Sustainable Food Production: Increasing Food Security by Closely Integrating Tree Fodder to Sheep Fattening Rations in Mali

INCREASING FOOD SECURITY BY CLOSELY

INTEGRATING TREE FODDER TO SHEEP

FATTENING RATIONS IN MALI

Title: International Food Security Dialogue 2014Theme: “Enhancing Food Production, Gender Equity and Nutritional

Security in a Changing World.”

Sponsored By: Hosted By:

INTRODUCTION

With a goal aimed at “providing people in developing

countries with a more secure supply of food with a

greater nutritional value”, IDRC made a call for

proposal for a project funded by the CIFSRF.

Three partners institutions (UL, IER, IPR/IFRA) and 2

tiers organisms (CECI and ICRAF) joined their effort

to submit and conduct the project « Increasing

food security by closely integrating livestock,

trees and crops through agroforestry in Mali »

MAIN KEY ISSUES

Large number of SR in Mali (over 24 M);

Three functions of SR are known: food (meat and

milk), money (income); social and cultural (cultural

and religious ceremonies).

Main constraint: Scarcity and high price of feed

during the dry season

So, not affordable by some smallholder farmers in

particular, women who have a lower income in

general.

Use of tree fodders of lower cost and of better

quality and available during the dry season become

a good alternative.

OBJECTIVES

The main objective of the initiated project is:

« To develop and extend the sheep fattening technics

and agroforestery practices that allow increase of

food security for small holder farmers of Mali and

optimize the contribution of browse/tree fourrages

while sustaining natural ressources ».

Only the specific objective dealing with « Increasing

food security by closely integrating tree fodders

to sheep fattening rations in Mali» will be

presented.

MAIN ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED

Three activities have been conducted:

1Survey on small ruminants’ husbandry practices

and farmers’ perception on the browse/tree species

functions especially as animal feed;

2. Palatability (preference) of 5 plants species as

feed for sheep;

3. Development of fattening rations including

different levels of tree leaves;

ACTIVITY ONE

Survey on small ruminants’ husbandry practices

and farmers’ perception on the browse/tree

species functions

Objectives: Identify the forage species having the

best potential as components of sheep diets

General assembly Individual interview

ACTIVITY ONE (con’d)Bioclimatic zones of Mali

ACTIVITY ONE (con’d)Rurale Commune of Zan Coulibaly

The survey included the 5 following points:

identification of households, employment, animal

husbandry, agroforestry, and tree/browse functions

with a particular accent on animal feeding.

The methods used included general

assemblies and individual interviews to list all

the tree/browse species used as sheep feed

sources from a sample of farmers (women and

men). Then, the list of the tree species were

ranked depending on the farmers’ perception and

four villages were selected as test sites.

ACTIVITY ONE (con’d)

Material and methods

ACTIVITY ONE (con’d)Validation of the choices of tree species and of

village during a general assemblyForage species

Pterocarpus erinaceus

Ficus gnaphalocarpa

Pterocarpus lucens

Khaya segalensis

Terminalia macroptera

Villages

Wolodo

Dogoni

Dangakoro

Sokouna

Selected species: Several fodder species are

used during the dry season but according to

farmers’ perception, 5 species P. erinaceus, F.

gnaphalocarpa, P. lucens, K. senegalensis and

T. macroptera would offer the greatest potential.

Selected villages: Dangakoro, Dogoni,

Socouna and Wolodo were identified as study

sites.

ACTIVITY ONE (con’d)Conclusion

ACTIVITY TWOPreference of the 5 tree species as feed for sheep

Fresh leaves of the 5 tree species, were fed to 20

sheep in a « cafeteria » trial with the participation of the

sheep raisers (women and men).

Then, parameters like feed intake, palatability

indices, chemical composition and availability of

the tree species were used to rank the five fodders as

preferred sheep feeds.

ACTIVITY TWO (con’d)

Material and methods

• Feeds: 5 species: P. erinaceus, F. gnaphalocarpa,

P. lucens, K. senegalensis et T. macroptera that

were validated through general assemblies (M&E

and villages of act.1;

• Sites of test: 4 villages: Wolodo, Dogoni,

Dangakoro et Sokouna, that were validated through

the same assemblies in act.1;

• Animal: 20 12-18 month old entire Djallonké rams

divided into 5 rams/village (1 ram/benificiary; 3

women and 2 men);

• Pen: a pen built and provided with 5 feeders for

each ram

Djallonké rams Shelter P. erinaceus, Ngoni

F. Gnaphalocarpa Toro P. lucens, N’gobi Khaya senegalensis, Jala

T. macroptera, Wolodjè

ACTIVITY TWO (con’d)Material used during the

cafeteria trial

ACTIVITY TWO (con’d) Material and methods

• Methods: rams fed individually the same quantity

(500 g) of fresh leaves of each 5 tree species;

• DMI determined: Leaves distributed every morning

randomlly in 5 feeders weighing the the quantity

given and the orts;

• Chemical composition determined by lab (LNA, UL)

analyses

• Palatability indices of all the tree species determined

based on that of P. erinaceus (first choice from

survey);

• Data analyzed using CRD of SAS (SAS Enterprise

Guide 4.3).

Taking off the leaves Weighing feed

Weighing a ramDesign of the cafeteria test

ACTIVITY TWO (con’d)Material and methods

Some steps of the cafeteria trial

Chemical composition (%DM) of the 5 species of trees

Items K. sen P. lucens P. erin. F. gnap T. macro

DM 37,64ab 41,76a 34,82bc 29,58c 33,63bc

Ash 9,3b 4,95bc 6,86bc 14,55a 4,09c

CF 36,92a 33,02ab 38,57a 29,1bc 26,97c

Fat 2,24a 2,44a 2,57a 2,01a 2,44a

kcal/kg

DM

4308,68a

b 4544,32a 4160,3b

3489,23

c 4043,29b

OM 90,7b 95,05ab 93,14ab 85,45c 95,91a

ACTIVITY TWO (con’d)

RESULTS ET DISCUSSION

ACTIVITY TWO (con’d)Results and discussion

Items P. erin. F. gnap P. lucens K. sene. T. macro Total

Wolodo 159,67a* 197,79a 131,15a 116,52a 134,35a 739,48a

Dogoni 152,31a 193,47a 112,37a 103,42a 128,59a 690,16ab

Sokouna 139,77a 188,94a 103,64a 93,77a 84,84ab 610,96ab

Danga. 129,62a 177,32a 99,64a 60,75a 65,91b 533,24b

Average 145,34b 189,38a 111,70c 93,62c 103,42c 643,46

Intake (g DM/animal/day) of the 5 tree species)

DMI highest for Ficus gnaphalocarpa, Pterocarpus erinaceus and

Pterocarpus lucens

Items Palatability indices

Periods P. erin. F. gnap. P. lucens K. sene. T. macrop.

P1 (1-3 d) 1a 1,18a 1,01a 0,55a 0,67a

P2 (4-6 d) 1a 1,13a 0,97a 0,75a 0,72a

P3 (7-9 d) 1a 1,09a 0,93a 0,71a 0,57a

P4 (1-9 d) 1a 1,15a 0,99a 0,65a 0,69a

Average 1b 1,14a 0,97b 0,66c 0,66c* a,b,c : Numbers of the same column, followed by the same Les

chiffres de la même colonne suivis de la même lettre ne sont pas

différents au seuil de 5% pour les 4 périodes. Les chiffres de la

dernière ligne (moyenne) suivis de lettres différentes sont différents

au seuil de 5%.

Palatability indices of the species based on P. erinaceus

ACTIVITY TWO (con’d)

RESULTS ET DISCUSSION

Based on the results of this palatability trial (intake

and palatability indices) the preferred leaves are of F.

gnaphalocarpa, P. erinaceus and P. lucens.

Therefore, the leaves of those 3 species with higher

intake and palatability indices will be used as

constituents of the sheep fattening rations or as

supplemental sheep feeds during the dry season.

ACTIVITY TWO (con’d)Conclusion

ACTIVITY THREE

Determination of the appropriate sheep

fattening rations (on station)

Each group of 7 sheep was fed one of the 7 rations

obtained from substuting partially (50%) or totally

(100%) of the peanut haulm from a standard ration

including 50 cottonseed meal and 50% peanut

haulm.

ACTIVITY THREE (con’d)Material and methods

• Animals: 49 djallonké rams of 12-18 month old

were vaccinated, wormed and divided into 7 groups

of similar weight

• Rations: 7 rations were formulated as follow:

• R1 : control ; 50% of cottonseed meal (CSM) and

50% of peanut haulm (PH) ;

• R2 : 50% CSM + 25% PH + 25% P. lucens;

• R3 : 50% CSM + 50% P. lucens ;

• R4 : 50% CSM + 25% PH + 25% F. gnaphalocarpa ;

• R5: 50% CSM + 50% F. gnaphalocarpa ;

• R6 : 50% CSM + 25% PH + 25% P. erinaceus ;

• R7 : 50% CSM + 50% P. erinaceus.

ACTIVITY THREE (con’d)Material and methods

Methods

• Rations distributed in 3 meals; branches of the

selected trees were collected a day before and

leaves were stripped off the day of distribution.

• Intake: Rams were fed individually of one of the 7

rations and feed intake was determined by measuring

the quantity offered and the orts on daily basis

• Watered: twice per day.

• Free access to mineral salts.

• Weight gain: Animals weighed at the begining, every

other week and at the end of the trial that lasts 3

months.

ACTIVITY THREE (con’d)Material and methods

• Lab analyses: Feed samples collected on daily

basis were analysed for chemical constituents

• Economic analyses: Estimates of costs, weight

gains and ratio of weight gain/variable costs were

used to calculate the economic efficiency of the

rations.

• Statiscal analyses: Data from feed intake, animal

performances and production costs were analyzed

using SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3.

Site of experiment Fourrage: P. lucens

CSM weighing Leaves processing Forage weighing

Rams on trial

Djallonké ramRam weighing equipt

Material and

methods used in

Activity 3

Items P. lucens F. gnap P. erin. CSM P. haulm

DM 41,76 29,58 34,82 97,6 92,5

CP 15,98 13,94 17,17 31,57 17,09

Fat 2,36 1,77 2,96 10,68 2,18

Ash 4,59 16,53 5,69 5,53 7,95

OM 95,41 83,47 94,31 94,47 92,05

Fiber 30,25 23,63 39,47 19,57 31,95

Ene 4548 3337 4520 4770 3987

Ca 0,71 1,81 0,94 0,08 0,82

P - - - 0,70 -

Na 0,75 1,15 0,83 0,82 0,69

ACTIVITY THREE (Con’d)Chemical composition of feeds used in the rations

Items Rations (treatments)

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7

Intake

CSM 442,7b 465,1ab 456,0ab 477,9a 484,6a 468,4ab 479,2a

Peat h. 173,7 184,9 0 214,7 0 199,9 0

P. erin. 0 0 0 0 0 235,59 487,9

F.

gnap.

0 0 0 232,3 538,4 0 0

P.

lucens

0 226,5 410,8 0 0 0 0

Total 616,4e 876,5cd 866,7d 924,9bc 1023,0a 903,9cd 967,2b

ADG, g 122,3ab 122,8ab 142,9a 117,1ab 141,8a 130,2ab 104,2b

Performance of the rams on feedlot

ACTIVITY THREE (con’d)Results

Items Rations (treatments)

R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7

Nomber of rams/group 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

Average weight purchase 21,1 21,6 21,5 22,0 21,8 22,6 23,6

Avrge price (FCFA)

purchase 40 400 40 400 40 400 40 400 40 400 40 400 40 400

Avrge wt (kg) sale 29,8 29,4 30,1 30,4 31,7 30,4 30,2

Avge wt meat/ram 14,8 14,3 15,6 15,6 15,3 14,2 13,9

Avge price /kg meat 2500,0 2500,0 2500,0 2500,0 2500,0 2500,0 2500,0

Value (meat FCFA) 37075,0 35750,0

38925,

0

39075,

0

38250,

0

35425,

0

34750,

0

Feed cost 7811,8 9353,5 8442,2

13629,

3 9744,5 7794,3 7507,8

Vet med cost (FCFA) 7770,0 10486,0 5180,0 5830,0 5580,0 8268,0 4450,0

Total variable cost

(FCFA) 15581,8 19839,5

13622,

2

19459,

3

15324,

5

16062,

3

11957,

8

Total var. cost

ACTIVITY THREE (con’d)Economic analyses

The rations containing 50% of either 3 species of

tree fodders performed as well as the control ration

that contains 50% of peanut haulm both on weight

gains and economic performances.

ACTIVITY THREE (con’d)Conclusion

Leaves from 15 local species of trees are known as

feed, from which, 5 classified as having great potential

as sheep feeds from the producers’ perception.

Three out of the 5 species F. gnaphalocarpa, P.

erinaceus and P. lucens were sorted out by the sheep as

the preferred ones.

Using the leaves of the 3 tree species in sheep

fattening rations is as beneficial as using peanut haulm.

The tree leaves are more available (TO year) and

cheaper (14 times) than peanut haulm.

Women earn more income from the sale of their sheep

and increase the food security of their families.

GENERAL CONCLUSION

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