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.
This week, we were brainstorming – over dinner – with a group of livestock/feed enthusiasts attending the final meeting of the Fodder Adoption Project. How might we mobilize the scattered expertise and enthusiasms of forage and fodder (and related crop and livestock) people in the CGIAR and worldwide to focus attention on livestock feeding as … Continue reading
Today we had a session to try and distil some cross-cutting findings from FAP, thinking specifically about Innovation, Feed Assessment and Scaling out issues. Here I highlight one key point I took from each session Ranjitha Puskur led the session on innovation: we spoke about the challenges of embedding innovation approaches within national systems. Taking … Continue reading
This morning at the end of project workshop, project teams from Vietnam, Syria and Ethiopia shared their approach to the project’s output 3 – to enhance the capacity of project partners to experiment with and use fodder innovations through effective communication, technical information and training… Mechanisms for joint learning used by the Vietnam fodder adoption … Continue reading
Today, the country teams from the IFAD-supported ‘Fodder Adoption Project’ met in Luang Prabang Laos to review and assess what was achieved during the project. The workshop opened with an overview presentation by project coordinator Alan Duncan. He introduced the goal of the project: to improve the livelihoods of poor livestock keepers through increased access … Continue reading
As part of the reporting on the Fodder Adoption Project, ILRI commissioned Beth Cullen to train farmers in one of the project sites in participatory video. So they can tell their side of the project story. This film was planned and filmed by project participants from Mieso woreda, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. More on Beth Cullen’s … Continue reading
The Fodder Adoption Project is drawing to a close at the end of 2010. Next week (15-19 Nov, 2010) we will hold our final co-ordination meeting in Laos PDR to review research findings and draw out some lessons. Some 30 participants from around the world will participate. As well as reviewing FAP we have also … Continue reading
Today I was chairing a session on livestock feeds at the All Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture. Feed is a key input to livestock systems particularly as systems intensify and the demand for high quality feeds increases. The session began with a plenary presentation from Michael Blummel of the International Livestock Research Institute (Download his … Continue reading
Kebebe Ergano recently presented a paper reporting work from the Fodder Adoption Project of ILRI titled “Multi-Stakeholder Platforms Strengthening Selection and Use of Fodder Technologies in Ethiopia: Some Lessons.’’ Here he reflects on his experiences at the international meeting he attended in Montpellier. The Innovation and Sustainable Development in Agriculture and Food symposium (Montpellier, 2010) … Continue reading
On 22 june 2010, ILRI hosted the fourth in a series of Ethiopia fodder roundtables that bring different actors together to share knowledge on developments in the sector. We caught up on video with some of the participants: Amanuel Assefa from Agri Service Ethiopia explains how this NGO is supporting the development of community-based dairy … Continue reading
The delivery of veterinary and artificial insemination (AI) services was a major focus of the ‘Fourth Ethiopian Fodder Roundtable’ held at ILRI on 22 June 2010 (the presentation by Kebebe Ergano explains how a project on animal feed and fodder came to be involved in the delivery of these types of services). Alemaheyu Lemma of … Continue reading
Feeding innovation 