Barriers to uptake of improved
feeding strategies
Reflections by Werner Stür
Africa-RISING Quick Feed Project Inception Workshop, Addis
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Ababa, 7-8 May 2012

Structure of presentation
• An agronomist’s point of view
• Why is it not so simple?
• What approach should we take?
• Which tools are available?
• Conclusions
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An agronomist’s point of view
 Current situation
 Production system (draught, capital preservation, risk
management, not used to regular income)
 Condition of animals (many are thin and in poor body
condition, poor reproductive performance, low milk yields)
 Feeding systems inadequate for good animal growth
(competition for scarce community grazing resources is
getting stronger, stubble grazing, crop residues, general
lack of feed and insufficient quality)
 Potential for improvements
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An agronomist’s point of view (# 2)
 Future scenario
 Urbanization and rising living standards will increase
demand for meat and milk
 Increasing labour cost will necessitate change to less
labour intensive practices
 Mechanization will reduce need for draught animals
 Livestock prices are relatively stable compared to crops
 Potential for increased livestock production
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An agronomist’s point of view (# 3)
 There are technical solutions
 A little more feed per animal would go a long way to
improving animal productivity
 Options: Reduce the number of animals, improve herd
structure or grow additional feed
 Forages: Introduce forage legumes to improve diet
quality; or grasses to increase available feed quantity
 Grow specific fodder crops
 Strategic feeding of available feed resources – smarter
use
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Why is it not so simple?
 Technologies are seldom simple
 Need to identify suitable technologies (and practices) for
different situations
 Often there are additional conditions for success
 e.g. seed supply, fertilizer inputs, labour requirements or the
farmer needs special knowledge to be able to apply the
technology successfully
 Introduction of a technology leads to changes in the
production system and leads to more innovation (and this
process requires time)
 Find robust entry technologies and then work with
stakeholders to develop new, more efficient systems
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Why is it not so simple? (# 2)
 Smallholder farming systems are diverse
 Variable soils, climate, water availability
 Range of crops and animals
 Different feeding and livestock management systems
 Technologies need to ‘robust’ to fit a wide range of
situations
 People and livelihoods differ
 Households differ in term of labour, capital and land
availability
 People have different objectives, interests and
willingness to take risks
 Technologies need to be targeted
 Farmers (and other stakeholders) need to be really want
to improve animal production and are willing to invest
7 effort into doing so

Why is it not so simple? (# 3)
 Incentives for increasing production
 Will the farmer get the benefit of producing a fatter
animal? Or can (s)he sell the additional milk for a good
price?
 Can the farmer access the required inputs easily and at
reasonable prices?
 It is not just productivity that matters, but there may be
other important factors along the value chain that need to
be considered
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What approach should we take?
 Need systems-oriented innovation
 Production, marketing and input supply (value chain)
 Work in partnership with key stakeholders
 Iterative, not one-off
 Build capacity of people involved (emphasis on learning)
 Need to target interventions to particular situations,
farmers and livelihoods
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Which tools are available?
 Farmer Participatory Research (FPR) Approach
 Working with farmers and other stakeholders to find ways
to improve livestock production
 Learning cycles over an extended period
 Livestock needs to be important to farmers’ livelihood and
farmers need to be really motivated!
 FEAST
 A diagnostic tool to find out if there is an opportunity for
feed interventions
 If affirmative, the end point is an agreement to work
farmers and other stakeholders to improve feeding
systems
 It does not come up with best-bet interventions to test
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Which tools are available? (#2)
 Techfit
 Identify suitable technologies for evaluation
 Entry technologies – a starting point for innovation that
provide significant results to motivate farmers and other
stakeholders (provide a vision)
 Value chain analysis
 Market studies; e.g. Rapid Market Assessment (RMA)
 Input supply analysis
 Livelihood analysis
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Conclusions
 One-size-fits all technologies don’t work
 We need a systems-oriented innovation
process that
 includes all relevant stakeholders
 takes account of the range of farming
system and livelihoods in the area
 places innovation in the context of the
value chain to ensure that farmers reap the
benefits of innovations
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