Using forage germplasm to improve livestock feeds and rural livelihoods: An impact narrative PDF Download

Author: ILRI
Publisher: ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD)
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Author: International Livestock Research Institute
Publisher: ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD)
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789463950640
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Dairy development provides substantial economic opportunities for smallholder crop-livestock farmers in East Africa, but productivity is constrained by scarcity of quantity and quality feed. Livestock is also associated with negative environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, air pollution, high water consumption, loss of biodiversity and land degradation. Improved livestock feeding has been proposed as a triple-win strategy towards achieving climate-smart agriculture, increasing food security and climate change adaptation, and decreasing GHG intensities. Improved tropical forages include a wide variety of sown or planted annual and perennial grasses, herbaceous or dual-purpose legumes and shrubs developed for increasing productivity of grazed and cut-and-carry fed livestock. This thesis aims to explore potential impacts and trade-offs associated with the implementation of improved livestock feeding and forage technologies at farm scale, across a diversity of smallholder crop-livestock systems in East Africa. We first quantitatively reviewed 73 published studies to take stock of evidence on agronomic, livestock, environmental and economic impacts of tropical forage technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa. We then introduced a relatively simple approach to quantify feeding systems and feed gaps in data-scarce smallholder systems. Based on this, household-level impacts and trade-offs of improved livestock feeding and forages were explored in Tanzania and Rwanda, considering productivity, environmental and livelihood dimensions. To do so, a combination of approaches and methods was employed, including coupled livestock and economic modeling, bio-economic farming systems modeling and multi-objective optimization, multi-variate statistics, on-farm monitoring and measurements, semi-structured interviews, participatory validation and expert knowledge. Results from this thesis confirmed the considerable feed gaps in metabolizable energy and crude protein. Feed gap here is defined as the difference between livestock feed demand for an attainable milk production level (attainable feed demand) and actual feed supply at individual herd level. The literature review revealed that higher herbage production and quality of improved forage technologies resulted in an average 35% milk and 24% manure increase and 60% higher associated food crop yields while almost halving soil loss. In Lushoto in Tanzania, predicted adoption rates for improved livestock feeding and poverty reduction among households with improved dairy cows were likely to be higher compared to households with only local cows. Methane emissions intensity declined with adoption of improved livestock feeding strategies. Across Rwanda, livestock production was among the most important pathways to higher food availability. Total baseline GHG emissions were low, with enteric fermentation and manure emissions contributing 74 – 81%. Scenario assessment of three policy options showed that Girinka program (providing a crossbred cow to a poor households) strongly increased food availability of the poorest section of the household population at a high GHG cost, while improved livestock feeding had less impact on food availability but at an only small GHG increase. In Babati in Tanzania, emission intensity was lowest for the dairy farming system (2.1 kg CO2e kg-1 milk) when compared to three other smallholder livestock types, with lowest trade-offs with household income, and carbon and nitrogen balances. Available options to reduce agro-environmental trade-offs included reducing ruminant numbers, replacing local cattle with improved dairy breeds, improve feeding through on-farm forage cultivation to reach higher milk production levels, and reducing crop residue feeding to leave them on the field. However, adoption of these technologies require a skillful re-organization of the entire production system, resulting in loss of some multi-functionality of livestock, and incur higher production risks. In conclusion, we argue that pathways to sustainable intensification of livestock in East Africa are needed, which can also unlock new financing avenues. Improved forages can play a key role as they deliver multiple productivity, economic and environmental benefits when skillfully integrated in smallholder cropping and farming systems. Livestock feeding and forages are thus at multiple crossroads: at a point where crucial decisions regarding future pathways are taken, where productivity and environmental impacts meet, and where scientific disciplines including agronomy, soil and animal science intersect. Results from this thesis aim to inform policy makers, project designers, investors, donors and other decision-makers on prioritizing options towards low emission livestock development. Suggestions and recommendations for future research include next-level forage agronomy, further multi-disciplinary and systems-level trade-off analysis, and quantification of technology contributions to national-level climate and land restoration policy targets.

Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821374338
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Policies promoting pro-poor agricultural growth are the key to helping countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals especially the goal of halving poverty and hunger by 2015. The public sector, private sector, and civil society organizations are working to enhance productivity and competitiveness of the agricultural sector to reduce rural poverty and sustain the natural resource base. The pathways involve participation by rural communities, science and technology, knowledge generation and further learning, capacity enhancement, and institution building. Sustainable land management (SLM) an essential component of such policies will help to ensure the productivity of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and hydrology. SLM will also support a range of ecosystem services on which agriculture depends. The 'Sustainable Land Management Sourcebook' provides a knowledge repository of tested practices and innovative resource management approaches that are currently being tested. The diverse menu of options represents the current state of the art of good land management practices. Section one identifies the need and scope for SLM and food production in relation to cross-sector issues such as freshwater and forest resources, regional climate and air quality, and interactions with biodiversity conservation and increasingly valuable ecosystem services. Section two categorizes the diversity of land management systems globally and the strategies for improving household livelihoods in each system type. Section three presents a range of investment notes that summarize good practice, as well as innovative activity profiles that highlight design of successful or innovative investments. Section four identifies easy-to-access, Web-based resources relevant for land and natural resource managers. The 'Sourcebook' is a living document that will be periodically updated and expanded as new material and findings become available on good land management practices. This book will be of interest to project managers and practitioners working to enhance land and natural resource management in developing countries.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309316472
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
By 2050 the world's population is projected to grow by one-third, reaching between 9 and 10 billion. With globalization and expected growth in global affluence, a substantial increase in per capita meat, dairy, and fish consumption is also anticipated. The demand for calories from animal products will nearly double, highlighting the critical importance of the world's animal agriculture system. Meeting the nutritional needs of this population and its demand for animal products will require a significant investment of resources as well as policy changes that are supportive of agricultural production. Ensuring sustainable agricultural growth will be essential to addressing this global challenge to food security. Critical Role of Animal Science Research in Food Security and Sustainability identifies areas of research and development, technology, and resource needs for research in the field of animal agriculture, both nationally and internationally. This report assesses the global demand for products of animal origin in 2050 within the framework of ensuring global food security; evaluates how climate change and natural resource constraints may impact the ability to meet future global demand for animal products in sustainable production systems; and identifies factors that may impact the ability of the United States to meet demand for animal products, including the need for trained human capital, product safety and quality, and effective communication and adoption of new knowledge, information, and technologies. The agricultural sector worldwide faces numerous daunting challenges that will require innovations, new technologies, and new ways of approaching agriculture if the food, feed, and fiber needs of the global population are to be met. The recommendations of Critical Role of Animal Science Research in Food Security and Sustainability will inform a new roadmap for animal science research to meet the challenges of sustainable animal production in the 21st century.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309131863
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
This anchor volume to the series Managing Global Genetic Resources examines the structure that underlies efforts to preserve genetic material, including the worldwide network of genetic collections; the role of biotechnology; and a host of issues that surround management and use. Among the topics explored are in situ versus ex situ conservation, management of very large collections of genetic material, problems of quarantine, the controversy over ownership or copyright of genetic material, and more.

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 925131411X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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This illustrated volume identifies the challenges and opportunities facing food and agriculture in the context of the 2030 Agenda, presents solutions for a more sustainable world and shows how FAO has been working in recent years to support its Member Nations in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251305293
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Farmers play a crucial role in the preservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity. In fact, the diversity of species that support our current agricultural production systems has been carefully managed and shaped by farming communities, over the course of the history of humankind. Farmers act as custodian of the Earth’s agrobiodiversity resources, and play a big part in preserving traditional plant and animal varieties, and the knowledge associated with these. FAO has long been working on promoting approaches to agriculture that enable both the sustainable use of biodiversity resources for food and agriculture, and their conservation, and on supporting farmers to make informed decisions on their farm management and production practices. This training manual fits in this broader commitment, to support a shift towards a paradigm of agricultural production that can sustain food and nutrition security while at the same time cause the least harm to natural ecosystems. The manual is intended as an introduction to agricultural biodiversity, and to its relevance to different aspects of agricultural production and management for smallholder farmers in Kenya. It includes eight different training modules, each covering a specific aspect related to agrobiodiversity. The modules are standalone and can be used independently one from the other, depending on the user’s or project’s aim. The materials were originally prepared within the FAO- Netherlands Partnership Programme (FNPP) and have been updated, revised and published under the second phase of the European Union-funded project “Capacity-building related to multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries”.

Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264967834
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Food systems around the world face a triple challenge: providing food security and nutrition for a growing global population; supporting livelihoods for those working along the food supply chain; and contributing to environmental sustainability. Better policies hold tremendous promise for making progress in these domains.

Author: Jules N. Pretty
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136529276
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Continued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.