Bridging forage shortages along the watershed continuum:
Transforming degraded lands into income generating potential in
Tigray, northern Ethiopia
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), IPMS-ILRI, P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
3.2 Changes in intensity and frequency of grazing
1. Introduction
Feed shortage has been identified as one of the key Intensity of grazing: Modified and
limiting factors for livestock productivity and improved to maintain adequate
household income generation in Atsbi-Womberta green leaves as a starting position
district. For this purpose, improved forage devel- (Wo) for fast regrowth, and reduce
opment interventions have been tested and pro-
the recovery time (to) compared to
moted along the watershed continuum and the key
achievements and lessons captured are presented. high intensity of grazing (Figure
below).
2. Intervention approaches
2.1 Intervention processes 2.2 Implemented interventions
3. Key achievements
3.1 Changes in forage biomass and quality
Steep grazing lands: Before (left) and after intervention (right)
Frequency of forage harvest: Shifted from one harvest to
three harvests in September, January and June per year.
Bottomlands: Before (left) and after interventions (right)
3.3 Changes in forage utilization: Sheep fattening and innovation uptake
60000 4000
3500
Total fattened sheep
50000
3000
Fattened sheep (number/year)
Beneficiaries (number/yr)
Total fattened sheep sold
40000
2500
30000 2000
1500
20000
1000
10000
500
0 0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Year Year
3.4 Improved forage uptake following demonstration
Watershed continuum Demonstration Uptake Beneficiary households
area (ha) (ha) (number/district)
21
Steep grazing lands and 26 2,981 6,798
stabilized gullies
Irrigated sites: After intervention 18 Before intervention Bottomlands 69 5,739 13,088
After intervention
Irrigated sites 0.12 850 3,575
Biomass (ton dm/ha)
15
12
9
4. Lessons learned
6 • Linking improved forage production with market oriented commodities helps smallholder farmers to shift in livestock
composition and generate better income following the market signals.
3
• Improved forage productivity generates immediate household income under extreme rainfall variability.
0 • Innovation uptake has been enhanced through demonstration and participation of actors.
Steeplands Bottomlands Irrigated sites
• Improved forage production is resilient to extreme variability in rainfall pattern.
Watershed continuum
• Managing the frequency and intensity of grazing using the concepts of forage starting position (Wo) is critically impor-
tant for health forage re-growth in moisture stressed areas.