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Presentation by Alan Duncan and Bruno Gerard(ILRI) to the
Ethiopian Fodder Roundtable on Effective Delivery of Input Services to Livestock
DevelopmentAddis Ababa, 22 June 2010
Why am I giving this talk?Because no-one else would!This alone is evidence that livestock feed
enhancement in Ethiopia is a hard nut to crack
Constraint 1Food security
Small farms 87.4 % of rural households operated less than 2
hectares 64.5 % of them cultivated farms less than one hectare; 40.6 % operated land sizes of 0.5 hectare and less
Subsistence production “The average farm size can generate only about 50%
of the minimum income required for the average farm household to lead a life out of poverty”
Focus on staple cerealsLivestock markets for meat and milk not well
developed.www.future-agricultures.org (2000)
Constraint 2Chronic shortage of biomass
Free grazing culture
Need for traction
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These all lead to very little biomass per animal
Relative prices of biomass vs concentrate feedsBiomass sources such as crop residues have
high market price compared to concentrate feeds in Ethiopia
Reflects shortage of biomass
Constraint 3 Dominance of arable production
Lots of feed going into draught animalsCrop residues dominate in livestock dietsTechnologies aimed at enhancing CR doomed
to fail since biomass is limitingSimple knowledge gap about potential
production from high quality feeds – CR and free grazing are culturally strong
Constraint 4Feed is an intermediate commodity
Forage markets are nascentForage seed sector also suffers from being a
further intermediate in the value livestock value chain
Distortion of market by high prices paid for seed by NGO’s
Constraint 5Private sector weakness
Dominance of public sectorDifficult to do business – ltd support for
business development among small-scale entrepreneurs
Constraint 6Extension
Good coverage but sectoral structurePackage mode. Technologies
Constraint 7Land tenure
Reluctance to invest in perennial forage crops and fodder trees when uncertainty about tenure
Some progress with land certification
The way aheadThings are changing
Dwindling grazing resources forcing other feed sources to be considered
Urbanization leading to increased demand for livestock products
Improving infrastructure
Are we about to see things moving?