ILRI seeks disease- and drought-resistant forages for livestock kept by smallholders

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is evaluating drought-resistant, nutritious and palatable varieties of Napier grass to feed dairy cattle in Eastern Africa.

Speaking at a seminar on ‘Napier grass diversity studies and further application to other forages in ILRI, Ethiopia’, ILRI’s genebank manager, Maria Alexandra Jorge, said Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) continues to be the major feed for cut-and-carry stall-feeding (or ‘zero-grazing’) dairy systems in East Africa. Napier, commonly known as ‘elephant grass’, constitutes between 40 and 80% of the feed on such smallholder dairy farms.

The productivity of Napier grass in the region is threatened by emerging diseases and recurrent droughts. Jorge said the ILRI Gene Bank has received over one hundred DNA samples of materials from outside the ILRI system (from EMBRAPA, Brazil under the project Africa-Brazil, Agricultural innovation marketplace) whose DNA is being studied to see which ones may have additional diversity comparing to our current napier grass materials. The identified unique materials will be introduced to our collection and further tested in Eastern Africa for the unique characteristics being sought.

Climate change predictions for East Africa may indicate that the region will experience greater rainfall variability and more frequent and/or severe drought in some areas, with associated yield reductions in both feed and food crops. Unless new improved lines of Napier grass are made available, the livelihoods of farmers dependent on Napier grass as the main source of feed for their dairy animals may be harmed.

Jorge presented her findings at a seminar given at the end of a four-month stay at ILRI’s headquarters, in Nairobi, where she was attached to the Biosciences east and central Africa (BecA) hub as a fellow of an African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) program. The ILRI Genebank is managed by staff of ILRI’s People Livestock and Environment Theme.

Shirley Tarawali, who directs ILRI’s People, Livestock and Environment Theme, was happy to see Alexandra Jorge successfully complete her rich experience at the ILRI BecA Hub. ‘The new technologies and methods Jorge has learned will advance ILRI’s research to protect and enhance Napier grass and other important feed resources in East Africa. Jorge’s training also strengthens the links between ILRI’s high-tech BecA Hub, in Nairobi, and the institute’s specialized forage laboratory and genebank, located in Ethiopia,’ said Dr Tarawali.

“It was a joy to work with Alexandra. She has demonstrated extraordinary work ethics, maturity and seriousness in what she does. She is also a very fast learner; she takes initiative in learning more things and she has great people’s skills”, said Dr Segenet Kelemu, the BecA hub Director.

The AWARD fellowship is a professional development program that strengthens the research and leadership skills of African women in agricultural science, empowering them to contribute more effectively to poverty alleviation and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. It is offered by the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), established in 2008, as a project of the Gender & Diversity Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
AWARD Fellows benefit from a two-year career development program focused on establishing mentoring partnerships, building science skills, and developing leadership capacity. The fellowships are awarded on the basis of intellectual merit, leadership capacity, and the potential of the scientist’s research to improve the daily lives of smallholder farmers, especially women.

 

Production and distribution networks now avail forage planting materials to smallholder dairy producers in East Africa

National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS), Non governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector have increased their focus on livestock feeds and are now producing and distributing forage seeds and Napier grass cuttings to meet demands from smallholder dairy farmers in East Africa.

The output target for the research leading to this outcome was highlighted in ILRI’s 2005-2007 medium term plan (Forage diversity saved, studied and used to contribute to agricultural sustainability of smallholder farming systems) under the people, Livestock and the Environment Theme.   This output was achieved through an approach that integrated provision of forage seeds and Napier grass cuttings from the ILRI Herbage Seed Unit with provision of information through the Tropical Forages interactive selection tool (http://www.tropicalforages.info) and training in forage seed production by ILRI.  ILRI has promoted access to forage seeds to enhance the use of forages in sustainable farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa and had been the major supplier of forage seeds in the region, providing over 7000 samples of 60 best bet lines of forage legumes, grasses and fodder trees to development workers, ministries, NGOs and farmers since 1990.  Work with national programs on disease-resistant Napier grass varieties to support the scaling out of smallholder dairy activities across East Africa was documented in the MTP 2008-2010.

Smallholder dairy farmers in East Africa have changed their land use to increase areas under forage production.  Forages are effective in increasing milk yields by as much as 50% while maintaining the natural resource base, with positive effects on soil fertility, increasing ground cover for stabilization and carbon sequestration. Napier grass is the most important forage crop used in dairy systems in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia and in some areas constitutes between 40 to 80% of the forage for more than 0.3 million smallholder dairy farms in Kenya (Staal et al., 1997).  Introducing forages into the system is predicted to increase milk production by up to 30% (Orodho, 2006).  As a result of this increased demand for forage planting material, new opportunities to produce and distribute forage seeds and other planting materials have arisen.   Building upon the planting material and capacity strengthening from ILRI, NGOs, private and public sector have been able to respond to this demand by growing and distributing forage seed and planting material.

In Ethiopia, ILRI provided over 1 million cuttings of Napier grass in 2004 for distribution through the Ministry of Agriculture and provided 900kg of Sesbania seed in response to over 200 requests to NARS, NGOs and the private sector from 1990 to date. Sesbania has been widely used in the smallholder sector as shown in surveys in Ethiopia (Mekoya et al. 2008) and both Napier cuttings and Sesbania seeds are now being produced and disseminated to farmers in Ethiopia by a local seed company, Eden Field Agri–Seed Enterprise (attached) and Napier grass cuttings are being disseminated by the Adami Tulu Research Centre. Planting material of two smut-resistant Napier grass clones Kakamega I and II, originally provided from the in trust collection held by ILRI, are already being made available to farmers in Kenya.  The most productive Napier grass clone, Kakmega 1 is being grown at bulking sites maintained by Farmer Training Centres and Parent-teacher Associations and planting material is being disseminated from them through local delivery pathways and by farmer to farmer exchange (Mwendia et al., 2006).

References

Mekoya  et al,  2008.  Farmers’ perceptions about exotic multipurpose fodder trees and constraints to their adoption. Agroforest Syst. 73:141–153.

Orodho A.B.  2006.  The role and importance of Napier grass in the smallholder dairy industry in Kenya.   FAO Waicnet Information.

http://www.fao.org/waicent/Faoinfo/Agricult/aGp/agpc/doc/Newpub/napier/napier_kenya.htm
Staal et al, 1997. Characterisation of dairy systems supplying the Nairobi milk market. International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi.

List of documented evidence:

Eden Field Agri–Seed Enterprise leaflet.

Fodder round table meeting presentations by Adami Tulu Research Centre http://dgroups.org/Community.aspx?c=28c01de6-0758-489d-b75b-2976cc114e8a

Research papers by Mekoya et al and Mwendia et al.