The document highlights the success of brachiaria grass as a climate-smart forage that can enhance livestock productivity in sub-Saharan Africa, where feed constitutes a significant portion of livestock production costs. With its drought resistance, high biomass potential, and capacity to sequester carbon, brachiaria grass has not been sufficiently adopted by farmers in Africa despite its benefits. The ILRI's forage genebank and research development support the promotion of diverse tropical forages, aiming to improve livestock systems and mitigate environmental impacts.

1. Improved Forages Increase Livestock Productivity:
Brachiaria Grass a Success Story
Sita Ram Ghimire
Workshop on transforming livelihoods in South Asia through sustainable livestock
research and development
Kathmandu, Nepal, 13-14 November 2018

2. Forages in Sub-Saharan Africa
 Feed forms 60 to 80% of total
livestock production costs
(Ademosun, 1976)
 Forage constitutes up to 100% of
livestock feed
 Use of food grains in livestock feed
in SSA is insignificant – the region is
food deficit
 SSA is rich in tropical forages
diversity – a few forages species
from Africa have transformed
livestock industry across the globe.
 Farmers in Africa yet to benefit
from these native forages.

3. Popular Tropical Forages

4. Climate-smart Brachiaria Grass
 African grass adapted to drought
and low fertility soils
 Palatable and nutritious
 High biomass production potential
(30 t DM /ha/year)
 Large root, sequester atmospheric
carbon (2-3t /ha/year)
 Enhance N use efficiency thus
minimize GHG emission and water
pollution
 An important forage extensively
grown across tropics but not in
Africa

5. Brachiaria Grass R&D at ILRI

6. ILRI Forage Genebank
 A unique resource for exploring and capturing forage
diversity
 1,400 species representing over 600 genera
 Around 2,000 accessions distributed annually
Forage type Total
accessions
Accessions
under Treaty
Annex 1
accessions
Forage
cultivars
Browse 3,720 3,684 45 25
Grasses 4,397 4,377 313 11
Legumes 10,518 10,440 2,646 275
Total 18,635 18,501 3,004 311

7. Tropical Forages Selection Tool
• Developed to help promote adoption and use of forage
grasses and legumes that can be used as livestock feeds,
while curbing greenhouse gas emissions and reversing
land degradation.
• Series of fact sheets on ~200 each
species
• Selection tool, enables users to match
forages to needs in a particular area
• Approximately 500,000 visits a year
www.tropicalforages.info

8. This work is financed by
 Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
 USAID’s Feed the Future Program
 European Commission’s H2020 Program
It is implemented in a partnership with
African National Agricultural Research Programs
It contributes to the CGIAR Research Program on
Livestock
Acknowledgements

9. This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
better lives through livestock
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ILRI thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions
to the CGIAR system