Tools for livestock feed assessment – lessons from ELF and QuickFeed projects

Earlier this year, ILRI joined national and international partners in two ‘feed assessment’ projects in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Livestock Feeds project (funded by ACIAR) and the ‘QuickFeed‘ early win project of the Africa RISING program both set out to  test a suite of rapid diagnosis tools to identify promising feed and fodder interventions.

At the recent QuickFeed synthesis meeting, we interviewed Jane Wamatu, Adugna Tolera and Getachew Legesse about their experiences with the FEAST, TechFit and value chain assessment (VCA) tools used in both projects.

Jane and Adugna explained that the first time they used the FEAST and TechFit tools was during the ELF project. By the time of the QuickFeed project they were more experienced and better able to provide training and support to the research teams, and this was one of the reasons why the fieldwork of QuickFeed proceeded more smoothly. Another reason, Getachew felt, was that the research team members were younger and highly motivated, partly because the QuickFeed project was part of the larger Africa RISING project and so researchers were hopeful that their research could be continued under Africa RISING project. Another reason was the improvements resource people made to the tools following ELF. In FEAST, the number of respondents for individual data collection was increased to 9 farmers. In TechFit, the list of technologies was revised and the methodology of VCA was simplified considerably and tailored to fit seamlessly with FEAST and TechFIt.

Jane, Adugna and Getachew agreed that FEAST was very well developed with a clear template, results, analysis and structure for reporting. TechFit, on the other hand, still needed considerable improvements. Adugna felt that the pre-filter worked well but that there is a need to complete and review the list of technologies and their attribute scores. Also, the cost-benefit analysis of potential technologies was very difficult to calculate and required a lot of assumptions. He also felt that there is a need to write fact sheets for each of the technologies. A clear description of potential benefits and cost would also be useful. Finally, there was a need for clear guidelines – a manual – for using the TechFit tool. Having said all this, everyone agreed that there was great potential and need for TechFit.

The VCA tool in QuickFeed was focused on dairy and sheep value chains. This was easier and more useful than the VCA in ELF which focused on feed in general. Getachew felt that VCA now worked well but still required some ‘expert’ guidance during implementation. The reason was that each VCA had different objectives and pathways, and the methodology needed to be adapted to fit the objectives.

Everyone agreed that the participatory nature of FEAST and VCA created a direct, deeper kind of interaction and communication with farmers and other actors along the value chain and that this was extremely useful. In fact, the process of implementing these tools in itself had been very beneficial for creating greater understanding and interaction between researchers , farmers, traders and other stakeholders.

Story by Werner Stur

More on the ELF project – Part of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish

More on the QuickFeed project – Part of the Africa RISING program

 

Understanding livelihood constraints to better target livestock feed interventions – the Africa RISING Quick Feed Project

Uptake of improved feeding strategies to support market-oriented livestock production does not happen readily in the Ethiopian Highlands. Livestock tend to be fed opportunistically with what is available and a large proportion of the diet is composed of low quality material such as crop residues.

There are many valid reasons for this. See for example here. Feed interventions promoted by development people often fail to take account of the hidden constraints faced by smallholder livestock keepers. These constraints often relate to livelihood endowments – things like financial, human and social capitals. For example, the classic example of an oft promoted but consistently unsuccessful feed intervention is the treatment of straw with urea. There are very few cases in Africa where urea treatment of straw is spontaneously adopted by farmers. Why? Because urea and associated inputs (plastic sheeting or concrete) is expensive and beyond the pocket of many farmers (financial capital) and because the practice requires some skill to succeed (human capital).

If feed interventions are to succeed and take root we need a rapid way of assessing farm level livelihoods and targeting interventions based on the findings. Here at ILRI we have gone some way towards this in the development of the Techfit tool. This tool attempts to score intervention sites according to a series of “context attributes” – things like labour availability, land availability, credit availability and so on. The tool then matches those context scores with a list of candidate feed technologies to come up with a short list of promising options.

We plan to take these ideas further through a new project funded under the Africa RISING programme. Africa RISING recently funded an ‘early win’ project in Ethiopia led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The project which we are calling Quick Feeds builds on the ongoing Ethiopian Livestock Feed (ELF) Project. This time we will take some of the feed assessment tools we have been developing: FEAST, Techfit and value chain analysis and put them into an overall livelihoods framework. We plan to develop some farm typologies based on livelihood capitals and then apply the feed assessment tools to different farm typologies. We hope this will help to uncover some of the reasons why different feed interventions are suited to different farm types.

The inception meeting for this project will be on 7-8 May on the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa. Watch for further updates after that meeting.

 

Ethiopia Livestock Feed project trains partners, tests tools for further fieldwork

Farmers discuss ILRI feed assessment tool FEAST

Following the Ethiopian Livestock Feed (ELF) project inception meeting on 21-22 February 2012, the ELF team arranged a training workshop and field trip to test two tools in livestock value chains, FEAST and Techfit, before beginning research in their selected sites across Ethiopia. 25 participants gathered on 12-16 March 2012 at ILRI in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss the tools, refine the questionnaire for field testing, and work through any issues and queries about the project.

Alan Duncan led the training session on Techfit, and Ben Lukuyu on FEAST. Trainees included four researchers from each selected site (two experts on feed, the others on socio-economics) and the three key resource people included Abate Tedla of ILRI, Adugna Tolera of Hawassa University and Jane Wamatu of ICARDA.

Farmer explains the cost of labour in rural Ethiopia

On Wednesday, the ELF team traveled to Godino, near Debre Zeit in Ethiopia, to test run the tools with local farmers.

The party split into three smaller groups who will later investigate feed resources in sheep, beef and dairy value chains in the chosen project sites in Debre Birhan, Debre Zeit and Holetta.

The day began with a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) exercise on FEAST, where the experts and farmers answered and discussed a number of questions on land, labor, credit, inputs, and education.

Questions ranged from “How easy is it to hire casual labor as and when required?” to “ What proportion of the PRA group have completed secondary schooling?” All feedback was recorded to calculate context scores. Individual in-depth interviews were then carried out with three different farmers, while the remaining small groups continued with a PRA exercise using the Techfit tool.

The group reconvened on Thursday to reflect on the field trip and discuss next steps for the project. Presentations from the FEAST assessment were prepared during the morning session and presented by each group in the afternoon. Adugna presented the results of the Techfit PRA exercise. An afternoon reflection session looked at what worked during the field testing, what was difficult, and what needs to be changed.

The team agreed that time-keeping went well, with farmers available and present on time, and that data collection had been a success. They felt that the selection of farmers needs to be given more consideration next time, e.g. improve gender balance, age variation, and more diverse educational backgrounds. They also suggested using larger groups of 12 farmers. The group further agreed that the PRA exercise could be improved by creating a more natural and relaxed atmosphere; less like an interview and where no one participant can dominate the conversation so that everyone has an equal say.

At the end of the reflection session, Abate Tedla presented the next steps for the ELF project. The team will now split into individual site groups and aim to complete field data collection for FEAST and Techfit by the end of March, carry out value chain analysis field work by mid-April, and focus on data entry, analysis and report writing for the remainder of April.

Further information on the project and its activities is on the project wiki.

View project photos

Information on FEAST / Information in TechFit

This project is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR); it is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish.

ELF team conducts PRA exercise on feed assessment tools

By Kara Brown, ILRI

 

Simple but effective: Ethiopian Livestock Feed project inception meeting

A group of 30 International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) scientists, partners and other stakeholders met on 21-22 February 2012 on the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa for a two-day inception workshop on the new Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research-funded project, ‘Fodder and feed in livestock value chains in Ethiopia – trends and prospects’ (the Ethiopian Livestock Feed (ELF) project).

With significant changes in feeding practices in the Ethiopian livestock sector and an increase in human population leading to greater scarcity of livestock feed, this project is one of a number of current initiatives focusing on feed issues within livestock value chains. Over the coming few months, ILRI in collaboration with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research and the Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute are implementing this small scoping study across six sites.

Last week’s inception workshop was held to review Ethiopia’s livestock value chains and their feed resources, to review the methodologies and tools needed for feed and value chain assessment, to initiate the site selection process and to agree upon individual roles and logistics for project activities.

Edmealem Shitye of the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development opened the workshop. He placed emphasis on the need for “simple but effective tools” to gain deeper understanding of how feed components of livestock production systems are changing and how this is reflected in the feed-related elements of focal value chains. The ELF project aims to develop and refine such tools; tools that are easy-to-use and which can prioritize feed technologies for specific locations and their value chains.

Throughout the two days, workshop participants actively engaged in conversation on ILRI’s Feed Assessment (FEAST) and Techfit tools. The project is also developing ideas for ‘light’ value chain assessments. The team gelled well, reached consensus on key actors to involve in the process, and agreed on necessary site selection criteria.

The group looked at the merits and disadvantages of using FEAST and Techfit. They questioned where and how the tools can be used, and by whom. While neither of these decision-making tools are ‘magic’ solutions, they are useful and can contribute as part of an overall process of feed assessment and intervention design. The ELF project will test different research methodologies and approaches within beef, sheep and dairy value chains. Provisional sites include six different areas in the country’s Oromiya, Amhara and SNNPR regions and training will start during the week beginning 12 March 2012.
Key actors in the process include:

• Extension workers
• Small holder farmers
• Researchers
• Development partners
• Private sector operators (feed processors, feed traders, etc.)

The inception workshop was rounded off with an outline of next steps to be taken. Those steps include drafting a detailed activity plan, involving other colleagues and partners, arranging training sessions and further developing methodologies.

Read about the meeting on the project wiki.

View outputs of the project

This project is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR); it is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish.

By Kara Brown, ILRI