A study was conducted in 2013 to assess opportunities and challenges of integrating dairy cattle into organic pineapple production in Uganda. Thirty organic pineapple farmers were interviewed using a semistructured questionnaire. The main dairy cattle management systems were tethering (73%) and zero grazing (27%). Average landholding was 1.74 ± 1.06 and 3.75 ± 2.70 ha for zero grazing and tethering systems, respectively. All farms were diversified with various livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens and crops including pineapples, maize, coffee, bananas, beans, sweet potatoes, and cassava. The level of integration of dairy cattle into pineapple production depended on the distance of crop fields from the livestock enterprises. More farms (83%) with pineapple fields closer (< 0.5 km) to the homesteads were able to use cattle manure as fertilizer compared to homesteads (50%) with more distant fields (> 0.5 km). The distance to the homestead did not influence 30% of the farmers who used crop residues for feeding dairy cattle. Farmers perceived cattle diseases and feed scarcity to be the major challenges in dairy farming. The sources of risk on the farms were perceived to be erratic rainfall, limited knowledge, and market for organic products. Majority of farmers (77%) expressed willingness to convert to organic dairy production. Availability of markets for organic dairy products (36%) and reduction of external input use (26%) were the main reasons for farmers' willingness to convert. Integrating dairy cattle with pineapple production is an opportunity for closed nutrient cycles and income diversification. However, knowledge, access to inputs, and organized markets are needed as incentive for conversion to organic dairy production.

A longitudinal study to assess animal management practices and milk production was conducted for a period of 12 months on 30 smallholder farms keeping dairy cattle and certified organic pineapple production in Luwero and Kayunga districts, based on questionnaire and on-farm collected data. Farm sizes were 9.3 ± 6.7 acres in tethering system and 4.3 ± 2.6 acres in zero-grazing. Fifty-four percent of the zero-grazing herds had animal housing facilities. All farmers in tethering system kept cows on earthen floors and calves without bedding. Hygiene level in existing farms was low. Majority of calves were fed once a day by restricted suckling (77 %). Seventy-four percent of tethered cows were only fed on natural grass, while cows under zero-grazing system had a more diversified diet but with 82 % feeding mainly Napier grass. Most farms (87 %) used bulls for breeding. Milk production was higher (P < 0.05) in zero-grazing (6.5 L/cow/day) than tethering system, and higher (P < 0.05) for HolsteinFriesian crossbred cows (5.2 L/cow/day) than local breed cows (2.6 L/cow/day). Less than 1 L of milk per farm per day on average was sold. Disease treatments were exclusively for helminths, East Coast fever, and trypanasomiasis. Spraying of ticks and deworming were important control measures of vector-borne diseases. There is potential to develop alternative feed resources for dairy cattle and biorational pesticides for control and treatment of vector-borne diseases.

Most orphan crops have not been fully sequenced, hence we rely on genome sequences of related species to align markers to different chromosomes. This hinders their utilisation in plant population improvement programs. Utilising the advances in the science of sequencing technologies, the population structure, relatedness, and genetic diversity among accessions can be assessed quickly for better exploitation in forage breeding programs. Using DArTseq technology, we studied the genetic and structural variation in 65 Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet conserved gene-bank accessions using 9320 DArTseq-based SNPs and 15,719 SilicoDart markers. These markers had a low discriminating ability with mean polymorphic information content (P.I.C.) of 0.14 with DArTseq-based SNPs and 0.13 with SilicoDart markers. However, the markers had a high mean call rate of 73% with DArTseq-based SNPs and 97% with SilicoDart markers. Analysis of molecular variance revealed a high within populations variance (99.4%), indicating a high gene exchange or low genetic differentiation (PhiPT = 0.0057) among the populations. Structure analysis showed three allelic pools in variable clusters of ΔK = 3 and 6. Phylogenetic tree of lablab accessions showed three main groups with variable membership coefficients. Most pairs of accessions (40.3%) had genetic distances between 0.10 and 0.15 for SilicoDart markers, while for DArTseq-based SNPs, (46.5%) had genetic distances between 0.20 and 0.25. Phylogenetic clustering and minimum spanning analysis divided the 65 accessions into three groups, irrespective of their origin. For the first time, this study produced high-density markers with good genom coverage. The utilisation of these accessions in a forage program will base on the information from molecular-based grouping. The outcomes uncovered the presence of noteworthy measure of variety in Uganda, CIAT and ILRI accessions, thus demonstrating an opportunity for further marker-trait-association studies.

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