Intensification of Crop–Livestock Farming Systems in East Africa: A Comparison of Selected Sites in the Highlands of Ethiopia and Kenya

Kindu, Mengistie; Duncan, A. J.; Valbuena, Diego; Gérard, Bruno; Lule, Dagnachew; Bibiso, Mesfin; Gedion, J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-07662-1_2

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Many regions where we identify a potential to increase biomass extraction are often relatively remote with a lack of infrastructure (e.g. storage facilities, transportation), labour constraints, competition among stakeholders, a lack of market access, knowledge or finance (Lenn e & Thomas, 2006;Rufino, 2008;Jayne et al, 2014;Kindu et al, 2014;Muhereza et al, 2014) or have been identified as hotspots of biodiversity (e.g. endemism richness going along with low land-use intensity in Mesoamerica, Eastern Africa or SEA; Kehoe et al, 2015).…”

Section: Socio-economic Abiotic and Data-driven Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonality constraints to livestock grazing intensity

Fetzel¹,

Havlík

Herrero

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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Increasing food production is essential to meet the future food demand of a growing world population. In the light of pressing sustainability challenges like climate change and the importance of the global livestock system for food security as well as GHG emissions, finding ways to increasing food production sustainably and without increasing competition for food crops is essential. Yet, many unknowns relate to livestock grazing, in particular grazing intensity, an essential variable to assess the sustainability of livestock systems. Here we explore ecological limits to grazing intensity (GI; i.e., the fraction of Net Primary Production consumed by grazing animals) by analysing the role of seasonality in natural grasslands. We estimate seasonal limitations to GI by combining monthly Net Primary Production data and a map of global livestock distribution with assumptions on the length of non-favourable periods that can be bridged by livestock (e.g., by browsing dead standing biomass, storage systems or biomass conservation). This allows us to derive a seasonality-limited potential GI, which we compare with the GI prevailing in 2000. We find that GI in 2000 lies below its potential on 39% of the total global natural grasslands, which has a potential for increasing biomass extraction of up to 181 MtC/yr. In contrast, on 61% of the area GI exceeds the potential, made possible by management. Mobilizing this potential could increase milk production by 5%, meat production by 4%, or contribute to free up to 2.8 Mio km² of grassland area at the global scale if the Accepted ArticleThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.numerous socio-ecological constraints can be overcome. We discuss socio-ecological trade-offs, which may reduce the estimated potential considerably and require the estabilishment of sound monitoring systems and an improved understanding of livestock system's role in the Earth system.

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Section: Socio-economic Abiotic and Data-driven Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonality constraints to livestock grazing intensity

Fetzel¹,

Havlík

Herrero

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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“…1). These differences in nutrient allocation in MC-LS farms may relate to economic opportunities, cultural preferences and availability of capital to purchase crop and livestock inputs (Kindu et al 2014). MC-LS farms may allocate external nutrient inputs to the soil/crop or the livestock compartments, or both.…”

Section: Concept: N Allocation and Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen allocation and recycling in peri-urban mixed crop–livestock farms in Ethiopia

Tadesse

Oenema

Beek³

et al. 2018

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

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Mixed crop-livestock (MC-LS) farms are assumed to be more environmental friendly than specialized livestock systems, due to their better options for internal nutrient recycling. However, there are large differences among MC-LS farms in nutrient allocation and recycling. Here, we posit that the relative allocation of nitrogen to crop and livestock compartments, expressed as crop-livestock ratio (CLS), determines the performance of MC-LS farms. Among 300 urban and peri-urban farms studied in 2014, 42 MC-LS farms (Addis Ababa: 20; Jimma: 22) were re-interviewed in 2016, using MonQIt (monitoring tool) questionnaire. The performances of these farms were evaluated using partial nitrogen balance (PNB), N use efficiency (NUE), N recycling index and net farm income (NFI). CLS was negatively related to N input, PNB and NFI. Livestock oriented MC-LS farms had 4-5 times higher N input and 7 times higher PNB than crop oriented MC-LS farms, because they had 2-4 times higher NFI and purchased more external N input. This indicated that N allocation has significant environmental and economic implications. Sensitivity analyses suggested that NUE at farm system level can be improved by 20-25% and N recycling (NR) by 10-20% over the current condition. In conclusion, MC-LS farms are diverse, and much of the diversity can be captured by the CLS indicator. NUE and NR of peri-urban MC-LS farms in Ethiopia can be significantly improved through NUE enhancing measures: targeted exchange of crop residues and manure between crop and livestock activities within and between farms and improving animal NUE through breeding and precision feeding. Keywords Crop-livestock ratio (CLS) Á Smallholder Á NUE Á Food security Á Circular economy

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“…Small-scale crop-livestock integrated farming systems represent the integration of grain and animal production [1] which is a large fraction of the rural population in the region in general [2] and the East Wollega zone in specific which is a mixed farming system [3,4]. Crop production and livestock rearing contribute significantly to the livelihoods of the smallholder farmers [5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Except for maize majority of crops grown in the zone are local varieties and the method of production is majorly oxen plow which is hearted from the farmers' ancestors [3]. The substance farmers in the zone usually manage a complex whole farm system of at least several enterprises that are not known with market-oriented crop production and the subsistence production is dominated in the zone [4]. Local cattle are the predominant breeds reared in the area and market-oriented dairy and meat production are rarely practiced in the zone [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A farming system is a unique and reasonably stable arrangement of farming enterprises that a household manages according to well-defined practices in response to the physical, biological and socio-economic environment with household goals preferences and resources [9]. It is comprising complex production units involving a diversity of mixed crops and livestock in order to meet the multiple objectives of the household [10] which is similar to the study zone [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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