A new approach to evaluating rangeland productivity in Sahelian countries

Abstract

This paper discusses the need for a pasture evaluation approach for west Africa, Development of pasture manual, estimation of primary production and secondary production, and estimation of carrying capacity. Procedure to estimate biomass of herb layer and browse, nitrogen in the above ground biomass and nitrogen content are presented. Digestibility in relation to nitrogen content for herb layer species and for leaves of woody species fraction of the maximum consumable biomass in relation to the nitrogen content in the selected forage for a range of average nitrogen contents in the biomass on offer and estimated carrying capacity of three regions in southern Mali are shown.