Bridging forage shortages along the watershed continuum: Transforming degraded lands into income generating potential in Tigray, northern Ethiopia

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), IPMS-ILRI, P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

1. Introduction

2. Intervention approaches 2.1 Intervention processes 2.2 Implemented interventions

3. Key achievements 3.1 Changes in forage biomass and quality

Steep grazing lands: Before (left) and after intervention (right)

Bottomlands: Before (left) and after interventions (right)

Irrigated sites: After intervention

3.2 Changes in intensity and frequency of grazing

3.3 Changes in forage utilization: Sheep fattening and innovation uptake

3.4 Improved forage uptake following demonstration

4. Lessons learned • Linking improved forage production with market oriented commodities helps smallholder farmers to shift in livestock

composition and generate better income following the market signals. • Improved forage productivity generates immediate household income under extreme rainfall variability. • Innovation uptake has been enhanced through demonstration and participation of actors. • Improved forage production is resilient to extreme variability in rainfall pattern. • Managing the frequency and intensity of grazing using the concepts of forage starting position (Wo) is critically impor-

tant for health forage re-growth in moisture stressed areas.

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Steeplands Bottomlands Irrigated sites

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Watershed continuum

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After intervention

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Fatte

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Total fattened sheep sold

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Watershed continuum Demonstration

area (ha)

Uptake

(ha)

Beneficiary households

(number/district)

Steep grazing lands and

stabilized gullies

26 2,981 6,798

Bottomlands 69 5,739 13,088

Irrigated sites 0.12 850 3,575

Feed shortage has been identified as one of the key limiting factors for livestock productivity and household income generation in Atsbi-Womberta district. For this purpose, improved forage devel-opment interventions have been tested and pro-moted along the watershed continuum and the key achievements and lessons captured are presented.

Intensity of grazing: Modified and improved to maintain adequate green leaves as a starting position (Wo) for fast regrowth, and reduce the recovery time (to) compared to high intensity of grazing (Figure below).

Frequency of forage harvest: Shifted from one harvest to three harvests in September, January and June per year.