Using FEAST to Characterize the Farming and Livestock Production Systems and the Potential for Enhancing Productivity through Improved Feeding

in Walmara district, Ethiopia

By Sinana Agricultural Center

Dawit Abate, Sisay Belete, Teklu Wegi and Sultan Usman

Introduction

Feed for livestock is often cited as the main constraint to improved productivity in smallholder systems

The FEAST tool offers a systematic and rapid methodology for assessing feed resources at site level to develop site specific strategy to improve feed supply and utilization

The FEAST tool was conducted in June 2012 at Robe Gebeya kebele of Walmara district.

Objectives

To obtain the general picture of the farming and livestock system

To find out if feed is likely to be a major limiting animal production, if it is recognized by farmers and what farmers seed as potential solution

To identify potential feed interventions for the area

MethodologyStudy site The study was conducted at Gaba Robi of Warmera district, West Showa zone

of Oromiya region

The study site is located at 36km from the capital city of the country on the western direction

The altitude of the area is 2400m asl with monomodal rainfall pattern with peak raining time from late June to August

Sampling methods The study site was purposively selected by district MOA expert in collaboration with researcher from Holota research center and ILRI Farmers were selected based on the land holding from different age and sex

group After completion of group PRA discussion, one key informant farmer was

selected

Survey structure and format

PRA discussion was held with 5 farmers to obtain insight information of qualitative data on farming and livestock system, constraints and possible intervention options

One key informant was interviewed using questionnaire to obtain quantitative data

Data analysis• The collected data was fed in to the excel FEAST template

and analyzed for descriptive statistics

Major Findings

Characteristics of farming system

Crop livestock mixed farming system is the dominant Rainfall distribution is erratic and not adequate especially with

in the previous four (4) years probably due to climatic change.

Farmers indicated that only in the months of June, July and August (Gana season ) the obtain adequate amount of rainfall.

In the past, short rainfall was known especially in the Belg/ Arfasa (March, April and May) season but there is no rain at this days

Characteristics of farming system

Farm Size The farm size usually vary among the farmers (with an

average of 1.5 ha) Farm land mainly used for crop production Number of family size range from small (2-10) with

average of 4-5 people living in each household

Labour• There is a shortage of labour availability especially during

planting and harvesting.

• The price of daily laborers is also expensive. It ranges from 35 birr for local daily laborers to about 100 birr for daily laborers coming from the other area.

Characteristics of farming system

The livestock production system

• The livestock population in the area is generally low. Even though the number of the animal found per house hold is very low, the majority of the households raise the main livestock species ( dairy cows, draught cattle, sheep and pack animals)

Credit • Credit provider is available but the farmers are not

efficiently utilized the advantages mainly due to the inefficiency of the farmers in organizing themselves, trust themselves, unable to repay the interest timely, and the like.

• Hence, farmers usually fear to take any credit due to the above reasons.

• Generally those farmers taken the credit have used to purchase animals, farm input and used as starting petty trade.

Agricultural inputs• The availability of farm inputs is not a problem for the farmer in

the study area.

• MOA and other cooperatives have been involving in input provision. But due to high cost of most of the input items, farmers have not as such interested

Livestock management• Most farmers practice shelter at home, housing not as such

practiced• Treating crop residue with salts and concentrated feed (such as

fagulo) is also well practiced• Better feed resource is available in Birra (sep, oct, nov) season. In

Gana (jul, Aug) the feed source is not adequate. Where as in Bona (oct, nov, jan, feb,mar..) season there is high feed shortage problem.

Veterinary service• Veterinary service is not easily accessible, it is far from the

village, unavailability of clinic, expert, high price (150-200 birr/animal)

Artificial insemination• AI is not timely available (probably due to semen shortage,

distance from the village, availability of technician in the village etc).

• Improved bull service not commonly used.• Price of AI is also about 18 birr/service

Local Dairy Cattle Fattening and draught cattle Poultry - village conditions0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

Average livestock species holdings per household in Tropical Livestock Units (TLU)

Tef (Eragrostis tef) Wheat (Triticum aes-tivum)

Barley (Hordeum vulgare)

Potato (Solanum tuberosum)

Broad beans (Vicia faba)0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

0.40

Crops grown in the area Av

erag

e ar

ea p

er h

ouse

hold

(hec

tare

s)

Cash crop50%

dairy20%

Labour10%

Food crops10%

poultry meat5%

poultry eggs5%

Contribution (%) of livelihood activities to household income

January

Febru

ary

March

April May

Ju

neJuly

August

Septem

ber

October

November

December

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Seasonal Available of Feed Resources in re-lation to the rainfall pattern

Concentrates Crop residues Grazing Green forage Legume residues Others Rainfall Pattern

Avai

labl

ity

Crop residues16%

Cultivated fodder41%

Grazing25%

Naturally occurring and collected

18%

Contribution of feeds to DM content of total diet

Crop residues12%

Cultivated fodder45%

Grazing24%

Naturally oc-curring and col-

lected19%

Contribution of feeds to ME content of total diet

Crop residues8%

Cultivated fodder54%

Grazing20%

Naturally occurring and collected

18%

Contribution of feed to CP content of total diet

Problems (rank)

Problem identified

Possible solution

1 Water shortage Better management of the existing water resourceSearching/extracting for more water resource from the ground by GO,NGO and others

2 Animal disease Establishment of government and private animal health clinicAdequate health experts in the area

3 Feed Conserving/ managing efficiently the crop residues, grazing landsCultivation of improved feed resourceMore awareness on production, utilization and improvement of feed resources

4 Finance Credit/cash for addition feed purchase More awareness on saving and credit

5 Improved breed

Provisions of improved breeds with full package is important

Possible interventions

• Improving the management of the existing water resource

• Conserving and utilizing efficiently the crop residues and grazing lands resources

• Cultivation of improved feed crops • Awareness creation on production, utilization and

improvement of feed resources• Establishment of government and private animal health

clinic• Awareness creation to develop saving culture