Assessment on Feed Resource , Feed Production Constraints and Opportunities in Salamago Woreda in South Omo Zone , in South Western Ethiopia

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Hidosa, Denbela Tesfaye, Yidinachachew Feleke, Ayele
Copyright Year	2018
Abstract	The study was carried out in Salamago Woreda aimed to assess feed resource, feed production constraints and opportunities. Six kebeles per Woreda were selected and one focus group discussion which comprised 12 pastoralists per kebele was organized and interviewed. For the key informants’ interview, two livestock production experts and six livestock developmental agents were interviewed. The focus group discussion and key informants interview was used to collect primary data on feed resource, feed resource availability, feed conservation practices and feed resources utilization, major feed constraints and opportunities for feed productions. The study results shown that grass from the open grazing land, indigenous browse species and crop residues were major feed resources for the livestock in to study area. The open grazing land had poorly managed and the biomass productivity generated from open grazing land has retreated. The major livestock feeding system was free grazing and pastoral communities had no trends of conserved feed and provided concentrate supplements to the livestock. The 380,540.51 tons of dry matter was produced with deficit of 58, 859.41 tons of dry matter per year. The climate change, bush encroachment, expansion of cropping land, increments in human and livestock populations, lack of inputs and training were identified as livestock feed production constraints in to study area. The migration, supplementations, purchasing available feed and storing the crop residues were used as coping strategies during feed shortage in to study area. Generally, the results from this study revealed that the number of livestock and the available feed resources do not match to support profitable from livestock production, which suggest that the primary focus needs to be improving the existing feed resources through rehabilitation of degraded grazing areas, introduction adaptable fodder production, improving feed utilization practices, introduce feed improvement technologies and promotions the feeding effects of sugar industry by-products such as molasses and sugar cane tops in the form of urea molasses block.
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Alternate Webpage(s)	https://www.idosi.org/ajn/6(3)17/1.pdf
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article