Zewdu Eshetu CSC, AAU
Carolyn Opio, Livestock Policy Officer, FAO
CSC
Agricultural GHG Research
Center, New Zealand
Climate and Clean Air Coalition
COP 22 Side Event
Improving MRV for Agricultural emission reduction
in the livestock sector: Ethiopian Dairy Sector
07 Nov. 2016
Mediterranean Room
Marrakech

Production system characteristics Productivity
(l/cow/day)
Share AZ
Rural mixed crop-livestock Traditional crop-livestock farming
system in rural areas
2.4 72% Mid-high
land
> 1500
m
crop-livestock farm with intensive
cropping
Small-scale commercial
urban and peri-urban
Intensified dairy-crop/livestock
farming
5.9 3%
Peri-urban farms in secondary
towns
Medium-scale commercial Intra-urban dairy farms in AA 15-20 1%
Urban dairy in secondary towns
Pastoral and agro-pastoral Pastoral and agro-pastoral in rural
areas
1.5 24% Low/dry
land
Dairy Production system
Livestock Resource : 143, 987, 000
Cattle > 53 mil with Dairy population of >32

CONTRIBUTION OF ETHIOPIAN DAIRY SECTOR TO EMISSIONS by production system:
161 MILLION TONNES CO2 eq. PER ANNUM
55.7%
43%
1.1% 0.2%

EFFICIENCY IN DAIRY SYSTEMS IN ETHIOPIA:
EMISSION INTENSITY AND MILK YIELD
Drivers:
Feed efficiency
Genetics
Herd structure
Herd management , health

CONTRIBUTION OF ETHIOPIAN DAIRY SECTOR TO EMISSIONS:
161 MILLION TONNES CO2 eq. PER ANNUM

CONTRIBUTION OF ETHIOPIAN DAIRY SECTOR TO EMISSIONS by production system:
161 MILLION TONNES CO2 eq. PER ANNUM
55.7%
43%
1.1% 0.2%

CONTRIBUTION TO EMISSIONS BY SOURCE

MILK PRODUCTION IN ETHIOPIA: 3.8 BILLION LITRES OF MILK FROM DAIRY CATTLE
HERD
Size of bubble: number of milking cow
Rural mixed crop-livestock
Pastoral and agro-pastoral
Small-scale commercial
medium-scale commercial

o Feed constraints
• feed availability – dependent on rain-fed forage - feed availability highly seasonal
• low forage quality
• poor access to quality feed
• high feed costs
o High incidence of disease (fertility, milk production, growth rates): FMD,
Mastitis, Trypanosomosis, Bovine tuberculosis, etc
o Poor management and limited know-how
o Inadequate extension, vet services, high cost of credit
o Water availability and quality
CONSTRAINTS LIMITING MILK PRODUCTIVITY

SELECTED TECHNICAL MITIGATION INTERVENTIONS
Practice Objective Constraint addressed Benefits1.
1. Supplementation with
leguminous shrubs
Improve management of forage
resources by better matching
available resources to animal
requirements/herd nutrient demand
Addresses feed scarcity and quality
constraints
Improved animal and herd health
Higher conception rates
Improved weaning weights
2. Use of urea-molasses
multi-nutrient blocks
(UMMB)
Increase quality of diet Low quantity and quality of forage Improved nutrition
Increased intake
Improved growth rates
3. Use of urea-treated crop
residues
4. Supplementation with
low-cost high
protein/energy concentrates
Address energy and protein
constraints during periods of low
availability and quality
Addresses the lack of sufficient and
quality feed resources.
Improved nutrition
Improved cow condition
Improved reproductive performance
Higher conception rates
5. Disease control
(trypanosomiasis)
Improve the health status of the
herd
High mortality and morbidity Reduction in mortality and morbidity
Increase in animal productivity
Improvements in reproductive performance
(fertility, age at first calving)
6. Use of sexed semen Use of sexed semen can provide an
increased supply of replacement
heifers, thereby reducing dairy heifer
purchase costs
Shortage of replacement heifers Better management of heifer replacement
Reduction in cost for heifer purchase
Genetically superior females
7. Conventional artificial
insemination using superior
genetics
Increase the number of high yielding
animals through genetic
management to improve production
and reproductive traits such as
Milk production constrained by low
productivity of the indigenous cattle
breeds.
Improved conception rates, calf survival
Increased weaning weights
Increased final weights

Practice Benefits
1. Supplementation with leguminous shrubs Improved animal and herd health
Higher conception rates
Improved weaning weights
2. Use of urea-molasses multi-nutrient blocks (UMMB) Improved nutrition
Increased intake
3. Use of urea-treated crop residues Improved growth rates
4. Supplementation with low-cost high protein/energy concentrates Improved nutrition
Improved cow condition
Improved reproductive performance
Higher conception rates
5. Disease control (trypanosomiasis) Reduction in mortality and morbidity
Increase in animal productivity
Improvements in reproductive performance (fertility, age at first
calving)
6. Use of sexed semen Better management of heifer replacement
Reduction in cost for heifer purchase
Genetically superior females
7. Conventional artificial insemination using superior genetics Improved conception rates, calf survival
Increased weaning weights
Increased final weights
SELECTED TECHNICAL MITIGATION INTERVENTIONS

Activity data sources
• Multistage activity data set of primary and secondary
• Total cattle and dairy population by production system
• Feed basket by production system
• Parameters of feed materials
• digestibility and crude proteins
• Manure management system (percent of manure burned,
stored, slurry, solid, dried, spread over fields etc.)
• Cattle herd parameters by production system
• Bull to cow ration, death rate, replacement, live weight, daily weight
gains, etc.
• Sources of activity data: CSA, Published, experts opinion, measured
• Constraints lack of uniformity in manure, feed and cattle management

Emission factors
GHG = A X Ef
Emission factors are derived from multistage approach
i. Methane production per milk cow production
ii. Methane production per meat bull production
Constraints:
Methane production is affected by:
Livestock health
Feed quality
Management
Milk productivity
i. for low emissions production systems?
• Or problems that you face, e.g. we know from ILRI that IPCC efs probably don’t
reflect emissions of animals on submaintenance diets

Institutional coordination
Researc
h
Institute
EIAR,
ILRI
MoLF
(Extensio
n Dept
Universi
ty (CSC)
Small/me
dium
scale
farmers
Develop
ment
associati
on/Unio
ns
Develop
ment
partners
(USAID

THANK YOU