On 18 and 19 November 2010, the Fodder Adoption Project organised a mini-symposium on ‘feed in smallholder systems’ as part of week-long end-of-project review discussions.
The session was opened by Alan Duncan with a brief presentation on Sustainable livestock intensification in smallholder systems – where does feed fit and how can current constraints be overcome?. He explained that the focus was on feed in a wider environment, notably five few factors:
- biophysical niches for fodder and feeds – the growth factor
- input delivery – the push factor
- markets – the pull factor
- other livelihood opportunities – the competition factor
- institutional environment – the human factor
These five factors were used as a basis to organize the 10 subsequent short presentations and discussions (we asked speakers to prepare a few slides to be followed by deeper discussions in small groups).
The ten presentations on the first day were as follows (the discussions are reported separately):
What is available – an example of development of a national feed inventory – K.T. Sampath, India
Where do different feed options fit – Biophysical niches in Ethiopia – Diriba Geleti, Ethiopia
Supplementary/compounded feeding in Kenyan and Indian dairy systems – why so little? – Ben Lukuyu and Michael Blummel, ILRI
Farmer-participatory research and development for improving feed supply and use – Asamoah Larbi, ICARDA
Livestock feed as a component of smallholder systems: trade-offs in biomass use – Bruno Gerard, CGIAR
Feed as a component of value chains – Shirley Tarawali, ILRI
Linking fodder to livestock markets in Vietnam: The Ea-Kar experience – Werner Stür
Fodder innovation in smallholder systems: Experiences from the Fodder inniovation project – Ranjitha Puskur, ILRI
Using stakeholder platforms to enhance local innovation in the livestock sector – Kebebe Ergano, ILRI
Innovation processes and outcomes in different national contexts: Preliminary findings of the FAP meta-analysis – Seife Ayele, ILRI
On the second day, discussions focused around innovation systems principles and their application in livestock and feed research for development.
Feeding innovation 