Overview to feeds and feeding
systems
Ben Lukuyu and Michael Blummel, ILRI
Identifying Investment Opportunities for Livestock Feed Resources
Development in the Eastern Africa Sub-Region, ILRI Addis, 13-15
December 2017

Overview to feeds and feeding systems
• Feed and fodder highest input costs, determine
overall economics of ASF production
• Feed resourcing and feeding at the interface of
positive and negative effects of livestock (land, water,
GHG, human health).
• Feed production, transaction and processing offers
attractive livelihood opportunities in their own right,
high gender sensitivity

Livestock: the good and the bad
+ -
1.3 Billion people employed, 600 Million
poor
Produce 14 to 18% of global GHG
Value > 1.3 Trillion US $, 40% of
agricultural GDP
 Feed production uses 1/3 of global crop
land
Food for at least 830 Million food
insecure people
 Takes 32% of global water consumption

Population pressure and implication on
feeding systems
Human population (millions)
4
Farming system Global SSA South Asia
2000 2030 2000 2030 2000 2030
Pastoral/Agro-pastoral 837 1302 245 459 89 134
Mixed extensive 1298 1956 151 275 228 335
Mixed intensive 2499 3366 87 175 824 1221
Other 1039 1394 135 233 168 244
Total 5673 8018 618 1142 1309 1934
Herrero et al., 2009
• SSA’s total population is expected to nearly double.
• Proportionally more people will practice intensive crop-livestock farming
• Livelihoods of most people will remain dependent upon pastoral, agro-pastoral, and extensive crop-
livestock systems.
• This will place additional stress on these marginal environments

SSA projected feed sources
 There is more intensive use of the areas classified
as pastures and often viewed as technically difficult
and unprofitable.
5

Typical evolution of mixed farms –
implications on feed resources

Intensification of feed use
 Intensification of livestock production is taking place with regard to the use of most of the
production inputs.
 In particular, the intensity of feed use has greatly increased over recent decades.
 As livestock production grows and intensifies, it depends less and less on locally
available feed resources but increasingly on feed concentrates that are traded
domestically and regionally.
7

Highlights of Feeds and Forages research at
ILRI
• Create superior feed and forage strategies
responding to actual and evolving demands for
meat, milk and egg production and design and
implementation of equitable feed value chains
with reduced ecological footprints.

Feed technology platform
• Create and maintain a feed technology platform and a
network that develops and provides tools for:
 Estimates on farm feed resources
 Prioritizes feed interventions
 Networked analysis of ruminant, monogastric and
fish feed quality analysis
 Estimates of feed demand-supply scenarios including
natural resource use
 Simplified ration balancing programs
 Comprehensive information about ruminant,
monogastric and fish feeding in form of repositories.

Feed Assessment Tool

Stationary NIRS to mobile NIRS to pocket
NIRS

Feed resource supply - demand scenarios
in India
Feed resource Contribution to overall feed resources (%)
Greens from CRP, forests, grazing 8.0
Planted forages 15.1
Crop residues 70.6
Concentrates 6.3
Deficit: feed availability versus feed requirement (%)
Dry matter (i.e. crop residue quantity) -6
Digestible crude protein -61
Total digestible nutrients -50
(NIANP 2012; Blümmel at al. 2014)

Making Better Use of Existing Feed
Resources
• Research on, and implementation of, options making better
use of available feed resources through:
 Ration balancing, feed substitution
 Creation of small scale business enterprises exploring
different business models - private sector, co-operatives,
farmer self-help groups, farmers-turned-entrepreneur
(stover, cassava peels)
 Addressing lack of economic knowledge/information and
lack of astuteness in design and development of small
scale businesses (tool development)
 Fodder markets surveys in Nigeria, Niger, Ethiopia,
Tanzania, India and Indonesia.
 Yield gap analysis dairy and small ruminants in Ethiopia
and India

Making Better Use of Existing Feed
Resources
• Examples of scalable technologies
 Sheep fattening in Ethiopia with locally available
feed resources
 Best use of irrigated forages by smallholders in
Ethiopia: feeding forage to own livestock vs.
forage as cash crop
 Short duration and water use efficient sorghum
and pearl millet forages (sheep and dairy in India)
 Least cost rations and sweet potato by product
based pig feeding in Uganda

Live weight changes in Ethiopian Arsi-Bale sheep
fed exclusively on bean Straws
Cultivars Grain Yield Straw Yield Weight Gain (g/d)
Mosisa 4.28a 5.68a 52.2ab
Walki 4.21a 4.42c 64.6a
Degaga 4.20a 4.31c 43.2bc
Shallo 4.06a 4.98b 37.5c
Local 2.89b 3.65d 48.3bc
Wegi et al., 2016

Feed block manufacturing:
supplementation, densification

Comparisons of feed blocks based on lower (47%) and higher (52%)
digestible sorghum stover and tested with commercial dairy buffalo
farmer in India
Block Premium Block Low
CP 17.2 % 17.1%
ME (MJ/kg) 8.46 MJ/kg 7.37 MJ/kg
DMI 19.7 kg/d 18.0 kg/d
DMI per kg LW 3.6 % 3.3 %
Milk Potential 15.5 kg/d 9.9 kg/d
Modified from Anandan et al. (2009a)

Supplementation and processing of sweet
sorghum bagasse and response in sheep
Mash Pellets Block
Control
Chaffed
SSBRL
Concentrat
e
DMI (g/kg LW) 52.5 a 55.6 a 42.1 b 41.5 b
ADG (g / d) 132.7 a 130.4 a 89.5 b 81.3 b
Processing ($/t) 5.9 7.0 5.2 1.7
Transport
($/t/100km) 6.6 5.8 5.2 13.5

Fodder surveys to explore forage as cash
crop options for rural markets in Ethiopia
• Desho prices for supplier: 1.5 – 2.0 Birr/kg
• Fresh Desho average farm yield: 677 kg /cut/100m2
• Land rent value for grass to produce hay: > 30 000 Birr/ha

More and Better Feed and Forage Biomass
• Identification, breeding and dissemination of superior key
food-feed cereal and leguminous crops
 Significant progress in faba beans, barley, cowpea,
maize
• Identification, breeding and dissemination of superior forages
 First Brachiaria humidicola hybrids available for private sector
testing across range of environment
 Commenced breeding program on Megathyrsus maximus (Panicum
maximum)
 Diverse panel of Napier grass accessions at our field gene bank in
preparation for genomic analysis and phenotypic screening in the
future.
 Testing higher through-put methods for evaluation of stress
tolerance in forages breeding

More and Better Feed and Forage Biomass
• Identification, breeding and dissemination of
superior forages (contd.):
 Demonstrated Biological Nitrification
Inhibition (BNI) for climate-smart crop-
livestock systems:
a) For grasses other than Brachiria
humidicola
b) Reducing Nitrous oxide emissions
from urine patches
 Confirmed that BNI is controlled by more
than one gene
 Expanding use of improved forages in East
Africa, SE Asia and LAC (Brachiaria hybrid
now sown on about 650,000 ha)
• Investigating potential new feed ingredients for
ruminants and monogastrics
 Key note review on (Insects as Animal
Feeds)
 Investigations of new agro by-products
 Spin off effects from 2nd generation
biofuel for upgrading ligno-cellulose
biomass for feed

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