International Journal of
Livestock Production

  • Abbreviation: Int. J. Livest. Prod.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 2141-2448
  • DOI: 10.5897/IJLP
  • Start Year: 2009
  • Published Articles: 291

Article in Press

Assessment Study on Livestock Feed Resources, Feed Availability and Production Constraints in Maale Woreda in South Omo, South Western, Ethiopia.

Denbela Hidosa

  •  Received: 03 March 2018
  •  Accepted: 11 July 2018
The study was carried out in Maale Woreda aimed to assess feed resource, feed resource availability and feed production constraints. Six kebeles from Woreda were selected and focus group discussions and key informants had employed to enrich the primary data on feed resources, feed resource availability, feed conservation practices and feed resources utilization and major livestock feed production constraints. 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 been retreated from time to time. There was lack of low quality feed improvement practice and trends of growing the cultivate forage species by the Agro pastoralists in to study area. The estimated dry matter production from this study revealed that 83, 783.60 tons of dry matter was produced from different feed resources in to study area with deficit of 623, 333.40 tons of dry matter per year. The climate change, expansion of cropping land, increments in human populations, lack of inputs and training were identified as key livestock feed production constraints. Generally, the results from this study demonstrated that the total dry matter produced from different feed resources in to the study area was not enough to satisfy the dry matter requirement of livestock to support the livestock production in to the study area, which suggest that the primary focus needs to be improving the existing feed resources through rehabilitation of degraded grazing areas, introduce and evaluate cultivated forage species, improving feed utilization practices and promote the crop residue feed improvement technologies.

Keywords: Agro pastoralists, Feed resource, Feed availability and feed constraints