Livestock production systems in relation with feed availabiligy in the highlands and central rift valley of Ethiopia.

A study was conducted to assess livestock production in relation with feed availability and quality in the Highlands and Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia. Peri-urban dairy production system from Highland and mixed crop-livestock production system from Central Rift Valley were considered for the study. The Highland peri-urban study sites were Debre Birhan, Jimma and Sebeta, while Ziway was considered from Central Rift Valley. Purposive sampling was employed to select target farms. Structured questionnaire, focused group discussions, secondary data sources and field observations were employed to generate data. A total of 60 farmers from Highland system (Debre Birhan=20, Jimma=20 and Sebeta=20) were selected for the study. The farms were further stratified into small and medium herd size. Similarly, a total of 60 livestock owners were selected from Ziway area. Samples of major feed resources were collected from both systems and their chemical composition was determined. The result of the study indicated that both natural pastures and crop residues were the main basal diets in Central Rift Valley system, while grass hay was the main basal diet in the Highland system. About 58 and 90% of the respondents face feed shortage during dry season in the Highlands and Central Rift Valley production system, respectively. Fifty percent of the respondents in Ziway area indicated feed shortage due to encroachment of crop farming into grazing lands. Laboratory analysis of major feed resources indicated that hay had CP content of 6.1%, grazing pasture 7.2% and crop residues varied from 3.1 to 6.7%. In addition, crop residues had lower digestibility (47%) and its energy value ranged from 6.5-7.9 MJ/kg DM. Wheat bran and molasses had ME content of 13.2 and 12.5 MJ/kg DM, respectively. Brewery wet grains had slightly lower CP (27%) than cotton seed cake (42%) and noug seedcake (35%). Annual feed balance estimation revealed that the total estimated available feed supply in the Highland and in the CRV production systems met 83% and 66% of the maintenance DM requirement of livestock, respectively, per farm per year. The total estimated CP and ME were in accordance with the livestock requirement in the Highland production system, while both CP and ME showed deficit in the Central Rift Valley production system. Therefore, from the current study it was concluded that the quality of available basal roughage feeds is generally low and strategic supplementation of protein and energy rich feeds should be required. Alternative means of dry season feed production and supply should be in place with the involvement of all stakeholders and development actors.