Livestock feeds in the developing world come from a range of sources including crop residues, planted forages, agro-industrial by-products, grazing and others. Improved feeding comes from producing more feed, improving feed quality, or smoothing seasonal imbalances in feed supply.
To facilitate access to data generated through community focus group discussions, version 2.0.0 of the FEAST Global Data Repository is available with enhanced data management and visualization functionalities. The underlying code is open to facilitate collaboration and further development of the platform and applications. Continue reading
The latest developments with the feed assessment tool – FEAST Continue reading
The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) is a participatory method to support systematic selection of livestock feed interventions at community level. FEAST has been applied in over a dozen countries and around 80 FEAST reports are currently in the public domain on the CGIAR digital repository CGSpace. However, many FEAST reports have been developed but need … Continue reading
Originally posted on ILRI news:
? Napier grass growing in the ILRI field gene bank in Ziway, Ethiopia (photo credit: Shawn Landersz/Global Crop Diversity Trust). Napier grass commonly referred to as elephant grass, or Uganda grass and scientifically known as Cenchrus purpureus, is one of the most important fodder crops for the small-scale dairy farmers in…
Livestock feed is a critical constraint to livestock productivity in Low and Middle Income Countries. Livestock feed development efforts have, however, tended to promote new feeding strategies in a piecemeal fashion without sufficient consideration of system level constraints such as availability of land, labour and market opportunities. These constraints have an important bearing on which … Continue reading
This video describes the work of ILRI and the Amhara Region Agricultural Institute, which worked with farmers in Robit-Bata kebele (sub-district) in the Amhara region through the Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) project, to introduce the cultivation of irrigated Napier grass (ILRI 16786). Continue reading
Feeding livestock year-round requires innovative approaches. This post reports on an innovation in India that helped to convert wasteland grass into enriched silage after value addition and densification. It is now being explored as a commercial opportunity. Continue reading
Feed resourcing and feeding is at the very interface where the positive and negative effects of livestock, income, livelihoods and environment are negotiated and animal feeding and nutrition deserves greater attention as a critical discipline in addressing the environmental impacts of animal-sourced foods production. Continue reading
Originally posted on ILRI news:
Alieu Sartie, ILRI genebank manager (right) and technician Solomon Fikre checking forage seed samples before delivery to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (photo credit:ILRI/Lei Sun). The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is home to the world’s only genebank dedicated wholly to forages. Located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the ILRI Forage Genebank…
Scientists from ILRI, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research tested bread wheat cultivars released in the Ethiopian highlands to better understand the potential trade-offs between food and fodder traits. Continue reading
Feeding innovation 