1. Introduction
2. Our clients
3. Animal genetic resources
4. Animal health management
5. Feed resources
6. Technology adoption
7. Policy and institutional environments
8. Conclusions
References
W. Thorpe1, S. H. Maloo2, R. W. Muinga2, G. R. Mullins1, J. G. Mureithi2, M. Njunie2, and A Ramadhan2.
International Livestock Research Institute1, P.O. Box 30709, Nairobi; and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute2, Regional Research Centre-Mtwapa, P.O. Box 16, Kikambala, Coast Province, Kenya.
Abstract
The Kenya coastal region has a large, unsatisfied market for milk and dairy products. Between 1988 and 1994, a research project, closely linked to extension, identified and addressed technical constraints that limit smallholder dairy development in the region. Methodological approaches are outlined. Smallholders found it difficulty to maintain the advantages of systematic crossbreeding. Research showed that rotational crossing was appropriate when AI is available. In its absence, crossbred bulls should be considered. A study of lifetime productivity demonstrated the major contribution that genetic improvement can make to increasing productivity. Systematic epidemiological studies identified East Coast fever (ECF) as the cause of serious production losses. The infection and treatment method of immunization was more effective than current control methods, and was accepted by smallholders. Compared to recommended practises, intercropping with legumes, and manure and legume mulch application, improved year- round feed availability for dairy cows. Feeding legume and maize bran supplements was very cost-effective. Through collaborative research-extension activities, legume technologies were extended to many smallholdings. The linkages with farmers will facilitate the development and testing of other technologies. Finally, the importance of a favourable operational environment for smallholders is emphasised, including institutional structures to encourage effective research- extension-farmer linkages and policies to facilitate dairy market development.
In common with much of the medium rainfall, lowland tropics of sub-Saharan Africa, coastal Kenya has a high human population growth rate (3.5% annually), and increasingly the population is urban-based; at present approximately 45% live in Mombasa and other urban centres. Milk and dairy products are favoured foods among the local and immigrant communities (Mullins, 1992). The majority of even low income households consume milk daily, preferring fresh milk over other liquid milk products. Demand for milk and dairy products from this burgeoning population far outstrips supply. The annual deficit of milk has been estimated at 60 million litres or more (Mullins, 1992), equivalent to the production of an additional 40,000 cows, or 20,000 new smallholder dairy farms.
Local production has lagged behind demand mainly because of technical constraints (high disease challenge and inadequate feed supplies interacting with unproductive cattle genotypes), but also because policy disincentives and poor market linkages have inhibited commercial production. The unsatisfied demand for high value milk (farm-gate prices for fresh (raw) milk are twice those paid in Kenya's highlands), represents an important opportunity for market-oriented production on smallholder farms. Currently the agricultural productivity and profitability of these farms is low. While smallholders recognise that the integration of dairy production into their existing farming systems has the potential to contribute to increasing and stabilising household incomes, improving food security and creating employment (Leegwater et al, 1990; Huss-Ashmore and Curry, 1992), they are inhibited by the risks involved in intensive dairy production. For the smallholders who already have a dairy enterprise, there is the incentive to reduce risk and increase profitability.
In 1988 a collaborative research project between the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) was established in coastal lowland Kenya to support smallholder dairy development. The research institutes worked closely with Kenya's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock Development and Marketing, through its National Dairy Development Project (NDDP). The inter- institutional and inter-disciplinary group addressed the need for technologies appropriate to the agro-ecological challenges of the coastal zone, and to the resources of the existing smallholder dairy farmers and of potential adopters. Policy issues were also addressed.
In this paper we focus on the identification of major technical constraints faced by smallholder dairy producers, and some solutions are presented. In addition we comment briefly on some policy and institutional issues that we suggest will influence the rate of smallholder dairy development. Many of the results and methods that are presented and the issues which are raised, will be relevant to similar regions in other countries, and particularly, of course, to coastal lowland Tanzania because of its similar agro-ecology, farming systems, culture, and institutional structures.
The target group were the peri-urban smallholders in the rainfed farming systems of Kenya's coastal lowlands. Smallholdings, which average between 1 and 15 ha., are responsible for most of the agricultural production in the higher rainfall (800-1300mm annually) zones. These zones are dominated by the coconut-cassava and cashewnut-cassava farming systems (Jaetzold and Schmidt, 1983). Cattle are found on less than 20% of smallholdings (Thorpe et al., 1993a). In 1989 over 98% of the smallholder cattle were Small East African Zebu, despite the good potential of these areas for intensive dairy production (Valk, 1988).
Intensive dairy systems in coastal Kenya, whether small, medium or large scale, are advised to exploit the advantages resulting from crossbreeding high producing Bos taurus dairy breeds with Bos indicus (zebu) breeds adapted to the lowland tropical environment. Generally, Sahiwal is the zebu breed represented in the crossbreds because it has markedly superior dairy performance to the Small East African Zebu (Syrstad, 1988).
In common with many tropical situations, our field surveys found that crossbreeding in the smallholder sector was seldom systematic. After the introduction of dairy crosses, breeding has mainly been through repeated matings with Bos taurus breeds, generally by artificial insemination (Al). This has resulted in a population of dairy cows with a sub-optimal proportion of Bos indicus genes (Kang'ethe and Thorpe, 1992).
Analyses of crossbreeding studies on a KARI station and at Kilifi Plantations (a large dairy ranch) showed that, on a herd basis, two- and three-breed rotational crossing can be recommended for those smallholder systems with access to an efficient AI service (Thorpe et al, 1993b; Mackinnon et al, 1995). Schuh (1992) has shown that many of the technical and organisational difficulties with AI services in the tropics are associated with deep-frozen semen, and that they can be avoided by using liquid semen. In the absence of AI, proven crossbred bulls are a practical alternative for sustaining the optimal genetic composition of a smallholder herd. To investigate this option further, comparisons are required of the performance of the products of the recommended systems for systematic crossbreeding and that-of-breed composites such as the Australian Friesian Sahiwal (Alexander and Tierney, 1990).
To translate the recommendations for breeding systems into improved smallholder performance, inter- and intra-breed selection procedures were developed for the major supplier of dairy stock in the region, Kilifi Plantations (Mackinnon, 1994). Such large private-sector herds have the resources to effectively sustain selection programmes. These can be implemented using the designs proposed by, for example, Kasonta and Nitter (1990).
It is important to remember that the relatively small genetic differences generally estimated in analyses of single lactations and their associated reproductive performances accumulate rapidly over the years (and generations) into very large benefits to the producer. At Kilifi Plantations, lifetime milk yield over four possible lactations of Ayrshire-sired (Ar) and Sahiwal- sired (Sr) rotation crosses in a two-breed system was compared with that of their crosses, progeny of matings to Brown Swiss (B) bulls (Thorpe et al., 1993b). The B-sired crosses produced 62% more milk in 45% more days in the herd, and with 32% more calves produced. These results are a striking demonstration of the importance of the choice of Bos taurus dairy breed in crossbreeding programmes, and they show the major contribution that genetic improvement can make to increasing herd productivity and profitability.
The investment in these potentially high-producing dairy cows will only be profitable if the cows remain healthy. Therefore a priority for smallholders are effective health management practises that are appropriate to the disease challenges faced by the dairy cattle and to the resource level of the smallholder.
Trypanosomiasis and tick-borne diseases were known as major, though unquantified, constraints limiting dairy production in the smallholder sector of coastal Kenya. Therefore, in collaboration with the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD), systematic epidemiological studies were carried out: to estimate disease occurrence in smallholder herds and the factors influencing it; to quantify the resultant production losses; and, to identify and test interventions to reduce the losses (Maloo, 1993). Stratification of the initial point prevalence survey (by agro-ecological zone, grazing system and herd and cattle type) was based upon the results of the descriptive and diagnostic farming systems surveys carried out within the project (Thorpe et al, 1993a).
The research identified East Coast fever (ECF), a tick-borne disease, as the primary cause of major production losses (Maloo, 1993). In the longitudinal cohort study which followed the point prevalence survey, over a third of the smallholder dairy cattle suffered from clinical disease or died due to disease; 67% of the disease incidence was attributed to ECF. By contrast, there were few cases of Anaplasmosis or Babesiosis, two other important tick-borne diseases. Not only was ECF the most frequent disease diagnosed, but it also contributed two-thirds of calf deaths, three-quarters of young stock deaths and nearly half of older stock losses. These losses contributed to an annual mortality rate of approximately 20%. Incidence of ECF was higher in free- grazed than zero-grazed herds, suggesting that they were either exposed to lower tick challenge because of being stall-fed, and/or because they received more effective tick control practises (generally acaricide application). Notwithstanding the relatively better health status of the zero-grazed herds, even they suffered a high incidence of ECF which resulted in many mortalities.
Contributing to the high losses was the high case-fatality rate. Nearly 60% of ECF infections led to death. Consequently at the levels of disease diagnosis and treatment prevailing during the study, smallholder dairy cattle contracting ECF had only a 40% chance of surviving the disease. The obvious conclusion from these incidence and case-fatality statistics was that current ECF preventive and curative technologies and their delivery were ineffective in the majority of smallholder dairy units (Maloo, 1993).
The infection and treatment method of immunization, a "live vaccine" technology proven in institutional herds at the Kenyan coast (Mutugi et al., 1991), was identified as a method of controlling ECF that was more appropriate to current smallholder management practises and resources. Field experiments identified target populations for the immunization, which uses a cross- protective strain of Theleiria parva to produce an endemically stable population (Maloo, 1993). The experiments showed that initially all resident dairy cattle should be immunized; and subsequently all dairy calves born in the area and all cattle being introduced from non-ECF areas or farms. As calves are at risk from ECF at an early age, the immunization should be carried out at as young an age as is consistent with the ability of the calf to develop an immune response, probably at about one month of age. Immunization at this young age has the added advantages of reducing the cost of the immunization and of facilitating animal handling.
Following pilot trials which tested the delivery of the technology to smallholder farms, its acceptability and its cost-effectiveness (Nyangito et al., 1994), training courses were held which have resulted in the new control method being available to smallholders through private sector veterinarians.
Concurrently on-farm and on-station research identified the need for improved control methods and diagnostic services for trypanosomiasis (Maloo et al., 1992; Maloo, 1993). Meantime emphasis on improvements in diagnostic support and in implementing current tsetse control measures (community-managed traps and insecticide-impregnated screens) are the recommended ways of minimising trypanosomiasis's effects on smallholder dairy cattle production at the Coast.
The systematic epidemiological approach highlighted the inadequacies of the recommended preventive/prophylactic practises for controlling ECF and trypanosomiasis in smallholder dairy cattle; it produced quantitative estimates of the production losses resulting from ECF (probably the major biological constraint on smallholder dairy development in the region), and identified and tested an effective alternative method for its control, which has proved popular with smallholder producers. As a result of the more effective control of ECF, not only will losses in current dairy herds be reduced markedly, but it is expected that the confidence of potential investors in dairy cattle will be increased considerably, resulting in more smallholders producing and marketing milk, with benefits to producers and consumers alike.
Finally we would like to stress the value of the systematic epidemiological approach followed in the studies described in this section. The approach identifies the need for a control technology, and its target population, and indicates the appropriate delivery mechanism (Maloo et al., 1994). Disease control programmes not based on information from systematic epidemiological studies may well lead to less effective and more expensive health management, which will hinder rather than enhance the development of smallholder dairy production.
A major biological constraint to smallholder dairy development in coastal lowland Kenya is the inadequacy of the feed resources available on-farm to meet the year-round nutrient requirements for lactating dairy cows (Reynolds et al., 1993). Tree and food cropping reduce the area and productivity of natural pasture, which, in any case, is of poor quality for most of the year. Significant quantities of concentrates (principally maize bran and copra cake) are available for purchase, but cash shortages often limit their use by smallholders. It was against this background that the feed resources research focused on developing systems with minimal purchased inputs. Because of the land area constraints expected to result from the region's high human population growth rate, the emphasis was on the zero-grazing technologies being extended through the NDDP.
On-station experiments investigated how to intensify forage and food crop production systems through the integration of legumes and the use of organic manures to improve soil fertility and water-holding capacity. The agronomic programme began in 1989 with the establishment of two large factorial systems experiments which evaluated the effects of alley cropping based on Leucaena leucocephala hedgerows intercropped with, in one, maize and cowpeas, and in the other, Napier grass (var. Bana) and the herbaceous legume Clitoria ternatea (Mureithi, 1992). The experiments also evaluated responses to the application of slurry (liquid manure) on maize and napier, and to the Leucaena mulch on maize. Soil analyses assessed effects on the levels of organic matter and plant nutrients.
The wide range of crop management systems in the experiments, and contemporary forage germplasm and agronomic studies (Mureithi, 1992; ILCA, 1993, 1994, 1995), tested and quantified the seasonal complementarity of the various feed resources. Matching nutrition experiments evaluated animal performance when fed the forages and crop byproducts (Muinga, 1992; ILCA, 1995). The integrated programme allowed the assessment of the relative productivities of the contrasting systems in terms of output per hectare (of feed and human food), per cow, and per labour unit.
The cropping between Leucaena hedgerows of maize with cowpea and of napier with clitoria, and manure and leucaena mulch application, produced large increases in biomass productivity and seasonal feed availability compared to recommendations by extension and traditional farmer practises (Mureithi, 1992; Mureithi et al., 1994; ILCA, 1995). Results from agronomic and feeding experiments with Gliricidia are also encouraging, which is reassuring in the face of the marked reduction in the yields of Leucaena forage following the arrival of the psyllid pest (Reynolds and Bimbuzi, 1993).
The matching cattle feeding experiments showed that a napier fodder basal diet supplemented with 1kg dry matter Leucaena forage gave reasonable levels of commercial milk production (Muinga et al., 1992). Low level energy supplementation using maize bran (MB), which is readily available locally, increased milk yield and financial returns (the farm-gate price ratio of bran to milk is currently 1:5), leaving considerable potential for profitable responses to higher levels of MB supplementation, particularly when fed with legume forage (Muinga et al., 1995).
Recent experiments (ILCA, 1994, 1995) have estimated optimal levels of supplementation with Leucaena and Gliricidia forage for napier and maize stover basal diets prior to evaluating milk yield responses to incremental energy supplementation. Planned are the assessment of the nutritive values of the (agronomically) promising forage legume and cassava accessions emerging from the extensive forage germplasm screening programme.
Modelling the forage agronomy and animal nutrition results showed that 1 hectare planted half to maize and half to napier, both between Leucaena alleys, with nutrient cycling through Leucaena mulch and slurry application, could support two lactating cows producing 6,000 kg milk annually, and a follower (Mureithi and Muinga, pers. comm.). At current crop, wood and milk prices, over 80% of the gross income results from the dairy production. The integration of dairy production with various complementary crops therefore greatly improves productivity per unit of land, animal and labour. Moreover the intensification through legume intercropping, nutrient cycling, and diversification through adoption of dairying will reduce the risks inherent in these tropical lowland agro-ecologies and farming systems, while considerably enhancing household welfare (ILCA, 1995). The on- going experiments evaluating the human food and animal feed outputs from maize/cassava intercropped between Leucaena and Gliricidia hedgerows, are expected to extend these strategies for improving risk and resource management, system sustainability and family welfare in these smallholder systems.
The extensive programme to develop feed resource technologies has been driven by the strong linkages to farmers provided by the NDDP staff, through whom the promising technologies were tested on-farm, beginning in 1990. The proven (on-station) technologies (improved germplasm and agronomic practises) for the legumes, Leucaena and Clitoria, were introduced systematically to smallholder farmers through, sequentially: farmer/extension staff visits to the long-term on-station experiments; research- extension managed demonstration plots on selected farms; field days held on these farms and those of early adopters; and finally farmer-managed trials involving over 300 farmers (Njunie et al, 1994; ILCA, 1995).
To date, the adoption of the legumes is widespread, and when surveyed, over 95% of respondent farmers had recommended the legumes to their neighbours (Njunie et al., 1994,). But as yet the majority of farms are not producing sufficient dry matter to have a major effect on cow or young stock performance. As more of the legumes are planted, it will be possible to assess with the farmers the adoption of these technologies and their impact on dairy production and natural resource management. Meantime important outcomes have been: the strengthening of research- extension-farmer linkages through the testing of technologies which addressed jointly identified objectives; and the development of a system which will facilitate the testing on smallholder farms of other technologies.
Because of the collaboration with the NDDP and the expected growth of the human population in the region, the research focused on intensive, zero-grazing related technologies. Currently, however, most dairy cattle are managed in extensive systems, and capital constraints and considerations of risk are important factors limiting the adoption of dairy production, particularly when presented as a capital-intensive zero-grazing package (Thorpe et al., 1993a). In these risk aversive and resource-poor farming systems, technological change is more likely to be undertaken in a stepwise fashion: a sequence of new components are introduced that accumulate into sustainable and productive resource management systems (Byerlee and Polanco, 1986), rather than change occurring through the adoption of a multi-component technology package, such as the NDDP zero-grazing package.
Whenever possible therefore, research should emphasise the development and testing of several component (and preferably scale-neutral) technologies to provide a range of options adaptable to the individual circumstances of farmers and their households. Scale-neutral technologies are important because time may well show that the target group, smallholder farmers, are not the major adopters of our work.
In addition, during technology development careful consideration should be given ex-ante to the impact of the technologies on intra-household resource allocation in order to avoid possible negative repercussions on potentially vulnerable household members, e.g. women and children.
For any technical research to have impact at the farm level, it must tailor its innovations to the agro-ecological conditions and to client resource levels. For dairy production, the technical innovations must be supported by input services and by a milk marketing infrastructure that allows consumer preferences and demand to be communicated to producers and therefore to stimulate supply to satisfy the market. The policy environment must create the conditions for this exchange to take place. Market regulation to protect public health is desirable; over- regulation that inhibits the market is counterproductive. Research and extension agencies must facilitate the interaction of producers and consumers and serve as a major conduit for policy evaluation and reform. It is only through these favourable policy, institutional and technical interactions that dairy production will be adopted and sustained by smallholders.
The responsibility of research and development institutions therefore goes beyond the development and transfer of technologies, and includes the identification of the factors within the operational environment that inhibit technology adoption. Without a conducive operational environment for smallholders, our efforts to foster technology development and transfer are likely to be frustrated.
In the face of the rapid growth of the human population in sub- Saharan Africa, especially that in urban areas, internal market conditions are becoming more favourable for the intensification of livestock systems. Recent changes in public policy mean that, in many SSA countries, producers are faced with better market opportunities and are supported by more effective institutions. Prospects for technology adoption leading to increased livestock productivity and profitability are therefore improving rapidly. At the same time, developments in computer-based systems greatly facilitate the accessing and synthesis of the enormous bank of information on technologies available for testing in these responsive farming systems.
It is expected that most transfer of available technologies and the demand for new technologies will be from the mixed (crop- livestock) farming systems, and often in response to the demand for increased production stimulated by an urban market. As the example described in this paper has illustrated, a systematic approach is required for the identification and resolution of the major technical constraints to meet these demands for technology. Such a systematic, approach can lead to technological interventions with major impact on agricultural productivity and farmer confidence. To be successful, these R&D processes demand considerable institutional collaboration, cutting across Ministries, departments, and disciplines, including the social, crop, animal and veterinary sciences. A prerequisite is the close and continuous interaction between our clients, the farmers, and ourselves, the technicians.
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DISCUSSION
Q. W. Schulthess
Animal health and heat stress problems must make for higher milk price at the Kenya coast than prices paid in the Kenya highlands.
Response:
The price paid at the coast is twice as much as that in the highlands i.e. 30 vs 15 Kenyan shillings.
