4 research outputs found

    Feed interventions to sustainably increase cows’ productivity

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    Feeding a productive dairy cow in western Kenya: environmental and socioeconomic impacts

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    Send a Cow (SAC) is a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that has been working in Kenya since 1996. It focuses on groups of smallholder farmers, providing them with training in sustainable agriculture and improved animal management. SAC is mostly active in western Kenya, one of the country's most populated and poorest region. The population density for this region ranges from 337 to 1,300 inhabitants per km² with an average density of 590 people per km2 (Kenya Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, 2001; KNBS, 2010). Over 50% of the people in this area are dependent on agriculture and live below the poverty line of US$1/day (Iruria et al., 2009; Makokha et al., 2007). In 2013, SAC started the “Wealth Creation Project” (WCP) in Busia, Kakamega, Siaya, and Bungoma Counties in the Western Province of Kenya. The project aims to increase the agri-production systems of 9,500 smallholder farming families by diversifying their diets and giving them an additional source of income. Farmers are provided with training in animal management and sustainable agricultural practices throughout the project. After comprehensive trainings and farm asset evaluation, farmers were given livestock. The gift of one improved livestock head to each rural, poor family created wealth and security for them, contributing to wealth creation by improving the quality of life and offering a potential pathway out of poverty (Nicholson et al., 2003). The WCP adds to the increasing number of smallholder farmers who keep improved dairy cows as a source of income and financial security. In 2007, it was estimated that 99,000 smallholder dairy farmers in the Western Province were keeping about 192,300 improved dairy cattle (Muriuki, 2011). Land has become the main limiting factor in this already densely populated region, due to continuous population growth and land fragmentation. The small land size per farm (1 acre on average), which is further subdivided in each generation, is a major obstacle to providing adequate energy and protein intake for a dairy cow and a household. Due to limited land size, farmers put most of the available land under food crops and dedicate little area to planted fodder. Researching on the land area that is necessary to adequately feed a productive dairy cow and a family is essential for effective decision making and for training the farmers in sustainable feed production and farm planning. Therefore, SAC collaborated with CIAT in assessing the land requirement for a dairy cow under different feeding regimes and explored the trade-offs of these feeding strategies in terms of food vs. feed land requirements, environmental impacts, and profitability. This research field is a focus area in farming systems research and trade-off analysis, both areas where CIAT has expertise

    Ex-ante impact assessment of feed interventions in smallholder dairy production systems in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania

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    An increasing demand for animal products has been observed in developing countries due to a high rise in population and increasing buying power. In developing countries such as Tanzania over 70% of meat and milk are generated in mixed crop-livestock systems that provide livelihood for most rural poor people. Simultaneously animal keeping is related to an undesirable environmental impact. Therefore, taking into account both, the positive effects on food security and livelihoods alongside with the potential to minimize environmental impacts, becomes crucial. This thesis focuses on oppor-tunities to sustainably increase livestock production by optimization of quality and quantity of feeds. The project gives insights on how dairy farmers can directly benefit from climate smart feeding op-tions, by enhanced production, while minimizing the negative environmental impacts of production. We focused on 10 case study farms in the Southern Highland of Tanzania. Each farmer was given a selection of improved forage seeds to be planted on their farm. Dairy cow and bio-physical farm per-formance before the introduction of the forages were then compared ex-ante with introduced forag-es scenarios. To quantify impacts of the forage plots on farm level and animal level two models FarmDESIGN and RUMINANT were employed. Through participatory scenario finding with farmers we selected a best bet scenario with a 10% milk increase goal. This scenario was realistic in terms of land allocated for forages and the impact on milk increase was visible especially if forage was pri-marily fed in the dry season. The scenario with 10% milk increase through feeding introduced forages had an overall positive effect on productivity while reducing emission intensity. Introduced forages had an indirect positive impact on income, especially when the new forage plot was planted on un-cultivated land and thus hardly any opportunity costs occurred. Furthermore, time spent for fetching natural grasses in the dry season was reduced. Additionally, the leguminous plants amongst the in-troduced forages promoted an overall increase of nitrogen balance and also GHG emission intensity per liter of milk was reduce by over 5%. We concluded that introducing forages is indeed a feasible way of sustainable intensification, both in terms of environmental efficiency and economic benefits

    Socio-economic baseline survey of selected households for Climate-Smart Dairy systems (CSD) in East Africa through improved forages and feeding strategies project

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    IFAD CSD baseline dataset contains detailed information about household composition, production systems and activities, land and labour allocation, income from on-farm and off-farm activities, household consumption of food, and assets, land ownership and allocation of activities, with an emphasis on livestock production activities, livestock feeding strategies, selling of livestock products in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania and Rwanda. (2020-02-10
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