characters in the database – so FEAST focus group discussions using local place names can simply be uploaded.

The functionality improvements have been designed to improve the experience of visitors, new users and veteran users. The homepage has been refreshed to provide an overview of available data (number of countries, sites, focus groups and fodder hectares enumerated) and to give quick access to visualisations and the full FEAST Global Data Repository. Visitors and registered users can freely view and download visualisations, providing standardised content for exploration and communication. Registered users can browse and download publicly available data using a flexible and feature-rich interface. This download interface allows people to get the data they want in their preferred format.

The final functionality improvement is on data management and spatial data – something that I’m particularly excited about. Veteran users can now better manage their uploaded data, by revising fields and adding spatialized information. These new spatial fields for site and focus group are designed to add value to the data by extracting information from global datasets – which currently includes livestock system and ruminant livestock density. When points and polygons are added to the data, this added value is taken care of by the FEAST Global Data Repository.

We have designed all these functionality improvements with an eye to the future. To encourage future extendibility, we have made all the code open source and have written sections in the popular ‘R’ statistical computing language. This is particularly useful when managing downloads and producing visualisations. To help develop the FEAST Global Data Repository code, check out the links below, or submit R code for new visualisations. This way, all users will benefit.

The FEAST Global Data Repository will continue to grow as long as we invest in facilitating these lively and insightful discussions in livestock keeping communities. The FEAST focus group discussions have acted as a catalyst for change in rural communities; by adding value to feed assessment data we, as a community, then have an opportunity to act as catalysts for positive change in projects, research and policy.

More:

About FEAST: https://www.ilri.org/feast

Global data repository: https://feastdata.ilri.org

Website code: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111320

R Shiny code: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/111321

News on FEAST and its use: https://fodderadoption.wordpress.com/tag/feast/

Feeding cows; Tana River watershed, Kenya; Credit Georgina Smith CIAT

Feeding livestock involves multiple tasks including planting, weeding and harvesting of forages, collecting and storing crop residues and purchasing of concentrate feeds. In every farming community the division of tasks among women and men vary. Also, the benefits from keeping livestock are divided differently among women and men in different communities. Understanding the gender angle to livestock feeding is important when it comes to suggesting new feed options. If we don’t think things through, we may end up with outcomes we hadn’t anticipated.

With this in mind, ILRI in partnership with ICARDA recently upgraded the well-established Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) to include a gender component. We are calling the new version G-FEAST. G-FEAST maintains all the existing functionality of FEAST but generates extra gender-related insights into the livestock feed system. New features include graphs showing ownership of different livestock species by women and men farmers, gendered division of labour for feeding activities, gendered decision making on sales of livestock products  and use of income, the main contributors to women’s income relative to overall household income, and specifications of who is most affected by certain problems.

We have tested the new tool in Uganda and recently applied it in Burkina Faso. It is also currently under testing in Vietnam. We welcome users to think about running a G-FEAST and providing us with feedback on its usefulness. G-FEAST can be accessed here.

Publishing FEAST reports

FEAST is primarily an approach to guide livestock feed interventions. The process includes documenting the local feeding system and capturing the information in a FEAST report. Around 80 of these have been published on the digital repository of the CGIAR: CGSpace. You can view published reports here. These have proven to be a useful record of local livestock feed issues in a range of locations. We would like to expand this information resource and are in the process of improving the readability and presentation of around 40 FEAST reports that have accumulated on our hard drives in recent years. These will soon be published on CGSpace. We have enlisted an editing team to help us with this (Jessica Axberg and Blasius Nche Azuhnwi). If you have unpublished FEAST reports lurking on your computer and would like to submit them to be considered for editing and publishing on CGSpace, please contact Alan Duncan (a.duncan@cgiar.org).

FEAST in the Rwanda Dairy Development Programme (RDDP)

Rwanda Dairy Development Project is implemented by Government of Rwanda under a loan from IFAD. ILRI provides technical assistance to RDDP and one of our early activities has been to work with colleagues from Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB) and University of Rwanda to apply FEAST in 6 RDDP project sites. This work is designed to support ongoing dairy cattle feed improvement strategies in RDDP. The next step is to take findings from FEAST and use them to develop Feed Intervention Plans. We’d like to replicate this process in other development projects so if you see an opportunity, please get in touch with Alan Duncan (a.duncan@cgiar.org)

Alan Duncan and Ben Lukuyu 28/10/19

Deadline for applications 21 June 2019.

CIAT/ILRI seek to appoint two short-term (1-4 months) visiting scientists to work on the above tasks. The incumbents will work with the science team to develop feasibility surfaces.

Further details can be found here: Advert – Student (Visiting Scientist)

Despite having Africa’s largest livestock population, Ethiopia has not realized the full benefits from the sector due to low animal productivity which is attributed to many factors, the foremost being poor quality and inadequate feed resources. Researchers in the country are exploring the production of supplemental green fodder using irrigation in smallholder farming systems in the highlands as a way of improving animal feeding which is expected to diversify household income while securing adequate animal-source foods for smallholder families.

This six-minute video describes the work of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the Amhara Region Agricultural Institute, which worked with farmers in Robit-Bata kebele (sub-district) in the Amhara region through the Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) project, to introduce the cultivation of irrigated Napier grass (ILRI 16786). Starting in 2015, 17 farmers each planted an average of 100m² of the forage with several farmers choosing to intercrop forage legumes with the Napier grass to increase feed quantity and quality and maintain the soil nutrient base.

The number of direct beneficiaries planting irrigated forages grew from 17 in 2015 to 183 in 2017. Currently, more than 400 farmers have benefited from the irrigated fodder initiative in the project site and many others have benefited indirectly through field days and farmer-to-farmer experience sharing events. At the same time, the land area assigned to irrigated forages by individual farmers grew from 100m² to 1,000m² on average.

Before the introduction of cultivated forages, farmers in the area used water resources to grow khat – a stimulant perennial crop which, though socially and religiously unacceptable, earned them a good profit. But some have now abandoned the crop in favour of forage farming. When asked why they are opting to grow forages, farmers said that since adopting forage farming, they make more money from the sale of milk and have other benefits from their better fed livestock such as calves, manure for soil fertilization and biogas. Moreover, they said that khat farming required the use of large amounts of pesticide which forage farming does not need. They added that irrigating forages uses less labour and water compared to khat, though researchers in the project have yet to determine the extent.

The improved forage supply has increased milk yields helping farmers secure dairy-based food sources for their families and led to an emerging milk market in the area. Information from 10 farmers indicated that their milk yield has increased from 2.3lt to 4.6lt/day/local cow from the use of irrigated forages. Current farm-gate price of milk is ETB13 (USD0.46)/lit and some farmers who have 3–4 milking local cows make ETB1,170–1,560/month. The income grows to ETB4,000-5,000/month for farmers owning 3-4 crossbred cows.

These results have drawn the attention of other farmers and government officials who have expressed interesting in scaling up the intervention to other areas of the country.

The ILSSI project researchers are currently carrying out on-farm research and demonstrations of more forage options, better conservation and forage utilization methods (chopping, mixing, etc.) in the highlands.

The researchers are also working with the farmers to find solutions to water lifting challenges associated with the use of hand bucket pulling and traditional pulley methods and carrying it to farms. For example: the use of solar pumps coupled with drip lines to address the problem.

In the future, the project will work with livestock sector stakeholders to supply improved dairy breeds to farmers and ensure sustainable fodder and livestock markets.

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is one of the CGIAR partners of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)-led Bhoo Samrudhi project funded by Government of Karnataka in India. Responding to  a request from the state government to explore commercial utilization of roadside grass (Figure 1 and 2) as animal feed, the ILRI team conducted a scoping study, visiting potential sites, interacting with stakeholders and collecting grass samples for nutritional analysis. The nutritional  analysis showed  that the roadside grass (botanically identified as Pennisetum polystachion, commonly known as wild pearl millet or mission grass) was of promising fodder quality (protein content of 7% and digestibility of 55%) and is available along the roadsides for about 800 km, covering a 2m strip each side producing and estimated 11,200 tons of green fodder from August to December.

Figure 1

Figure 2

To use the potential of this feed resources  in the deficit season and /or in distant locations, it was proposed to convert this grass into silage using a mini wrapper cum baler (Figure 3).

Figure 3

The Municipality, which previously dumped the grass in junkyards after clearing it from the road side by brush cutters /weed walker), agreed to supply the same to a nearby Gosala (cattle welfare centre), housing more than 1,000 cattle.  This motivated the team to install the baler cum wrapping machine in the Gosala (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Figure 5

In a proof-of-concept mode the sun-wilted grass (moisture 40%) supplied  by the Municipality (at their own cost) was chopped using a 10 HP chaff cutter (Figure 5) and mixed with locally available legume haulms (groundnut/ mung bean /green gram) in the ratio 65:35. The chopped mixture was then fed to the mini baler cum wrapper, which compressed and wrapped the grass legume mixture into 40 kg bales (Figure 6 and 7).

Figure 6

Figure 7

The fodder processing unit was inaugurated by the head of Gosala in the presence of officials from Agricultural Department, Department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry, ILRI and ICRISAT representatives. The unit plans to produce about 10,000 bales during a period of five months (August to December), when the grass is available in plenty. The process was also presented to private feed manufacturers in the district. Several have already expressed interest to produce the ‘enriched silage bales’ as a commercial product and supply to dairy farmers in the project districts. Towards this, ILRI has agreed to provide technical support and training for the interested entrepreneurs.

Project title: Improving Rural Livelihoods Through Innovative Scaling-up of Science-led Participatory Research for Development

Donor: Government of Karnataka

Partners: ILRI, ICRISAT, Neelavari Goala

A smallholder livestock farmer in India. Animal feeding and nutrition deserves greater attention as a critical discipline in addressing the environmental impacts of animal-sourced foods production (photo credit: ILRI).

Contributing about 40% of protein in human diets globally and more than 50% in developed countries, animal-sourced foods (ASF) are crucial to the nutrition of millions of people. Increasing demand for livestock products, particularly in low and middle income countries, offers market and income opportunities for many smallholder livestock producers. However, the livestock sector is facing increasing pressure to reduce its impact on the environment, especially its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the water use of some livestock production systems.

Researchers, involving a combination of agricultural economists and biological scientists working on livestock feeds, from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and India’s National Dairy Development Board believe that ‘feed resourcing and feeding is at the very interface where the positive and negative effects of livestock, income, livelihoods and environment are negotiated’. They make the case that animal feeding and nutrition deserves greater attention as a critical discipline in addressing the environmental impacts of ASF production to ensure livestock-based livelihoods are maintained in the face of these challenges.

‘Feed is the major input cost in livestock farming and the lack of affordable, reliable, and acceptable (in terms of quantity and quality) feed represents a major constraint to smallholder competitiveness and the overall profitability of livestock production systems. The choice of feeds and feeding strategies also has major implications for natural resource usage and GHG emissions.’

Their findings, which are published in Perspectives in Animal Nutrition 2018, present approaches for improving feeding to achieve animal nutrition goals including:

• lowering feed costs and/or increasing ASF production and productivity to increase the economic benefits from ASF production;
• decreasing the environmental footprint of ASF production;
• reducing the labour requirements associated with feed resourcing and animal feeding, and;
• providing opportunities for enterprises in feed production, marketing and processing to generate income and make off-farm produced feed available.

To tackle rising feed costs compared to farm gate prices of ASF, the researchers recommend addressing feed scarcity by increasing feed resources from forages and crops residues. They suggest that these measures should be supported by investment in research to improve the quality of these resources. At the same time, leveraging technologies for the deconstruction of ligno-cellulosic material and matching and optimizing feed nutrient supply and animal performance on-farm can improve the efficiency of feed utilization enabling farmers to keep fewer, more productive, animals thereby reducing GHG emissions.

The scientists call for a paradigm shift in feed research, giving more attention to the production of affordable off-farm produced feed. This will require increased cooperation between animal nutritionists, economists and the private sector in developing viable business plans to open up more opportunities for feed production-related businesses and to create employment for the youth. Overall, they argue, achieving these animal nutrition goals will require greater partnership between feed researchers and forage and crop breeders, economists, socio-economists, natural resource management experts, policymakers and the private sector.

Michael Blümmel, deputy program leader of ILRI’s Feed and Forage Development program, presented findings from this research at the Plenary Opening Session of the Indian Animal Nutrition Association XI Biennial Conference in Patna on 19-21 November 2018. Download his presentation: https://www.slideshare.net/ILRI/blummel-anacon-2018

Read the full paper Animal nutrition approaches for profitable livestock operations and sustainable rural livelihoods

Scientists have tested bread wheat cultivars released in the Ethiopian highlands to better understand the potential trade-offs between food and fodder traits (photo credit: ILRI/Apollo Habtamu).

Mixed crop-and-livestock farmers in Ethiopia and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa increasingly depend on crop residues as a source of fodder due to the declining availability of grazing lands. As a result, improving both the grain and residue yields and quality of dual-purpose crops is of growing importance for livestock nutrition and productivity.

Scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) tested the productivity characteristics of bread wheat cultivars released in the Ethiopian highlands to better understand the potential trade-offs between food and fodder traits.

Generally, genetic variation exists in fodder quality traits of crop residues and improvements in quality can be achieved, through plant breeding or simply reselecting within varieties, without negatively affecting grain yield.

An initial 25 wheat varieties were investigated for grain and straw yields and fodder quality traits in 2016 in Debre Zeit and Kulumasa. Five of these varieties were then selected for further investigation in 2017 in four broader agroecologies. ‘We investigated the nitrogen (N), neutral detergent (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL) in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) and metabolize energy (ME),’ said Melkamu Derseh, an animal nutritionist with the Feed and Forage Development program at ILRI, who led the research.

The study confirmed the presence of cultivar-dependent variations in fodder quality traits in the wheat varieties. ‘These variations can be exploited to optimize food-feed traits of cultivars used in the mixed crop-livestock system,’ said Derseh. The scientists, however, found that the amount of variation in wheat fodder quality was lower than previously reported for wheat and other cereal crops.

‘The variability in IVOMD among the investigated wheat varieties ranged between 1 and 2 percentage units. Theoretically, this means that by exploiting the existing varietal variations, it would be possible to improve the digestibility of the straw by at least one percent, which could be translated to up to a 6% increase in animal performance.’

The researchers conclude that because of the significant scale of wheat cultivation in the country, the second largest in sub-Saharan Africa, and the smallholder farming context, a slight improvement in fodder quality traits of the newly released varieties will play an important role in enhancing livestock production and improving the livelihood of farmers in Ethiopia.

Findings from the study were published in the August 2018 issue of Field Crops Research. Read the whole article ‘Variations in food-fodder traits of bread wheat cultivars released for the Ethiopian highlands’.