Overview on Somalia Feed Resources and
System
Jama A. , Ministry of Livestock, Somalia
Identifying investment opportunities for livestock feed resources development in the
Eastern Africa Sub-Region, ILRI Addis, 13-15 December 2017

Introduction
• Livestock plays a major role in the livelihoods of the Somali people.
• The predominant livestock species available in Somalia are goats, sheep, camels and some cattle.
• small ruminants (sheep and goats) are considered to be an easily available source of cash income,
meat and restocking.
• Camels are pack animals and the main source of milk production for both home consumption in the
pastoral areas and sale in urban areas.
• Camels are also used for other purposes such as dia-paying (Blood compensation), dowry and sakat
(mandatory yearly Muslim charity).
• Livestock population by Zones:
1. Somaliland Zone : 20,949,000
2. Puntland Zone: 17,470,000
3. South/Central Zone: 25,450,000

Feed resources in Somalia, livestock obtained
feed from:
• Grazing and browsing on natural pastures.
• Crop residues
• Cultivated pasture and forage-crop species and
• Concentrated food like range cubes mostly from Dubai and Egypt.

Cont..
• In the drier pastoral areas, the amount of forage available is quite limited.
• In the mixed farming areas, natural pastures are being taken over for cropping and crop residues
and by–products are important in the diet.
• Unfortunately they are often wasted or used inefficiently due to a lack of knowledge and capacity
to process and conserve them.
• Most fodder that is harvested for sale is tied into armload size bundles and then transported by
trucks.
• Fodder costs are highly variable depending upon supply, demand and transportation cost. Low
levels of nutritive fodder varieties (Sudan grass, Alfa Alfa, etc.) are produced in the country.
• Only natural pasture comprising grass, shrubs and trees, and stalks of maize and sorghum cut
after the grain has been harvested were used as fodder for animals.

The gaps
• There is no feed producers in the country which is reliable
• The is no sustainable natural pasture as there is recurrent droughts in the country and dependent on Rainfall.
• Mostly weak rangeland management
• Lack of investment in this sector-no industries.
• Law capacity of the livestock farmers
• Traditional system of livestock keeping-mostly free grazing.
• It is limited no international stockholders focusing on the feed resources in the country as it is most working
on Emergency.
• weak empowerment of the Government like low budget.

Feed intervention
• Increasing crop production for a wider by-products availability.
• Introducing nutritive fodder varieties by involving riverine farmers and
animal keepers.
• Improvement of fodder stocking and conservation.
• Promotion of range pasture.
• Capacity building of the Farmers

Thank you