E A Olaloku and S. Debre
International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA)
BP 60, Bamako, Mali
ABSTRACT
Inadequate feed supplies remain a major constraint to sustainable cattle production in general, and milk production in particular, in smallholder production systems throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In the emerging pert-urban dairy production systems in West and central Africa, for example, poor development of feed resources has invariably resulted in milk production being sustained at comparatively high feed costs, thus reducing the competitiveness of locally produced milk.
Given the opportunities for generating increased quantities of crop residues from many of the crop production projects assisted by international agencies (eg, World Bank, Global 2000), there is an urgent need to identify research priorities in the development of feeding systems appropriate to the different smallholder production systems. Such feeding systems will have to incorporate a new approach to cattle management, involving cultivation of specialised fodder crops and harvesting and conservation of crop residues for milk production.
RESUME
Priorités en matière de recherche sur l'élaboration de systèmes d'alimentation adaptés à la production laitière en Afrique subsaharienne
L'insuffisance des ressources alimentaires demeure un obstacle majeur au développement de la production bovine en général et laitière en particulier dans les systèmes du petit élevage en Afrique subsaharienne. Dans les systèmes péri-urbains de production laitière apparus récemment en Afrique occidentale et centrale par exemple, les pénuries alimentaires renchérissent invariablement le coût des aliments du bétail, diminuant ainsi la compétitivité du sous-secteur de la production laitière locale. Etant donné qu'un bon nombre de projets de production végétale soutenus par des institutions internationales (ex.: Banque mondiale, Global 2000, etc.) peuvent permettre à l'heure actuelle d'accroître la production de résidus de récolte, il importe de définir sans délai les priorités de recherche en ce qui concerne l'élaboration de méthodes d'alimentation adaptées aux différents systèmes de la petite exploitation laitière. Cela suppose une approche nouvelle du problème de la gestion du cheptel bovin, la culture de plantes fourragères appropriées ainsi que la collecte et la conservation de résidus de récolte en vue de la production laitière.
INTRODUCTION
Dairy supplies in most countries of sub-Saharan Africa are based on both domestic production and imports, since domestic production has always been inadequate in relation to demand (von Massow, 1989; Senait Seyoum, 1988).
Given the large ruminant population of sub-Saharan Africa and the fact that the region covers an estimated 129 million hectares of arable land and 70.24% (556.9 million hectares) of Africa's permanent pastures (Table 1), there should be no cause for deficits in milk supplies. However, the estimated 164.2 million cattle, 147.8 million goats and 127.2 million sheep in the region produced only an estimated 11.98 million tons milk, providing an average 25.1 kg milk/person per year for the region's 477.7 million people (FAO, 1989).
Table 1. Human and livestock populations, land-use patterns and milk production in sub-Saharan Africa
|
|
In sub-Saharan Africa |
% of total Africa |
|
Population (thousands) | ||
|
Humans |
477 661 |
75.99 |
|
Cattle |
164 169 |
88.36 |
|
Sheep |
127 241 |
63.39 |
|
Goats |
147 757 |
87.18 |
|
Land area (thousands of hectares) | ||
|
Total |
2 034 141 |
68.63 |
|
Arable land |
129 054 |
76.84 |
|
Permanent crops |
14 140 |
75.55 |
|
Permanent pastures |
556 963 |
70.24 |
|
Milk production (thousands of tonnes) | ||
|
Cow milk |
9 079 |
65.85 |
|
Goat milk |
1 718 |
83.76 |
|
Sheep milk |
1 188 |
78.62 |
Source: FAO (1989)
The economic depression in many sub-Saharan African countries, brought about by the external debt burden, has severely curtailed the availability of foreign exchange to sustain dairy imports. The overall effect has been a worsening of the dairy supply situation at a time when the need for more food to feed the region's ever-growing population has become very acute. Indeed, the inadequacy of dairy supplies has been aggravated by a combination of drought and other adverse climatic factors and an unstable political situation in some countries. When viewed against the possible outcome of the on-going "Uruguay Round of Talks" on world trade and the rationalisation agricultural subsidies in Europe and North America, the prospects for cheap dairy imports to supplement domestic production in sub-Saharan Africa look increasingly gloomy.
These developments present challenging opportunities for increasing domestic dairy production through a more efficient use of the resources in the existing production systems. Research support from the commodity and strategic collaborative research networks would be required to generate producer-implementable technology packages for sustainable increases in domestic dairy production throughout the region.
EXISTING PRODUCTION SYSTEMS
Domestic dairy production in sub-Saharan African countries is based largely on cattle. In 1989, for example, cattle milk accounted for 75.8% of the estimated 11.98 million tons of milk produced in the region (Table 1).
Dairy production is carried out under a variety of production systems which can be classified into two broad groups, traditional systems and improved systems, the major characteristics of which have been summarised by Olaloku et al (1990).
The traditional systems include the pastoralist, subsistence and agropastoralist systems, all of which together account for well over 90% of the dairy ruminant population in sub-Saharan Africa. Dairy production from each system reflects varying degrees of adaptation to the major constraints to sustainable production in their environment, such as seasonal variations in feed and water resources, animal health and social interactions within the overall farming system (ILCA, 1979; Synge, 1981; Jahnke, 1982; Waters-Bayer, 1988). Jahnke (1982) described production in mixed farming areas with the tradition of communal tenure of the grazing resources. Where cropping is the mainstay of subsistence and income, stubbles become important as a grazing resource.
Dairy production under the improved systems represents adaptations of the intensive, high input/output market-oriented production systems of the developed dairy industries in Europe and North America. The improved production systems include:
· intensive crop-livestock smallholder systems
· semi-intensive medium and large scale systems
· pert-urban dairying.
In general, production is low under the traditional systems and much higher under the improved systems. These differences in productivity have generally been ascribed to:
· use of improved genotypes (crossbreds, grade and pure bred exotic dairy breeds)· investments in forage and other feed resources to ensure adequate nutrition year-round
· animal health care, with conscious efforts to reduce reproductive wastage, calf mortality and morbidity.
FEED RESOURCES
Apart from differences in productivity arising from the quality of the animal genotypes under the different production systems, the most important constraint to sustainable dairy production in sub-Saharan Africa is feed and nutrition.
The availability of feed, both in quantity and quality, varies greatly in the different production systems. Although feed availability depends to some extent on climatic conditions, particularly rainfall and the length of the growing season, in most cases the feed situation becomes critical during the dry season. At this time, the low quality of natural pastures and the inefficient use of crop residues result in inadequate feeding of stock with adverse implications on reproductive efficiency and milk production, especially among crossbred and grade cattle as feed nutrients become inadequate to support their potential yield levels.
Feed resource inventory
A wide variety of feed resources abound from sub-Saharan Africa's estimated 129 million hectares of arable land and 556.9 million hectares of permanent pastures. These include:
Crop residues, especially cereal straws and stover from sorghum, maize, millet, rice, wheat, oats and barley, accruing from arable crop farming both in the smallholder units and in the large-scale accelerated food production projects sponsored by various international development agencies in recent years. These products are usable to various degrees to support production, depending on the crop variety, tannin content, stage of harvest, length of storage, leaf:stem ratio, soil fertility and fertiliser application, as well as the effects of agronomic practices such as irrigation. For example, Kernan et al (1979) reported that straw from irrigated wheat had a 41% in vitro digestibility compared to 34% for non-irrigated wheat straw. Most cereal straws are, however, low in nitrogen content and require considerable strategic utilisation to be effective feeds.
Agro-industrial byproducts, ranging from products with high-nutrient content such as wheat offals and middlings, brewers' grains, etc. to low nutrient and fibrous products such as sugarcane bagasse, rice hulls and cocoa husks.
Pasture forage and herbaceous legumes, consisting of the more popular planted grasses such as Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum), Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana), legume forages such as Stylosanthes and different varieties of alfalfa (Medicago saliva). Recently multipurpose trees such as Sesbania and Leucaena species have been developed as useful sources of nitrogen in the diet.
Utilising feed resources for milk production
Fibrous crop residues can, at best, only support low levels of milk production because of their low and slow rate of digestibility, low propionate fermentation in the rumen, and almost negligible content of fermentable nitrogen. However, these feeds represent a significant proportion of the feed resources available to the majority of smallholder producers in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, greater attention would have to be given to their improved and more efficient utilisation for dairy production.
Improvements can be achieved through treatment with ammonia, such as ensiling with urea. Khan and Davis (1981) and Perdok et al (1982) have demonstrated the value of ammoniated rice straw, with average increases of 53% in milk production from zebu and buffalo cows. The increased intake of the treated straw is brought about a reduction from 14 to 9% in the average proportion of the total diet represented by concentrates. There will, however, be a need to establish acceptable regimes for feeding lactating ruminants.
Green forage can be used as a supplement for milk production. Perdok et al (1982) showed that supplementing a diet of untreated straw with Gliricidia sepium at approximately 15% of the dietary dry-matter intake increased milk yield by 22%.
EXAMPLES FROM EXISTING PRODUCTION SITUATIONS
Although there is potential for increasing domestic milk production in sub-Saharan Africa, poor feed resource development and utilisation could lead to lower competitiveness of locally produced milk. This is the trend emerging from the pert-urban dairy productions systems operating in some countries of the region, particularly in the subhumid zones of West and central Africa.
Peri-urban dairy production
The depressed economic situation, coupled with the increasing costs of dairy imports against the background of inadequate foreign exchange and the availability of a good market in urban areas, has led to the development of dairy production in urban and pert-urban areas of many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This system of dairy production has assumed increasing importance in the past decade, as more and more milking herds are established within a 50-km radius of major cities and towns. Indeed, national and international development agencies now see pert-urban dairy production as an important mechanism for catalysing organised dairy production and providing employment opportunities.
Factors in favour of intensifying dairy production in urban and pert-urban areas include the proximity of product on sites to centres of high fresh milk demand, which leads to reductions in costs associated with collection, refrigeration and transport of fresh milk from production sites to points of final sale. On the input side, urban and peri-urban producers have ready access to feed supplements, agro-industrial byproducts, veterinary supplies and, sometimes, factory-gate prices. However, arguments against pert-urban dairy production include:
· unavailability or restricted availability of low-cost feed sources such as natural pastures and crop residues· inadequate land for forage cultivation
· high costs of purchased feed inputs
· high labour costs for herding and feeding.
Feeding for pert-urban dairy production in Mali
Preliminary results of a recent ILCA study on three dairy production systems in pert-urban Bamako, in the subhumid zone of Mali, showed that purchased feeds represented between 34 and 73% of the total variable costs of milk production. In the traditional production system in which purchased feed supplements were fed exclusively in the dry season, supplements represented the major source of expenditure. The preliminary economic analysis also showed that the high costs of purchased feeds resulted in milk production being sustained at comparatively higher costs than the reconstituted imported dairy products (Table 2).
Prospects for increasing pert-urban dairy production
There is a high demand for fresh milk in and around Bamako, so opportunities exist for increasing production to meet this demand as well as to generate more producer income. But these aspirations can only be achieved if cheaper sources of feed can be developed. The cottonseed-cake-based supplement, containing about 27% crude protein, costs FCFA 80/kg at farm level. Research into the development of feeding packages for milk production, incorporating forage legumes, crop residues and agro-industrial byproducts, may identify cheaper alternative feeds for pert-urban dairy production in the Bamako area.
The research support required for sustainable dairy production in sub-Saharan Africa would therefore require an analysis of the existing production systems, followed by the design, evaluation and implementation of appropriate interventions, to increase productivity and generate additional income for the producer.
Table 2. Production, cost structure and profits from milk production per cow different production systems in the Bamako area Mali, July to October 1989
|
Item |
Per cow |
|||
|
Traditional system |
Peri-urban |
|||
|
Communal system |
Private system |
|||
|
Physical data |
||||
|
Milk production (litres/day) |
1.02 |
2.24 |
2.28 |
|
|
Concentrate (kg/day) |
0.80 |
1.55 |
3.00 |
|
|
Milk yield/kg concentrate fed (litres/day) |
1.30 |
1.44 |
0.95 |
|
|
Profit (loss) (FCFA) |
||||
|
Revenue from milk |
129 |
476 |
602 |
|
|
Variable costs |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cost of supplementation |
68 |
124 |
240 |
|
|
Veterinary costs |
8 |
17 |
175 |
|
|
Hired labour costs |
5 |
30 |
300 |
|
|
Total |
81 |
171 |
715 |
|
Profit (loss) |
48 |
305 |
(113) |
|
This scenario has been amply demonstrated in some of the dairy production projects supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Botswana, Burundi and Malawi (Olaloku et al, 1990). In each case, the research priority focused on the development of feeding strategies based on the available feed resources (cereal crop residues) supplemented with a forage legume, Lablab purpureus, as the protein source.
In designing research to solve the feed problems of producers, the farming systems research approach should not be ignored. The first step must be to characterise existing production systems in order to identify the calving calendar, calf mortality, milk offtake and reproductive activity in relation to available feed resources. Such knowledge then becomes useful in the development of appropriate feeding strategies for increased milk offtake and producer incomes according to requirements at different seasons of the year.
Given a good knowledge of the foregoing, research can then be designed to address such issues as:
· quantification and nutritional evaluation of available feed resources, especially the seasonally available forages, to provide information for their optimal exploitation for increased milk production· development of feeding and management packages for milking cows, calves and replacement stock, based on existing feed resources, to ensure reductions in mortality and to achieve good growth rates, early maturity and calving at an earlier age
· development of management systems for range and pasture improvement, as well as methods for the production and conservation of herbage for dry-season feeding
· development of simple diets from available feed resources for maximising production under particular local conditions. Finally, in the design of research for feed production and utilisation for sustainable dairy production, provision must be made for the on-farm packages for year-round milk production levels with existing stock and available feeds and feed combinations.
REFERENCES
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 1989. FAO production year book, Volume 43. FAO, Rome, Italy. 346 pp.
ILCA (International Livestock Centre for Africa). 1979. Livestock production in the subhumid zone of West Africa. ILCA Systems Study 2. ILCA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. pp. 19-77.
Jahnke H B. 1982. Livestock production systems and livestock development in tropical Africa. Kieler Wissenchaftsverlag Vauk, Kiel, FR Germany. 253 pp.
Kernan J A, Crowle W L, Spurr D T and Coxworth E C. 1979. Straw quality of cereal cultivars before and after treatment with anhydrous ammonia. Canadian Journal Animal Science 59:511-517.
Khan A K M N and Davis C H. 1981. Effect of treating paddy straw with ammonia (generated from urea) on the performance of local and crossbred lactating cows. In: Jackson M G. Dolberg F. Davis C H. Haque M and Saadullah M (eds), Maximum livestock production from minimum land. Proceedings of a seminar held in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. pp. 168-180.
von Massow V H. 1989. Dairy imports into sub-Saharan Africa: Problems, policies and prospects. ILCA Research Report 17. ILCA (International Livestock Centre for Africa), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 46 pp.
Olaloku E A, Smith O B and Kiflewahid B. 1990. Bio-economical characteristics of existing dairy production systems in Africa and suggestions for improvement. In: Proceedings, IDRC symposium, XXIII International Dairy Congress, Montreal, Canada (in press).
Perdok H B. Thamotharam M, Blom J J. van den Born H and van Veluw C. 1982. Practical experiences with urea ensiled-straw in Sri Lanka. In: Preston T R. Davis C, Dolberg F. Haque M and Saadullah M (eds), Maximum livestock production from minimum land. Proceedings of the third seminar held in Bangladesh, 13-18 February 1982. Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. pp. 123-134.
Senait Seyoum. 1988. Patterns of consumption of dairy products in West Africa. Livestock Economics Division Working Document 11. ILCA (International Livestock Centre for Africa), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 52 pp.
Synge B A. 1981. Milk production under extensive systems. In: Huhn J H (ed), Proceedings of the conference on impact of animal disease research and control on livestock production in Africa. German Foundation for International Development, Feldafing, FR Germany. pp. 18-24.
Waters-Bayer A. 1988. Dairying by settled Fulani agro-pastoralists in central Nigeria. Kieler Wissenchaftsverlag Vauk, Kiel, FR Germany. 328 pp.
