Constraints to supply of high quality feed to smallholder livestock producers in Ethiopia – some...

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?