ILRI 2004 A R Cover reflow 12/23/05 9:07 AM Page 1 Achieving More with Less Livestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification International Livestock Research Institute Annual Report 2004 Ten-Year Anniversary Report Dedicated to the People ILRI Serves ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:48 AM Page 1 Achieving More with Le s s L i vestock as a To o l for Agricultural Intensification International Livestock Re s e a rch Institute Annual Re p o rt 2004 Te n -Year Annive rsary Re p o rt Dedicated to the People ILRI Serve s 1 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:48 AM Page 2 I L R I P. O. Box 30709, Nairobi 00100, Ke nya P. O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia C r e d i t s Text, design concept, image selection Susan MacMillan Design, layout, photo editing, production Eric Ouma, Grace Ndungu P h o t o g ra p h e r Stevie Mann Contributors See inside front and back cove r s Special thanks to I N C H I NA: Zou Chengyi (CASREN and SASA, Sich u a n ) , Xianglin Li (ILRI-Beijing) I N I N D I A: Peter Bezkoroway j ny, Michael Blümmel (ILRI at ICRISAT, H y d e rabad), VS Gallowa l l y, Prasada Rao, Vi dyasagar (ICRISAT H y d e ra b a d ) I N N I G E R I A: Daniel Chinddo, Ishaya Jo ckson, Abubakar Musa, S u n d ay Odeth (ILRI-Kano); Esther Odoya, BB Singh (IITA - K a n o ) I N I L R I: Chris Delgado, John McDermott, Bruce Scott, Carlos Seré, Shirley Ta rawa l i P r i n t i n g Kul Graphics Ltd, Nairobi C i t a t i o n ILRI (International Live s t o ck Research Institute). 2005. ILRI annual report 2004: A chieving more with less: Live s t o ck as a tool for agricultural intensification. ILRI, Nairobi, Ke nya . I S B N 9 2 - 9 1 4 6 - 1 7 9 - 2 C a p t i o n s Front cove r : A Chinese farmer in Sichuan Prov i n c e c radles one of her live s t o ck assets. B a ck cove r : A cow from India, ch i cken from China, goat from Nigeria. © International Live s t o ck Research Institute (Nairobi, Ke nya) 2005. ILRI encourages use of information and materials presented herein, with appropriate credit give n . 2 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:48 AM Page 3 L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 3 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:48 AM Page 4 6 Fo r e wo r d by board chair and director genera l 8 Who we are: International Live s t o ck Research Institute 1 2 Highlights 2004 1 6 I n t r o d u c t i o n : L ive s t o ck are agents of change and sustainability for the poor 2 4 S i chuan, China: Pig-feed technologies lift farmers out of pove r t y 3 0 – 3 1 Zitong County 3 2 – 3 3 Farm of Liang Bao 3 4 Farm of Liang Bao: The parents 3 5 Farm of Liang Bao: The neighbour 3 6 Chinese wo m e n 3 7 Chinese agriculture 3 8 – 3 9 Farm of Liang Yinsong and Liang Yi a n g c u i 4 0 – 4 1 Farm of An Shouhual and Wei Ju f a n g 4 2 CASREN in Sich u a n 43 ILRI in China 4 4 A n d h ra Pradesh, India: Fodder innovations enhance l ivelihoods of the rural and urban poor 5 4 – 5 5 Learning platforms 5 6 H y d e ra b a d 5 7 A n d h ra Pra d e s h 5 8 Meat for the urban poor 5 9 Jobs for the urban poor 6 0 – 6 1 Urban fodder markets 6 2 Urban dairying: Pa t a n ch e r u 6 3 Urban dairying: ‘S Mahesh Dairy’ 6 4 Women labourers 6 5 Women choose food-feed crops 6 6 – 6 7 Urban wa s t e water fodder production 6 8 Value of girls 6 9 Value of crop residues 7 0 – 7 1 Kondakal Village dairy ‘dukan’ 7 2 – 7 3 Water harvesting for fodder 4 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:48 AM Page 5 7 4 Kano, Nigeria: I m p r oved food-feed crops nourish people and their animals 8 0 – 8 1 N i g e r i a ’s dry sava n n a s 8 2 – 8 3 Holistic research approach 8 4 – 8 5 The ILRI-IITA - I C R I S AT connection 8 6 B i chi Village fodder crops 8 7 B i chi Village cow p e a 8 8 L ive s t o ck project impacts 8 9 B i chi village live s t o ck 9 0 C r o p - l ive s t o ck integra t i o n 9 1 Penning live s t o ck for manure 9 2 Breakfast in Bichi Vi l l a g e 9 3 K a n o ’s Dawanau Grain Market 9 4 Village homestead of Garba Sale 9 5 L ive s t o ck on the streets of Bich i 9 6 – 9 7 B i chi wo m e n ’s groups 9 8 B i chi fodder market 9 9 Transporting fodder and manure 1 0 0 Ko ran sch o o l 1 0 1 Village homestead of Mai A n g wa Umaru 1 0 3 A p p e n d i c e s 1 0 4 Financial investors 2004 1 0 6 Financial highlights 2004 1 0 8 Selected publications 2004 1 1 0 Degrees awarded 2004 1 1 2 Selected staff 2004 1 1 7 Board of trustees 2004 1 1 8 Institutional contacts 1 2 1 About ILRI and the CGIAR 1 2 3 Our va l u e s 1 2 5 A c r o nyms and abbreviations 1 2 6 C a p t i o n s L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 5 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:48 AM Page 6 6 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:48 AM Page 7 Fo re wo rd The livestock sector in developing countries is in big transition, offering exciting prospects for the poor. With demand for livestock products in the developing world skyrocketing, the urgent question is how to involve small- scale livestock producers and market agents in meeting that growing demand. If we don’t intervene now, the opportunity to exploit this on-going livestock revolution to help hundreds of millions of smallholders pull themselves out of poverty will be lost. This report illustrates the critical role science plays in determining how, where and with whom to intervene and with what interventions. The report looks at the evolution of livestock production systems in three major and contrasting agricultural systems of the developing world—rural pig farming in temperate China, urban cattle and buffalo production in tropical India, and village cattle keeping in savanna regions of Nigeria. Fodder innovations are helping poor people in all three countries adapt to changing external circumstances. A new method of making sweet potato silage is transforming smallholder pig production in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province. The soaring prices of improved crop residues to feed cattle and buffalo are nearing those of grain in central India’s megalopolis of Hyderabad-Secunderabad. And new varieties of cowpea are allowing vil- lagers in Kano State, northern Nigeria, to keep their animals fed throughout the long dry season. Fighting poverty isn’t just about producing more food. It’s about creating enabling environments for the poor to generate their own development. This report highlights communities adopting new ways of doing livestock business that are creating pathways out of poverty. We are celebrating our tenth anniversary by portraying in this report the people we serve. We hope you enjoy our special emphasis on, and images of, the primary stakeholders in ILRI research. Our agenda is to reduce world poverty through livestock research. We do this with others. We do this with part- ners and donors who made the work reported here possible. We do this with livestock-keeping households and communities who made this work successful. We thank and acknowledge them all. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 7 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:49 AM Page 8 8 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:49 AM Page 9 Who We Are: International Livestock Re s e a rch Institute The International Live s t o ck Research Institute (ILRI) works at the crossroads of live s t o ck and pove r t y, bringing high-quality science and capacity-building to bear on poverty reduction and sustainable development. ILRI works in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, with offices in East and West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, China and Central America, and projects in Southern Africa, North Africa and the Near East. ILRI is a non-profit-making and non-governmental organization with headquarters in Nairobi, Ke nya, and a second principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We employ over 700 staff from about 40 countries. About 80 staff are recruited through international competitions and represent some 30 disciplines. Around 600 staff are nationally recruited, largely from Ke nya and Ethiopia. PA RT N E R S H I P S All ILRI work is conducted in extensive and strategic partnerships that facilitate and add value to the contribution of many other players in live s t o ck for development work. ILRI is adopting an innovation systems approach to enhance the effectiveness of its research. A fundamental change in culture and process is envisaged to support i n n ovations at all levels, from individual live s t o ck keepers to national and international decision makers. W H Y L I V E S TO C K R E S E A R C H F O R T H E P O O R? Farm animals are an ancient, vital and renewable natural resource. Throughout the developing world, they are means for hundreds of millions of people to escape absolute pove r t y. Live s t o ck in developing countries contribute up to 80 percent of agricultural GDP; some 600 million rural poor people rely to a significant extent on live s t o ck for their live l i h o o d s . G l o b a l l y, live s t o ck are becoming agriculture’s most economically important sub-sector, with demand in d e veloping countries for animal foods projected to double over the next 20 years. Live s t o ck not only prov i d e poor people with food, income, traction and fertilizer but also act as catalysts that transform subsistence farming into income-generating enterprises, allowing poor households to join the market economy. The ongoing ‘ l ive s t o ck revolution’ offers many of the wo r l d ’s poor a pathway out of pove r t y. L ive s t o ck sustain all forms of agricultural intensification—from the agropastoral rangelands of West Africa to mixed smallholdings in the highlands of Ke nya to highly intensive rice production in A s i a . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 9 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:49 AM Page 10 W H O W E A R E R e s e a rch is helping farmers exploit the potential of their animals to turn the nutrient cycling on their farms faster and more efficiently. Holding back live s t o ck development in poor countries are inappropriate policies, scarce live s t o ck feeds, d e vastating diseases, degraded lands and water resources, and poor access to markets. Research by ILRI and its partners is helping to alleviate these problems by developing new knowledge as well as technological and p o l i cy options. P OV E RT Y F O C U S ILRI places poverty at the centre of an output-oriented agenda. ILRI’s strategy focuses on three live s t o ck - mediated pathways out of poverty: (1) securing the assets of the poor, (2) improving the productivity of their l ive s t o ck systems and (3) improving their market opportunities in the face of rapidly changing market ch a n n e l s and demands. ILRI’s research portfolio comprises five issue-oriented themes: Targeting research and deve l o p m e n t opportunities; Enabling innovation; Improving market opportunities; Using biotechnology to secure live s t o ck assets; and People, live s t o ck and the environment. (See figure opposite.) ILRI also manages the Systemwide L ive s t o ck Programme of the Consultative Group on International A g r i c u l t u ral Research (CGIAR). G OV E R NA N C E ILRI is guided by a board of trustees comprising 12 leading professionals in relevant research, development and management issues. The institute belongs to the CGIAR. This association of more than 60 governments and public- and private-sector institutions supports a network of 15 Future Harvest agricultural research centres working to reduce pove r t y, hunger and environmental degradation in developing countries. The co-sponsors of the CGIAR are the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the Food and A g r i c u l t u r e Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for A g r i c u l t u ral Development. F U N D I N G ILRI is funded by more than 60 private, public and government organizations of the North and South. Th e i n s t i t u t e ’s expenditure for 2004 was US$34.9 million. Some donors support ILRI with core and program funds whereas others finance individual research projects. In-kind support from national partners such as Ke nya and Ethiopia, as well as that from international collaborators, is substantial and vital. This mix of generic, specific and in-kind resources is essential for the partnership research we conduct. 1 0 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:49 AM Page 11 W H O W E A R E Theme 1 Theme 2 Theme 3 Targeting opportunities Enabling innovation Market opportunities Anticipating how live s t o ck systems will Understanding mechanisms that make Bringing together their policy and e vo l ve and where, when and how r e s e a rch more effective and efficient, t e chnical capacities from macro- to l ive s t o ck-related policy and k n owledge more contagious, processes m i c r o - l e vels, ILRI and IFPRI have t e chnological interventions can best more inclusive and outcomes more in d e veloped a joint programme to alleviate pove r t y, sustain rura l f avour of live s t o ck-dependent poor i m p r ove the market success of l ivelihoods and protect the p e o p l e . poor live s t o ck keepers. e nv i r o n m e n t . Three of ILRI’s five cross-cutting themes address the biggest constraints to live s t o ck production in poor countries–poor access to markets, under- used biotech n o l o g y, underdeveloped indigenous Theme 4 Theme 5 l ive s t o ck and forage, and inappropriate Biotechnology management of natural resources. Two themes People, livestock and the D e veloping and applying tech n o l o g i e s are ove r- a rching. One (top) pinpoints where and environment that allow poor live s t o ck keepers to what live s t o ck research has the greatest impacts Enhancing the role live s t o ck play in the secure their live s t o ck assets through the on the poor. The other (bottom) determines sustainable livelihoods of poor d e velopment and application of participatory means for creating research households, in particular their natura l products and getting them into the hands of b i o t e ch n o l o g y. r e s o u rce and human health assets. those that need them most. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 1 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:49 AM Page 12 H I G H L I G H T S 2 0 0 4 MDGs and The Year of A f r i c a Africa, agriculture, and agricultural research continued to occupy the world agenda, as evidenced by declarations at the G8 Summit in the USA in July and To ny Blair’s launch of a Commission for Africa in Fe b r u a r y. The United Nations eight Millennium Development Goals were seen as key for international coopera t i o n in development. Halving world poverty by 2015 is the key goal to wh i ch ILRI is contributing. S u b - S a h a ran A f r i c a N E PAD & BecA Challenge Progra m ILRI helped implement the design phase of The CGIAR approved implementation of the Canada-funded and ILRI-hosted the Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge ‘Biosciences eastern and central A f r i c a ’ P r o g ram at its Annual General Meeting in (BecA), wh i ch is sponsored by the New Mexico City in Nove m b e r. The Forum for Partnership for A f r i c a ’s Deve l o p m e n t A g r i c u l t u ral Research in Africa conve n e s ( N E PAD). This joint venture builds on ILRI’s this CGIAR challenge program. ILRI strong historical biosciences research wh i l e p r ovided FARA with analytical serving the regional scientific community information for choosing the progra m ’s and its agenda. Biotechnology was seen as pilot sites. an essential tool for alleviating poverty and nuanced assessments of its potential and risks gained acceptance. I P M S On behalf of the Ethiopian government, ILRI is coordinating a Canada-funded project, ‘ I m p r oving Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian Farmers’. IPMS is conducted in c o l l a b o ration with other CGIAR centres and national, regional and local Ethiopian partners. Design of IPMS reached an advanced stage, with a detailed plan submitted to the Canadian International Development A g e n cy. 1 2 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:49 AM Page 13 H I G H L I G H T S 2 0 0 4 ILRI Outstanding ILRI Outstanding Scientist of the Ye a r Communications of the Ye a r ILRI senior scientist Brian Pe r r y, a A Smallholder Dairy Project conducted jointly veterinary epidemiologist from the UK for a decade by ILRI, the Ke nya A g r i c u l t u ra l who has spent his professional life in R e s e a rch Institute and the Ke nya Ministry of the developing world, won the CGIAR L ive s t o ck and Fisheries Development, won the Science Award for Outstanding Scientist CGIAR Science Award for Outstanding of the Ye a r. C o m m u n i c a t i o n s . ILRI Te n - Year A n n ive r s a r y ILRI celebrated its ten-year anniversary by recognizing its many partners in live s t o ck r e s e a rch for development, from scientists to d e velopment agents to farmers, without wh i ch ILRI would not be able to meet its global p overty reduction goals. ILRI in A s i a Alexander von Humboldt ILRI continued to expand its work in Foundation Research Fe l l ow s h i p South Asia. ILRI’s regional representative Among many staff who won fellow s h i p s for Asia, located in New Delhi, this year was Joseph Ogutu, a Ke nyan post- consulted with partners in the region to d o c t o ral fellow and ecosystem modeller, d e velop joint projects with them. In who won an Alexander von Humboldt Southeast Asia, ILRI explored ways to Fe l l owship to undertake long-term continue work of the Crop-Animal r e s e a rch in Germany. Systems Research Network, wh i ch wa s funded by the Asian Development Bank and ended this year after 5 successful years of opera t i o n . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 3 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:49 AM Page 14 H I G H L I G H T S 2 0 0 4 G A LV J L A F G R ILRI provided institutional support for a ve n t u r e In May a Joint Laboratory for funded by the UK Department for International Animal and Fo rage Genetic D e velopment called the ‘Global Alliance for R e s o u rces was launched in Beijing L ive s t o ck Vaccines’. This platform will prov i d e by ILRI and the Chinese A c a d e my r e s o u rces to public and private partners of A g r i c u l t u ral Sciences. t a ckling tropical live s t o ck diseases of the poor. A Multidisciplinary Research Hub in and for the Horn of A f r i c a S e ve ral centres joined ILRI on its campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This campus is becoming a research hub for natural resources manage- ment and capacity building in the Horn of Africa. Other centres joining ILRI include the International Food Po l i cy Research Institute and its ‘International Service for National A g r i c u l t u r- al Research’, World Agroforestry Centre, Inter- national Water Management Institute, Center for International Forestry Research, and Internation- al Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology. A AT F S A K S S ILRI welcomed the African Agriculture and ILRI became the hub for Eastern Te chnology Foundation on its Nairobi campus. and Central Africa of a new The ILRI-hosted A ATF was launched this ye a r i n i t i a t ive called Strategic A n a l y s i s by Ke nya ’s Minister of A g r i c u l t u r e . and Knowledge Support System, funded by the United States A g e n cy for International Development and coordinated by ILRI’s sister Future H a r vest Centre based in Washington D.C., the International Food Po l i cy Research Institute. 1 4 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:50 AM Page 15 H I G H L I G H T S 2 0 0 4 Poverty Mapping and Pa t h way s P r o - Poor Dairy Po l i c i e s Analytical models developed by ILRI ILRI-partner longstanding research into and partners to map global pove r t y smallholder dairy policies successfully and live s t o ck provided better a dvocated pro-poor dairy development in Ke nya understanding of how live s t o ck can be and Tanzania and is now influencing policy a tool for poverty alleviation. Th e change in other countries where smallholder models were taken up by Uganda this dairy could be big business. year (as Ke nya did last year) to map national poverty levels. ILRI and partners also compared the role of l ive s t o ck in pathways into and out of p overty in India, Ke nya and Pe r u . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 5 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:50 AM Page 16 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:50 AM Page 17 L i vestock are agents of c h a n ge and sustainability for the poor The landscape of poverty in the developing world is changing fast, transforming lives, livelihoods and lands. Th e f o l l owing pages illustrate a few of the ways in wh i ch live s t o ck act as agents of change as well as sustainability in the fast-evolving farming and marketing systems of the poor. Among the major drivers of change are rising levels of live s t o ck demand and production in deve l o p i n g countries. Consumption of meat is expected to grow 3.5 percent and milk 3.8 percent annually at least through the year 2020. By that ye a r, the live s t o ck sector will produce about 30 percent of the value of global agricultura l output, making it one of the most financially important agricultural sub-sectors. Developing countries will produce 60 percent of the wo r l d ’s meat and 52 percent of the wo r l d ’s milk. R e s e a rch is generating pro-poor options allowing smallholders to take advantage of the new opportunities change is bringing. Among the latter are new pathways out of poverty generated by the live s t o ck revo l u t i o n . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 7 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:50 AM Page 18 I N T R O D U C T I O N C H I NA, I N D I A A N D N I G E R I A We present in the following chapters three case studies of how live s t o ck systems are helping poor people meet the challenges of agricultural intensification in developing countries. The research in China, India and Nigeria outlined here is providing ILRI and its partners and donor agencies with lessons for producing global public goods. L ive s t o ck play a central role in smallholder livelihoods in all three countries. Live s t o ck-keeping offers the poor means of resilience in this time of change. Live s t o ck are a self-perpetuating asset and offer a way to manage the risks and uncertainties inherent in small-scale rain-fed crop agriculture. Live s t o ck are moveable and fungible, and can be sold in times of stress. Far from being insular or resistant to change, many small-scale live s t o ck owners in these developing countries are d e m o n s t rating a remarkable capacity for change. The following pages illustrate ways in wh i ch they are adapting to the new realities of the information age; the modernization and feminization of agriculture; the globalization of markets and regulations; the increasing importance of off-farm labour in rural areas; urbanization; and expanded opportunities for child education; and, on the negative side, widening socio-economic inequities; diminishing land, water and other natural resources; disease scourges and the AIDS pandemic; and a warmer and/or increasingly erratic climate. The role for live s t o ck research for development is to help smooth transitions in fast-evolving live s t o ck - b a s e d l ivelihoods. Live s t o ck research can help mitigate the negative impacts and enhance the benefits of increased l ive s t o ck demand and production. Knowledge itself is a key input to the evolution of farming systems. As the pace of change continues to speed up, the amount and quality of relevant knowledge needed to deal with change also increases. New knowledge allows farmers to tweak their farming systems in response to ch a n g i n g c i rc u m s t a n c e s . T H E C H A L L E N G E S Mitigating the negative impacts of increased live s t o ck production wo n ’t be easy. One of the problems is how to feed growing numbers of live s t o ck for growing numbers of people. Another is concern about the public health challenges posed by rising live s t o ck production in poor countries, where safety regulations are hard to enforc e . A third is the pressure the increasing live s t o ck production places on natural resources. A fourth problem is that small-scale live s t o ck producers may be excluded from participating in the growing live s t o ck markets by c o m m e rcial live s t o ck opera t i o n s . 1 8 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:50 AM Page 19 I N T R O D U C T I O N L I V E S TO C K I N N OVAT I O N S The daily business of tending and feeding farm animals—poultry and pigs, sheep and goats, cattle and buffalo— consumes the daily labour of men, women and children in every region of the developing world in rural and urban environments alike. The poor people in the major farming systems of China, India and Nigeria highlighted in the following ch a p t e r s p ractice both crop and live s t o ck production. These mixed crop-and-live s t o ck farmers are intensifying their production methods. Pa s t o ral nomads are taking up semi-permanent residence on rented land they are cropping for the first time while traditional crop farmers are taking up cattle-keeping. Farmers are continuously cropping land they formerly left fallow for periods of months to seve ral years. Th e y ’re practicing dairying in formerly rura l but now deeply urban areas of major cities. Fodder and other innovations are enhancing the livelihoods of poor landless as well as rural and urban and peri- urban populations. These people are participating in thriving fodder markets. Th e y ’re adopting genetically i m p r oved forages and live s t o ck. Th e y ’re making better use of crop residues to feed their improved farm animals. Th e y ’re modifying systems for grazing their ruminant animals on the stubble of croplands after harve s t i n g . Th e y ’re using new methods for collecting, preserving and storing the residues and wastes of grain and other crops for dry-season feeding. Th e y ’re managing or selling live s t o ck manure so that nutrients return to the land and contribute to crop production. Th e y ’re tethering ruminant stock overnight on poor soils to ‘micro-manure’ the land for subsequent cropping. Th e y ’re running dairy enterprises smack in the middle of major cities or on their outskirts. Th e y ’re grow i n g fodder grasses and legumes along the banks of city rivers using urban wa s t e waters. Th e y ’re planting new varieties of cowpea and other crops that feed people and soils as well as farm animals. Th e y ’re replacing s c avenging backyard ch i ckens and pigs with higher-yielding swine and poultry and setting up housing and nutrition systems to feed them better. Th e y ’re adopting techniques for ensiling sweet potato tubers and vines for longer lasting pig feed. Th e y ’re practicing new forms of communal cattle-keeping. These innova t ive practices are being taken up at faster and faster rates by more and more poor people. The new p ractices allow poor farmers to ach i e ve greater synergies and efficiencies between their crop and live s t o ck production, raising whole-farm as well as live s t o ck productiv i t y. These practices also allow landless live s t o ck owners and fodder and manure sellers to profit from the fast-growing live s t o ck sector. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 9 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:50 AM Page 20 I N T R O D U C T I O N R E S E A R C H B E H I N D T H E I N N OVAT I O N S ILRI is working with breeders to improve the value of key crop species as live s t o ck feed as well as human food. These researchers are identifying approaches and criteria for selecting varieties of dual-purpose food-and-feed crops such as cowpea, groundnut, pigeon pea, maize, sorghum, pearl millet and rice in the mixed crop-and- l ive s t o ck farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The scientists are investigating optimal ways to make the improved genotypes of these key food-feed crops available to poor communities in these regions. ILRI and partners are testing methods to screen the residues of staple cereal crops for their value as feed for ruminants. New approaches to ch a racterize food-feed crops this year include improved screening that takes account of stover quality for cultivars of sorghum and pearl millet. India’s National Research Centre for Sorghum has begun to use ILRI’s approach to screen sorghum cultivars for stover and to include this parameter in its release criteria. B e yond providing technical options, ILRI is working with national agricultural research systems, non- g overnmental organizations and farmer organizations to identify policy, institutional and market instruments that will help speed adoption of live s t o ck-system innovations among the poor. ILRI assessed the drivers of demand and adoption of fodder technologies in India and Nigeria. In new institutional alliances, ILRI helped conduct participatory testing of fodder innovations to evaluate the processes needed to get them disseminated and adopted by poor communities. This included taking an innovation systems perspective and diversifying and strengthening partnerships, particularly with non-governmental organizations, wh i ch are playing a major role in d e l ivering ILRI-partner research-based fodder innovations in these countries. M u ch of this work was facilitated through the Systemwide Live s t o ck Programme (SLP) coordinated by ILRI and i nvolving 10 other Future Harvest centres of the CGIAR. P E R I-U R BA N L I V E S TO C K E N T E R P R I S E S As the following three chapters illustrate, live s t o ck are playing an increasing role in alleviating poverty in and around cities. Peri-urban systems also provide income opportunities for the landless poor, who may make a l iving growing fodder or collecting crop residues and other wastes on communal lands to sell to urban live s t o ck owners as feed or distributing or selling other outputs of informal live s t o ck systems. ILRI is developing methods for assessing the human health risks associated with urban live s t o ck - k e e p i n g . 2 0 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:50 AM Page 21 I N T R O D U C T I O N S t rategies to mitigate these risks are being designed and tested. The institute published two reports this ye a r documenting human health impacts associated with peri-urban live s t o ck production. ILRI and partner research results about live s t o ck-related health risks supported the work of the CGIAR’s Urban Harvest program (Stra t e g i c I n i t i a t ive on Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture) in Kampala, Uganda, this ye a r. This work led to a revision of that c i t y ’s municipal by - l aws to better support urban agriculture, including live s t o ck, by the poor. M A R K E T C H A N G E S Smallholders are often more efficient users of farm resources for securing profits from live s t o ck than are larger- scale producers, provided that the opportunity cost of family labour is assessed appropriately and that main markets continue to accept the undifferentiated and variable qualities of product typically supplied by smallholders. The main problems facing smallholders are increasing consumer demands for food safety and predictable quality. Market chains are also becoming longer, more complex and more anony m o u s . Under these conditions, continued survival of smallholders producing primarily for urban markets will require forms of collective action at the farm level, such as farmer organizations and contract farming sch e m e s , especially for pigs and poultry. These can brand products in ways that build market trust and reputation in a n o nymous supply chains while cutting the overhead costs of securing and distributing quality inputs, k n owledge and credit to small farmers in a way to keep them competitive . ILRI is initiating a series of case studies of contract poultry, dairy and pig farming in Asian countries and of smallholder dairy production in the poorer regions of South Asia. This work is building a ‘knowledge bank’ of what works and doesn’t and why, and wh i ch interventions are most likely to ach i e ve reliable delivery and acceptance of smallholder live s t o ck products. L I V E S TO C K F O O D S A F E T Y A N D T R A D E I S S U E S The world of animal disease control and its impact on market access is changing rapidly in developing countries under globalization. Institutional innovations such as the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement in 1995 and the introduction of zonation within countries for disease-free certification have raised the stakes in live s t o ck disease control with the new possibility of export for developing countries. This year ILRI researchers analyzed the costs and benefits of Ethiopia’s complying with changing SPS regulations for meat and animal exports. More broadly, with FAO support this year ILRI conducted a multi-country global scoping study on the impact of SPS barriers on market access by developing-country live s t o ck producers. This study disclosed a set of key i s s u e s around ‘equivalence of standards’. Developing countries are having difficulty in participating in setting SPS L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 2 1 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:50 AM Page 22 I N T R O D U C T I O N standards or in gaining acceptance for reasonable compliance with procedures offering substantively equiva l e n t degrees of safety. Equivalence issues centre around disease reporting and data analysis, certification procedures, and animal identification and tra c e a b i l i t y. This year ILRI also initiated a Global Campaign for Combating Cysticercosis, a tapeworm infection of pigs and people. An international action plan for implementing the Global Campaign was formulated in collaboration with key international stakeholder groups, including the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) and FAO. PA RT N E R S H I P S For ILRI and its partners, the fight against poverty is made on several fronts: helping people secure their livestock assets against devastating diseases, creating jobs for unskilled labourers in dairy, fodder and other livestock enterprises, offering women and youth greater opportunities for income generation, providing pastoralists and livestock farmers with current market information so they get fair prices for their products, training sellers of unpasteurized, or ‘raw’, milk and other livestock foods to meet food safety regulations, and providing poor consumers with safe but affordable animal products that suit their culture and consumption patterns. The enabling environments poor communities need to generate their own development include pro-poor livestock policies, laws, regulations, services and other infrastructure. New livestock technologies will not, on their own, be sufficient to allow the livestock sector to help reduce poverty, hunger and environmental degradation. M a ny key actors must be influenced if the demand-led growth of the live s t o ck sector is to benefit the poor. ILRI continues to strengthen and deepen its collabora t ive arrangements with key live s t o ck research and deve l o p m e n t organizations. These include traditional collaborations with the national agricultural research and educational systems of developing countries, with the 14 other Future Harvest centres belonging to the CGIAR, with adva n c e d r e s e a rch institutes, and with international organizations such as FAO and the World Organisation for A n i m a l Health (OIE). ILRI is also making novel arrangements with civil societies and agricultural producer organizations. Links with the private sector and non-governmental organizations are becoming increasingly important to ILRI in influencing key live s t o ck actors and delivering the products of its research. ILRI is committed to making fundamental changes in the way it collaborates with partners to support innovations at all levels, from indiv i d u a l l ive s t o ck keepers to national and international decision makers. 2 2 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:50 AM Page 23 I N T R O D U C T I O N ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:50 AM Page 24 P i g - Feed Te c h n o l o g i e s L i ft Fa r m e rs out of Po ve rt y in Sichuan Province, China Perhaps no society on earth has changed as rapidly or as completely as Chinese society over the last half-century. These changes are evident in Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan Province. Like many of China’s megalopolises, Chengdu is both one of the wo r l d ’s oldest cities and a newly minted boomtown of seve ral million people. The economies of provincial cities such as Chengdu are wh i t e - h o t — g r owing fast, with low labour and property prices and rising food prices. Brand new highways and expressways crisscross the city, whose streets resemble an endless construction site, with cement mixers on every other corner and luxury apartments springing up like mushrooms after ra i n . Among a sea of billboards, neon lights and high-rise buildings, carts drawn by horses, oxen and water buffalo can occasionally be seen transporting farm produce and building supplies. Along a certain stretch of Chengdu’s main road, farm labourers stand patiently, blue caps in hand, awaiting daily employment, for wh i ch they may be paid under US$2 a day. The sight of rural peasantry amid urban glitter, and outside the city of satellite dishes in m e d i e val hamlets, while incongruous for outsiders, is commonplace for provincial Chinese, whose societies are in big and fast tra n s i t i o n . 2 4 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:50 AM Page 25 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:51 AM Page 26 C H I N A B E N E F I T S O F D E V E L O P M E N T Since 1978, 220 million Chinese people have escaped poverty while the country maintained the highest grow t h rates in the world, with the national gross domestic product growing at about 9 percent per year from 1978 to 2002. Po l i cy reforms implemented since 1978 helped fuel a surge in farm productivity and today ’s gove r n m e n t is commendably paying high attention to rural pove r t y. In 2004, it lowered the tax burden of farmers, for example, and began to remove barriers blocking rural labourers from working in urban areas. It opened public s chools to children of migrating Chinese people for the first time in 2003. P R O B L E M S O F U R BA N I Z AT I O N While 70 percent of Chinese people continue to rely on farming for their livelihoods, that is changing fast. More and more farmers are being forced off their land or decide to leave it for what they hope are better opportunities in big cities. The speed at wh i ch land is being devoured by new roads, factories and reservoirs is stunning: some 50 million farmers are estimated to have lost their land to development in the past decade, a number that may rise to more than 100 million in the next decade. Another 30 to 40 million people are expected to migrate ove r the next decade because of lost or degraded natural resources. Over 200 million rural laborers moved from the countryside to urban areas over the past 20 years and some 100 million rural laborers are now partly employed in urban areas or developed regions. But China has 150 million more surplus rural labourers and more of them need jobs. If the living standards in rural areas do not improve soon, the cities could collapse under an ava l a n che of m i g rating farmhands. Urban slums and rural shantytowns are emerging as problems threatening to fra c t u r e Chinese society and hamper the country’s rapid economic grow t h . T H E P OV E RT Y G A P Raising the quality of life for China’s more than 900 million peasants is an emerging political as well as humanitarian problem. The gap between incomes in urban and rural areas, and between coastal and interior p r ovinces, has worsened over the years. The ave rage annual rural income in China is US$317—about 10 perc e n t of Beijing’s officially reported US$2,900. Many rural poor live on less than US$100 per ye a r. Some 150 million Chinese people live on less than US$1 a day, most of them in the rural areas, where 60 percent of China’s population still live . 2 6 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:51 AM Page 27 C H I N A ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:51 AM Page 28 C H I N A C h i n a ’s southwest is among the least developed of all the country’s major regions. People on the high plateaus rely on agro-pastoralism, those in the deeply cut valleys grow rice and other crops. With scarce pasture gra s s e s , cattle and buffalo are kept primarily for draught power rather than milk. Swine, goats and poultry, wh i ch can subsist on by-products from the farm, are kept in large numbers. In 2001, pig production accounted for 41 percent of all of China’s agricultural production, over 55 percent of its animal husbandry and 81 percent of total meat production. Most of China’s pig producers are small-scale farmers whose biggest problem is finding enough to feed their animals. S i chuan produces more pigs than any other province in China. Its vast hinterlands, covering 485,000 square kilometres surrounded by mountains, are blessed with a mild climate and are rich in plant and animal life. C h i n a ’s famous giant pandas live in mountainous bamboo forests in the west. A full 80 percent of the people in this province are engaged in agriculture. The rain-fed upland farmers of Zitong County, about 200 km north of Chengdu are very poor, relying on crop- animal production on an ave rage of 0.28 hectares of land to generate less than US$100 a year per person. Th e main crops here are wheat and rape in the first (cool) season, corn, rice and sweet potato in the second. Animals generate 80 percent of total farm income in Zitong. Farmers here keep ch i ckens, ducks, goats, pigs and cattle, with pigs being the most important in terms of income-generation from marketing. Each family keeps an ave rage of 4–5. Sweet potato is an important feed for these pigs. Over 75 percent of the county’s households plant the crop to feed their animals. But sweet potato for animal feed has two major problems: it is highly perishable, going bad a few weeks after harvest, and it is grown only once a ye a r. In April 2002, the Feed Research Institute of the Sichuan Animal Science A c a d e my (SASA), in Chengdu, wa s asked to help farmers optimize their use of sweet potato as pig feed. This new project was funded by the A s i a n D e velopment Bank and coordinated by the ILRI-led Crop-Animal Systems Research Network (CASREN). Ti a n l e Village, in Zitong County, was chosen as the benchmark site for this CASREN project. The project was initiated in 2002 with surveys and participatory appraisals conducted among more than 300 households in six villages to identify the major problems and opportunities of these smallholders. Th e S A S A / CASREN team then designed a basket of options for the farmers. In addition to improved sweet potato varieties developed by ILRI’s sister Future Harvest centre, the International Potato Center (CIP), based in Pe r u , 2 8 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:51 AM Page 29 C H I N A these included a silage-making technology for sweet potato roots and vines. The 20 farmers in Tianle Vi l l a g e participating in the first year of the project’s operations expanded to 238 in 6 new villages in 2003, with more farmers adopting the technologies in 2004. SASA scientists developed new varieties of sweet potato suited to local conditions and based on the improve d and virus-free germplasm developed by CIP. Methods for ensiling sweet potato roots and foliage and supplementing them with a small amount of minerals and concentrate were then developed by ILRI and further modified by SASA to suit local conditions. After harvest, farmers chip the roots of the potato and air-dry and chop the vines. They mix the roots and vines with supplements and store them in air-tight plastic bags. These methods conserve and enhance the nutritional value of the vines and roots, remarkably extending farmer use of sweet potato feed from six weeks to nine months per ye a r. The new availability of on-farm feed for most of the year has permitted adoption and confinement of high-yielding cross-bred pigs, largely replacing the small free-roaming scavenging pigs that are very susceptible to spreading zoonotic diseases such as cy s t i c e rc o s i s . The core of the silage feeding technology is the application of nutritional supplements. Use of the supplements increased both the ave rage daily weight gains and the feed conversion rates of weaned piglets and growing pigs. The SASA/CASREN team introduced a high-yielding and a high-starch-and-yielding va r i e t y. Other improve m e n t s , s u ch as upgraded pig housing and feeding practices, as well as antibiotics, prevented diarrhoea in weaned piglets. Drugs also controlled pig parasites. Training was key in the dissemination of these new tech n o l o g i e s . Running less than 3 years, this project has already had significant impacts. The improved varieties increased root yields by at least 25 percent. More than 80 percent of the farmers recognized that the higher starch content of the improved varieties grows animals faster than the traditional varieties. And after just one year of the project’s o p e ration, most farmers in the area were well aware of the value of conserving sweet potato vines and roots as silage. Of farmers interviewed who had started ensiling potato vines and roots in 2003, 94 percent at the b e n chmark site and 54 percent in the expansion sites continued the practice in 2004 and produced more ensilage in 2004 than in 2003. Use of the premix or protein-rich concentrate to supplement sweet potato-based diets reduced the period needed to get piglets to market weight by 1.5 to 2 months and increased the number of pigs fattened per ye a r. Most farmers now bring two groups or more of pigs to market each year rather than one group, raising their incomes by 30 perc e n t . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 2 9 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:51 AM Page 30 Z I T O N G C O U N T Y To travel 200 kilometres north from the provincial capital of Chengdu into Zitong County, where CASREN is conducting a project, is to travel back in time. At the city limits are fields of rice, wheat and rapeseed cultiva t e d by well-off farmers who use pig manure and fertilizer to keep their soils productive. A few miles further, the neat wh i t e - washed farm houses disappear, replaced by dun-coloured brick and cement farm compounds. An hour out of Chengdu, mountains appear in the distance and women carry straw baskets on their backs. Then one comes upon Mian Yang, an industrial city of 2 million people famous for its Changhong Electronics Group Company, wh i ch produces mobile phones and air conditioners and is China’s number-one producer of colour television sets. Continuing north from Mian Yang, the sights and spoils of modernization dramatically recede from view, replaced by deeply rural scenes of what appear to be simple peasant lifestyles attuned to the slow rhythms of the ox and plow. Amongst rolling hills and woodlands are medieval-looking hamlets and farmhouses. Then one spots a motorcycle leaning against a barn, or a TV aerial projecting from a roof, or a mobile phone hanging from a farmer’s belt. 3 0 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:51 AM Page 31 Z I T O N G C O U N T Y ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:51 AM Page 32 F A R M O F L I A N G B A O Mr Liang Bao, a pig farmer, has been a village leader in Sich u a n ’s Zitong County for 4 years. He and his father, Mr Liang Tianfu, and his mother, Mrs Liu Xinjun, share a household that keeps ch i ckens, geese, and a cow and buffalo in addition to pigs. They grow sweet potatoes, wheat, maize, peas and rice. They keep 10 hogs for meat. Their two sows produce about 40 piglets a ye a r, wh i ch they sell when they are 40–50 days old. Farmers come to Mr Liang’s farm to buy the piglets, wh i ch they will feed for about five months before slaughtering. The CA S R E N project in Sichuan provided this household with training and extension materials on methods for ensiling sw e e t potato tubers and leaves. The family eats a few of the tubers from each ye a r ’s crop and chops up the rest for silage. Without the application of conservation methods, sweet potatoes spoil a few weeks after harvesting. Th e ensiling technology has extended their use as pig feed from one month to seven to nine months. This household used to sell 5–7 pigs a year; after adopting the CASREN technologies, they are selling 10–15 pigs a ye a r. Th e y get US$12–25 for each piglet and US$75–112 for each finished hog of 100 kg. Five years ago, this household produced only crops. ‘We had to borrow money before we began using this t e chnology’, Mr Liang says, ‘because we had no money of our own. I have one daughter, and after spending money to pay for her education and buy salt and a few other essentials, we had nothing left.’ He has now opened a small shop selling seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and other agricultural products. His possessions now include a television set (the village recently got cable TV), stereo and motorbike. (There are now 60 motorbikes in this village of 600 people.) ‘Some farmers are even managing to buy washing machines!’, he says. And he has been able to enlarge and modernize his house. ‘The new roads in this area will lower the costs of things eve n further’, he says. ‘We wo n ’t need to spend hours walking our pigs to market.’ 3 2 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:51 AM Page 33 F A R M O F L I A N G B A O Mr Liang Ti a n f u , father of the leader of Tianle Village, feeds his household pigs with sweet potato silage. B E L OW Mr Liang Bao, leader of Ti a n l e Village in Sich u a n ’s Zitong County, sits with baskets of two improved varieties of sw e e t potato the CASREN project brought to his village. Traditional medicines lie drying in a basket on the table. Veterinarians in Renhe and other townships in the county prescribe traditional medicines for ailing l ive s t o ck. These are stored in old painted wooden boxes and weighed on a small scale before being poured into sheets of newspaper and carefully wrapped for the c u s t o m e r, who will boil up the mixture with water in a clay jar and administer the liquid to a sick animal. 3 3 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:52 AM Page 34 F A R M O F L I A N G B A O : T H E P A R E N T S Mr Liang Tianfu and Mrs Liu Xinjun, p a r e n t s of the leader of Tianle Village, lead their household goats to graze. This village, located in Zitong County, is a bench m a r k site of the CASREN project in Sich u a n P r ov i n c e . 3 4 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:52 AM Page 35 F A R M O F L I A N G B A O : T H E N E I G H B O U R Mr Liang Guorong, a neighbour of Liang Bao, leader of Tianle Village, is 83 years old. He also keeps pigs. The new CASREN pig-feeding technologies have allowed him to i m p r ove his house and living standards. He lived through the Cultural Revo l u t i o n , from 1966 to 1976, and says he is still influenced by it. ‘Life was very difficult then,’ he says. ‘We did not have enough food to eat. Farmers worked in collectives, wh e r e the productivity was low. We had no electricity before 1985.’ Mr Liang Guorong holds one of his neighbours’ ch i ck s . 2005 is the Year of the Chicken in China, a country with a highly live s t o ck - o r i e n t e d calendar and ch i cken breeds that reportedly lay blue and green eggs. The ch i ck e n was most likely domesticated in China and remains a key species of the poor. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 3 5 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:52 AM Page 36 C H I N E S E W O M E N Women have become a major force in alleviating poverty in China’s rural areas. A s more and more men leave their pove r t y - s t r i cken villages to find seasonal jobs in the cities, women are left to deal with domestic r u ral matters alone, becoming de facto household heads for much of the ye a r. A n estimated 60 percent of China’s rura l families count on female labourers as an important source of income after the men of the households have left home to work in other industries. This feminization of the farm enterprise has had large impacts. TOP LEFT AND RIGHT Women on market day in Renhe Township, Zitong C o u n t y, cook and sell pork lunches on RIGHT Mrs Liu Xinjun meets a neighbour the street. Fresh meat is sold right next and her child while taking her goat out to to the silk stall for US$1.50 per kilo. g ra z e . B E L OW A smallholder in Zitong Tow n s h i p , S i chuan Province, carries a basket to t ransport the forages she will pick for her three goats that she daily takes to graze a hillside near her homestead. 3 6 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:53 AM Page 37 C H I N E S E A G R I C U L T U R E A g r i c u l t u ral science helped build China’s rich civilization, with its 5,000 years of recorded h i s t o r y. The Chinese were the first to use an iron plough (6th century BC) and were two thousand years ahead of the West in techniques for winnowing gra i n — b l owing grain free of chaff after threshing to separate the husks and stalks from the grain following harve s t i n g . China is today the wo r l d ’s leading producer of rice, potatoes and sweet potatoes. A water buffalo grazes roadside ve g e t a t i o n in an urban area of Zitong County, Sich u a n P r ovince. The water buffalo is mainly a working animal in China. Its meat is seldom eaten but its milk is drunk. Sweet potato silage fed to pigs h a s become a key tool in the fight against p overty in the southwestern hinterlands of Sichuan Prov i n c e , C h i n a ’s biggest producer of pigs. Po r k is the preferred meat in China and b a ckyard pig production the centra l l ivelihood of the poor. 3 7 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:53 AM Page 38 FARM OF LIANG YINSONG/LIANG Y I A N G C U I Mr Liang Yi n g s o n g and his wife Mrs Liang Yi n g c u i are also pig farmers in Tianle Vi l l a g e . They joined the CASREN project and started using the new pig feed technology in 2002. This allowed them to raise the number of pigs they keep from 4 to 30. For many years, Mr Liang has left the farm each year to find temporary work as a c o n t ractor building houses in a city a 96-hour train ride away from Zitong. Almost every household in this county has the same story to tell: the husband spends seve ral months a year working as a day labourer in urban areas, coming back to the farm at its busy time to help his wife with the harve s t . With CA S R E N ’s help, this couple has more than doubled their income from what it was five years ago. A ye a r after they started feeding their pigs sweet potato silage, they had earned and saved enough money to build a new farmhouse. Their parents live in their old house, next door. Besides pigs, this household keeps 40 ch i ckens, 3 goats and 1 buffalo. Every morning at six o’clock, Mr Liang takes the buffalo to communal lands in the hills above the farm for grazing. He returns to water the animal at m i d d ay and collects it at seven o’clock in the evening. Mr Liang advocates mixing crop and live s t o ck farming. ‘Sometimes the weather turns dry’, he says, ‘and then I lose the US$250 I have spent on seed and fertilizer. Mixed farming is a practical way to reduce the risks of crop farming. With live s t o ck, we are not at the mercy of the weather.’ For years Mrs Liang has run the family farm and pig business with the help of their aging parents while her husband has been away in the city working for 8 to 9 months a ye a r. This ye a r, after buying more land as well as building their new house, her husband will stay home and run the farm with her. They will put the extra land to peanuts, wheat, rapeseed and more maize, leaf beet and sweet potatoes for animal feed. ‘This is good land’, s ays Mr Liang. ‘If you work hard on the land, it will give you a good life. I don’t plan to ever go back to the city to work again.’ They do, how e ve r, look forward to a new road being built near them. ‘We’ll use the new road to travel to the city to sell our farm products. The government has built new roads to county towns. Now we need roads to the farms’, says Mr Liang. This couple have one 20-ye a r-old son who works as a cook in Mian Yang, one of Sich u a n ’s cities. Does the son h ave ambitions to be a farmer? ‘Perhaps when he reaches 40 years old he will return to the land’, says his m o t h e r. ‘Cities attract young people. He’ll probably find a wife there and marry by the time he is 24. He’s our only child, but his wife is his choice. It’s his life.’ 3 8 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:53 AM Page 39 FA R M O F L I A N G Y I N S O N G / L I A N G Y I A N G C U I A B OV E Mrs Liang Yingcui and Mr Liang Yi n g s o n g , of Tianle Village, Zitong County, S i ch u a n . R I G H T Mrs Liang feeds her ch i ck e n s . The farmers of Tianle Village say the increased income they are getting from applying the CASREN pig-feed technologies is allowing them to buy television sets and m o t o rcycles, to refurbish their houses and to pay for more and better education for their children. Spontaneous farmer-to-farmer consultations have transformed Ti a n l e and other sites of the CASREN project into technology showcases for farmers in this c o u n t y. B E L OW Pigs on their way to market. 3 9 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:53 AM Page 40 F A R M O F A N S H O U H U A / W E I J U F A N G Mr An Shouhua a n d Mrs Wei Ju f a n g are another couple benefiting from the CASREN project. They keep 4 s ows, 25 piglets and one 20-ye a r-old buffalo on one-third of a hectare of land in Zitong County. They use the buffalo to prepare the land for planting, wh i ch entails about a month of ploughing each ye a r. They cannot b o r r ow an ox from neighbours to do this work because all farmers need to employ their working oxen at the same planting time. They feed the buffalo ye a r-round on rice straw and grass on communal hillsides. ‘For 11 months of the ye a r, we go to work for the buffalo. For one month, the buffalo goes to work for us’, says Mrs We i . This couple started raising pigs in 1987, although they had enough feed to keep only a few. They started to use the CASREN potato silage technology to feed their pigs in 2003. This improved their productivity so much they increased the number of pigs they were raising to more than 70. Doing so increased their income by US$1,240 in 2003 over the previous ye a r. Mr A n took part in CA S R E N ’s training courses in 2002 to learn about ‘scientific feeding’ of pigs. He is careful to continue to follow CA S R E N ’s instructions to keep his pigs well fed and healthy. ‘If one of our pigs died, that would be very bad.’ Mr An does seasonal work off the farm for money, during wh i ch time his wife runs the farm. ‘When we were young’, he says, ‘we had no dreams of the future and few opportunities. I had five sisters and brothers. Our only prospect was to work hard on the farm and invest everything in our son’s education.’ Last year this household grew rice, peanuts and sweet potato. This year they are growing maize, soybean and sweet potato so that they can feed more pigs. They will use the live s t o ck income to buy rice to eat. They have one son, who is in university studying mechanization and engineering. They are building a new house and helping to finance their son’s doctoral studies. 4 0 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:53 AM Page 41 F A R M O F A N S H O U H U A / W E I J U F A N G Mr An Shouhua and Mrs Wei Jufang, a pig farming couple in Zitong County, Sichuan Province, China, are using technologies delivered by CASREN to feed their pigs and increase their income. 4 1 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:54 AM Page 42 C A S R E N I N S I C H U A N B E L OW LEFT The local Sichuan government has made the CASREN project conducted in this p r ovince of southwestern China an agricultural development priority. The CASREN project strengthened participatory research at the Sichuan Animal Science A c a d e my (SASA) Feed Research Institute and the Zitong County Animal Husbandry Bureau. In May, SASA and ILRI signed a memorandum of understanding in Chengdu to scale up this work, wh i ch in this period of transition from subsistence to market economy is efficiently and quickly helping many of Sich u a n ’s smallholders to lift themselves out of pove r t y. RIGHT Pollution in Renhe Township, Zitong C o u n t y. It is generally recognized now that C h i n a ’s extraordinary economic growth of the last 20 years came at the expense of its e nvironment. In 2004 the gove r n m e n t started to emphasize work to alleviate e nvironmental degradation as well as rura l p ove r t y. Refinements in the integration of crop and live s t o ck production such as those being made by the CASREN project can benefit the environment while prov i d i n g better livelihoods for poor farmers. 4 2 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:54 AM Page 43 I L R I I N C H I N A China is undergoing a transformation of its live s t o ck economy, primarily from backyard production of pigs and poultry to more industrial production in peri-urban areas. The Chinese market for animal feed and cereals is the most dynamic factor influencing world live s t o ck markets. The Chinese A c a d e my of A g r i c u l t u ral Sciences is c o l l a b o rating with ILRI and ILRI’s sister Future Harvest centre, the International Food Po l i cy Research Institute (IFPRI), on studies of China’s emerging market for feed grains. In 2003, agricultural economist Chris Delgado wa s appointed director of an ILRI-IFPRI Joint Program on Live s t o ck Market Opportunities. Delgado explains that C h i n a ’s still-abundant rural labour encourages labour- i n t e n s ive processes such as the sweet potato ensilage t e ch n o l o g y. How e ve r, as the costs of labour rise, along with off-farm incomes and the number of months farmers spend doing off-farm work, such labour- i n t e n s ive technologies will become more problematic. ‘What is the future of smallholder farming in this province?’ asks Delgado. ‘We want to ease the transition for these farmers.’ Because both grain and pig prices have been rising rapidly in China compared to industrial products, Delgado s ays, Sichuan farmers who invested in the pig and sweet potato technologies have rapidly grown their household incomes. This matters because the typical annual income of a poor Sichuan pig farmer has been a remarkably low US$162 a ye a r. ‘This story is extremely timely but will require new strategies over time,’ says Delgado. The silage s t rategy for sweet potato feed will work well over the short to medium term, after wh i ch the cost of labour may make the silage process prohibitively expensive, or the cost of grain and/or pigs may go down and the market a dvantage will diminish. The big questions are, How can the soaring growth in live s t o ck demand help China continue to expand its vibrant national commercial industries while promoting income growth for its smallholder farmers? And under what conditions do smallholders thrive, perhaps eventually becoming larger farmers?’ In 2004 ILRI extended its China collaborations in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, as well as in Beijing. ILRI believe s Chinese expertise can help the country’s poorer neighbours climb out of pove r t y. ILRI and the whole research - f o r- d e velopment community have much to gain by engaging China’s vast research enterprise, comprising some 85,000 highly skilled scientists and technicians in 400 institutions and 70 agricultural universities. The Chinese A c a d e my of A g r i c u l t u ral Sciences alone employs 8,000 scientists and tech n i c i a n s . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 4 3 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:54 AM Page 44 Fodder Innovations Enhance Live l i h o o d s of the Ru ral and Urban Poor in India Food production is independent India’s most spectacular success. The famine nation under British rule in 1947 is t o d ay food self-sufficient, with large reserves, particularly of rice and wheat, to feed its population of over a billion people. Like China, India has opened its economy and is growing at a roaring rate. Some are prophesizing a ‘virtual Chindia’ and that the rise of India and China in coming decades will define this century. M a ny in India, how e ve r, remain too poor to get enough to eat. And this is a fact although agriculture remains the lifeblood of many of India’s 200 million people living below the poverty line. The Indian Government, wh i ch wa s voted in last year on promises for rural development, is planning a second green revolution for the country’s nearly 110 million rural families—mostly rain-fed peasant farmers owning two hectares of land or less. Th e g ove r n m e n t ’s strategy is to provide these farmers with the best available technologies so they can produce more on less land, water and other natural resourc e s . The paradox here, like in China, is that this essentially rural country has some of the largest cities of the wo r l d , cities wh i ch are in a dynamic process of rapid economic and population growth, wh i ch is increasing demand for animal products such as milk and meat. Among India’s high-value agricultural products, live s t o ck are at the top of the list. In many Indian cities, the transportation, buying and selling of fodder grasses and grains is a thriv i n g business for the poor. 4 4 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:54 AM Page 45 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:54 AM Page 46 I N D I A W H Y L I V E S TO C K A N D L I V E S TO C K F O D D E R Some 73 percent of all rural households in India own live s t o ck and earn 15–40 percent of their total income from live s t o ck production. Most of the country’s dryland farmers rate live s t o ck, wh i ch can be moved in response to rainfall, as more important than crops in helping them survive extreme and variable climate. India’s ruminant animals render their owners a lifelong output of manure, dairy products, young animals, traction and tra n s p o r t . L ive s t o ck also provide employment. In India, for example, where over 70 percent of marketable surplus milk is handled by the informal sector, many poor people are gainfully employed in milk vending. In some districts income from live s t o ck, dairying in particular, is the exclusive preserve of women, who tend to be poorer than their male counterparts. If the live s t o ck sector has traditionally been key for the poor, the on-going live s t o ck revolution is making it more so. Arguably the single major constraint preventing poor live s t o ck producers in India and elsewhere from taking a dvantage of the new market opportunities is lack of feed. Small producers simply lack sufficient amounts and quality of grass, browse and crop wastes to feed their animals throughout the ye a r. Access to more, and more nutritious, feeds would enable smallholders to build their live s t o ck and other assets by exploiting the grow i n g m a r k e t . ILRI is participating in a project of the Systemwide Live s t o ck Programme (SLP) of the CGIAR that focuses on India and Nigeria, where fodder innovations have great potential for benefiting livelihoods. These two countries h ave significant numbers of poor live s t o ck keepers as well as emerging market opportunities for live s t o ck , l ive s t o ck products and live s t o ck fodder. Distributions of live s t o ck and live s t o ck markets within both countries p r ovide diverse opportunities for the introduction, adoption and adaptation of fodder interve n t i o n s . P r oviding small-scale live s t o ck farmers with improved fodder options will not, on its own, significantly improve l ivelihoods. The latter requires raising awareness among all partners and stakeholders of a range of ava i l a b l e options for improving livelihoods. It also requires changing a plethora of biophysical, economic, policy and institutional factors impinging on those livelihoods. Of particular import is understanding the partnerships and processes that help create an enabling institutional environment for scaling technological interventions up and o u t . 4 6 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:54 AM Page 47 I N D I A ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:55 AM Page 48 I N D I A T H E P R O B L E M Land, including degraded or ‘waste’ land, is indispensable to the livelihoods of millions of landless, small and marginal farmers who keep live s t o ck in India. Ty p i c a l l y, these people used to feed their stock by grazing them on harvested and fallow agricultural lands as well as on common and private grazing lands. But with high population densities in the country, there is little land available for feed and fodder production. Areas of common or public lands, wh i ch are used by the poor for grazing and fodder, have been shrinking dra s t i c a l l y. M a ny marginal and landless farmers can no longer graze their animals on common lands and the fields of most smallholders have become too small to reserve part of them for grazing. In 2003 in India as a whole, 44 perc e n t of the country’s fodder resources came from the residues and wastes of crops after harvesting while 34 perc e n t came from planted forages, 18 percent from common property (rangelands, wastelands and forests) and 4 p e rcent from concentra t e s . 4 8 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:55 AM Page 49 I N D I A L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 4 9 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:55 AM Page 50 I N D I A H OW R E S E A R C H I S H E L P I N G I N I N D I A A N D N I G E R I A Making more efficient use of existing feed resources can help. The collabora t ive SLP project in India and Nigeria is offering farmers fodder innovations as ‘baskets of options’. This year project staff tested technologies with farmers in participatory ways to identify ‘best-bet’ technologies that could be scaled up. Lessons learned will be applied internationally. The project is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Staff of this fodder innovations project built on existing means for enhancing fodder ava i l a b i l i t y, took a wh o l e - farm approach and developed a diverse array of partnerships and institutional relationships to stimulate the adoption of fodder innovations. All partners in the project are learning what mechanisms and institutional a r rangements speed the scaling up of adoption of new fodder tech n o l o g y. The focus on learning in this project is requiring new ways of working and working with a wider array of partners. The project is documenting public-private partnerships and assessing their potential to help broaden fodder choices for poor rural farmers. Public-sector partners might provide farmers with dual-purpose varieties of c owpea, groundnut and sorghum, as well as extension materials on practices such as seed selection, treatment and storage, while private seed companies produce and supply improved cereal hy b r i d s . This project is also exploring employment programs that could be used to help promote fodder innova t i o n s . It is investigating ways to get more invo l vement by women self-help groups in testing and evaluating fodder options. It is encouraging private-sector seed companies and dairy firms to raise awareness of fodder seeds and to supply these seeds in locations not reached by the dairy co-opera t ive s . 5 0 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:55 AM Page 51 I N D I A ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:55 AM Page 52 I N D I A T H E F O D D E R I N N OVAT I O N S P R O J E C T I N I N D I A The SLP project work in India has helped develop and disseminate new fodder technologies. Project staff implemented activities in 47 villages with over 500 farmers in the state of A n d h ra Pradesh in south-central India. They tested alternative seed delivery systems. They evaluated forage and feed innovations. Evaluation stra t e g i e s ranged from farmers choosing their own ‘food-feed’ crops (so called because the grain is consumed by people and the stalks, leaves and other residues by live s t o ck), forage seed and management options; to farmers testing food-feed crops presented by researchers as a ‘package’ of crop and live s t o ck management options; to communities evaluating demonstration trials. Staff trained collaborators in fodder technologies. They scaled fodder innovations up and out. Farmers and project partners are both now aware of a range of fodder options that can improve live l i h o o d s . Other fodder research by ILRI in India has a strong strategic focus. Staff of this complementary project are working with ILRI’s sister Future Harvest centre based in Hyderabad, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and with the country’s crop breeders to encourage them to include fodder value as a trait in their crop improvement progra m s . Through nutritional studies, ILRI and partners invo l ved in this strategic project were able to show a wide variability in digestibility of stover from different sorghum varieties. The project then developed and applied tools such as near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to screen varieties for stover quality. It was shown for key crops of the semi-arid tropics that cereal grain/legume pod yields and crop residue quantity/quality can be compatible t raits. Based on these findings, indicators of stover quality have now been incorporated into the sorghum and pearl millet breeding programmes of ICRISAT. In addition, India’s National Research Centre for Sorghum, wh i ch is responsible for the release of new cultivars, is testing the inclusion of stover value (quantity and quality) as releasing criteria for the second consecutive ye a r. Outcomes in the plant breeding community reflect strong demand by farmers for dual-purpose sorghum with good stover quality. National and international partners invo l ved in food-feed-crops and forages have access to the developed NIRS equations. The project also developed NIRS equations for groundnut. And it reported on genotypic variabilities in food-feed ch a racteristics and relationships between food and feed traits for sorghum, pearl millet, rice and pigeon pea. 5 2 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:55 AM Page 53 I N D I A D E V E L O P I N G A N D P R O M OT I N G F O R AG E S E E D Only India’s larger farmers tend to buy seed from the formal sector each year; small farmers rely on saving their seed. Few farmers in the project’s pilot learning sites cultivate forage crops and virtually none of the area’s p r ivate seed companies are invo l ved in promoting and developing forage seeds. Scarce awareness of improve d varieties and the untimely availability of such seed are the main reasons farmers don’t adopt them. For these reasons, this project is training and assisting farmers in a few villages to establish ‘model seed multiplication and distribution’ enterprises. Village youth and women members of self-help groups are being t rained in seed production and storage. The village seed banks are being facilitated to source germplasm from the public sector. Over 350 Indian farmers participated this year in field days and/or paid visits to pilot learning sites. The project has linked up with the Virtual A c a d e my for the Semi-Arid Tropics, in India, to convert tech n i c a l and instructional information on fodder options compiled by the project into open distance learning modules for widespread distribution. Because there is need for more strategic information on the prevailing informal seed systems and their v u l n e rabilities, the project is facilitating an alternate scale-out system by building on the successes of a village seed bank tried in Kurnool by ICRISAT. The project is strengthening its interactions with other organizations, s u ch as the A n d h ra Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project (APRLP) Watershed Project and its partners, wh i ch will be working in five states. Partnering with such groups gives this project access to networks of self-help groups and s h e e p - g r ower associations and enables the project to help farmers on both private and common lands. With the growing demands of urban consumers for milk, continued partnering with government and para s t a t a l organizations, such as India’s National Dairy Development Board and milk unions with a national outreach of over 13 million farmers, is providing further opportunities for reaching a larger number of rural poor by strengthening links with appropriate service providers, particularly for live s t o ck fodder. India has a well- d e veloped seed sector with large public-sector seed companies and good infrastructure. There is also strong p r ivate-sector invo l vement in producing and marketing dual-purpose crop and forage hybrids with a wide seed distribution network and retail outlets throughout the country. The project is incorporating lessons learned from p r ivate-public partnerships in the seed sector into activities to speed timely delivery of seed to target groups. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 5 3 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:55 AM Page 54 L E A R N I N G P L A T F O R M S Testing germplasm is a valid entry point for initiating discussions, trials and partnerships with farmers and for building a coalition of partners for fodder innovation. But understanding the human and institutional processes i nvo l ved in such partnerships is key to building a ‘learning platform’ the stakeholders will employ to integra t e k n owledge production (i.e., research) and uptake (adaptation/adoption). Project staff are now asking the following kinds of questions: What groups of actors need to be invo l ved in raising levels of fodder adoption? What are the relations between stakeholders, institutions and policy goals such as poverty reduction? In India, this reorientation of project thinking is already yielding generic lessons on way s of learning, wh i ch in turn is helping to enhance the project’s ability to influence approaches, processes and p ractices of partners. It’s envisaged that lessons learned from this work will benefit key actors working in other fields to improve rural livelihoods. While project staff will continue to employ conventional information dissemination methods to increase adoption of fodder innovations, the main vehicle they’ll use to promote innovations are ‘learning-orientated n e t works’ able to link research with farmer practice. This approach does not preclude their conducting tech n i c a l r e s e a rch such as varietal trials. Rather, it entails using technical research as the operational focus of work to bring partners together to learn and innovate. 5 4 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:55 AM Page 55 L E A R N I N G P L A T F O R M S 5 5 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:55 AM Page 56 H Y D E R A B A D The market opportunities for live s t o ck, live s t o ck products and live s t o ck fodder are growing fast in Hyderabad and its environs. Old and new India confront each other here, with ox carts jostling with three-wheeled auto-rick s h aws and diesel lorries. (Before the 1980s, horses and b i cycles pulled rick s h aws; now it’s motor scooters.) RIGHT A buffalo grazes roadside verge in front of Hydera b a d ’s ‘Hi-Te ch City’, a new landmark about 5 years old and recently visited by Bill Gates. Hyderabad is one of India’s fastest-growing cities. It and its twin city to the north, S e c u n d e rabad, have now merged into a megalopolis of some 8 million people. This highly urbanized area encompasses more than 500 square kilometres. Hyderabad, or ‘Cyber-bad’, as i t ’s becoming known for its booming software industry, is the capital of A n d h ra Pradesh, a semi- arid farming state in the centre and south of the country. 5 6 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:56 AM Page 57 A N D H R A P R A D E S H Buffalo, cattle, goats, pigs and ch i ck e n s are the most important source of l ivelihoods in A n d h ra Pradesh, as well as other semi-arid states of India, especially for the poor. These animals occupy an important role in the ove rall economy. Animal production is a known skill among poor people here, so when people h ave the means, they tend to keep l ive s t o ck . The cow is worshipped by Hindus, wh o make up some 82 percent of India’s more than 1 billion people. The use of cow products in India is centuries old. The five key products–butter, milk, curd, urine and dung–are collectively known as ‘ p a n ch g av ya’ and are an important part of ay u r vedic medicine. But in fact more water buffaloes than cattle are kept in I n d i a ’s A n d h ra Pradesh State, wh e r e buffalo milk is preferred to cow milk. Buffalo curd and cheese is also eaten. 5 7 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:56 AM Page 58 M E A T F O R T H E U R B A N P O O R The people of greater Hyderabad are a mix of vegetarian Hindus and beef and lamb-eating Muslims. Young Hindu people, how e ve r, are fast cultivating a taste for meat, typically eaten now on weekends, often prepared by Hindu mothers who do not eat the meat dishes themselves. Th e poorest people and those of the lowest castes (including ‘scheduled tribes’ or ‘indigenous peoples’) eat beef when they can and keep a few scavenging ch i ckens or pigs. B E L OW A native pig and a rooster scavenge for food outside a slum dwelling. Pork in this Muslim country is very ch e a p . ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:56 AM Page 59 J O B S F O R T H E U R B A N P O O R Joblessness is one of India’s biggest problems. Mr Gijabai Ve n k a t and his wife, 6-ye a r- o l d son S h i r p a d , and father are landless migrant labourers working as iron-mongers, fixing holes in buckets and sharpening farm implements, on the outskirts of central Hyderabad. Many people live in open desperate circumstances along the roadsides. Shirpad does not go to s chool and is unlikely to ever do so. He and the other three members of his family share the cot at the back of the tent to sleep each night. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 5 9 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:57 AM Page 60 U R B A N F O D D E R M A R K E T S H y d e ra b a d ’s fodder market: There is an extreme fodder shortage in Hyderabad and India as a whole. As a result, stover is rising in price–getting close to the price per kilo of rice and sorghum grain. The rains stop in October and aren’t expected again until the f o l l owing June, when fodder shortage is at its most acute each ye a r. With dairy demand rising, this is a story that is evolving fast and is not going to go away. TO P L E F T Mr M Anji Reddy is a grass salesman with Grass Merchants A s s o c i a t i o n , Nimboliaddu, Kaelinguda, Hyderabad. Mr Reddy has been in the fodder business for 35 years. He says it is a good business. He is paid a salary to work from 9 in the morning to 6 in the evening 7 days a week, 365 days a ye a r. Five other people sell fodder in the same place. The fodder salesmen all wear straw hats and carry black plastic bags slung over their forearms. They write on pads of paper and hand chits to the fodder buye r s who give them money. The buyers will in turn give the chits to fodder loaders—men atop vehicles of bundled fodder, wh i ch they will throw onto the cart of the buye r. Most of the b u yers have 5–6 animals to feed. One bundle of green para grass, grown on plots irrigated with waster water along the banks of Hydera b a d ’s Musi Rive r, costs US$0.11. Chopped sorghum is packed in bags for sale as buffalo feed. The cost varies from US$0.05 to 0.09 per kilo of dry stove r, depending on its quality, indicating that there is high demand for high-quality stove r. ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:57 AM Page 61 U R B A N F O D D E R M A R K E T S 6 1 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:58 AM Page 62 U R B A N D A I R Y I N G : P A T A N C H E R U Five kilometres from ILRI’s offices at I C R I S AT, in Pa t a n cheru Village, outside H y d e rabad, a man milks buffaloes next to a sweet shop selling candies made from buffalo milk, wh i ch is prized for its high fat content. Women from the neighbourhood line up mornings and evenings to buy the fresh m i l k . This dairy man is feeding his animals chopped sorghum residues. 6 2 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:58 AM Page 63 U R B A N D A I R Y I N G : ‘ S M A H E S H D A I R Y ’ An urban dairy, S Mahesh Dairy, is located in an area in the middle of Hyderabad know n for advocates and businessmen. Th i r t y - f ive buffalo cows, plus some bovine cows as well as goats, sheep and camels, are housed in cool cement sheds. B E L OW The owner of the dairy, Mr Salandri Mahesh, s h ows off his 4-ye a r-old stud animal. Mr Mahesh sells his milk to the people in this neighbourhood for US$0.46 per litre. He sells 100 litres per day to about 50 households, wh i ch send family members here each morning and evening to collect their milk. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:58 AM Page 64 W O M E N L A B O U R E R S RIGHT Laxmi, a cook at Ko t h a ch e r u v u Village Primary School, in the countryside west of Hydera b a d . A g r i c u l t u ral income in the urban, as well as the peri-urban and rural areas, is supplemented by non-farm income. Wages for casual and permanent labourers in urban areas are higher than in the peri-urban and rural areas. A daily wage for a labourer in the city is between US$1.37 and 1.82 a day. Away from urban areas, people complain if labourers want more than US$0.46–0.68 a day. There is also a wide wage gap between women and men. In peri- urban and rural areas men earn US$1.79 and women US$1.23 for 8 hours of wo r k . RIGHT Women of all ages in colourful saris mend roads and make bricks and t ransport them in roadside brick f a c t o r i e s . 6 4 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:59 AM Page 65 W O M E N C H O O S E F O O D - F E E D C R O P S Indian farmers found the research - i m p r oved varieties of fodder superior to local cultiva r s . While better-off farmers indicate that grain economics is the driving force for their selection of crops and varieties, poor farmers, women in particular, perc e ive that fodder from food- feed crops is as important as grain, if not more so. A woman in Velmakana Village, in A n d h ra Pradesh, sorts oil seeds she has harvested. She will take these to a mill to produce the oil, wh i ch will not be enough to last the year for her household. She will feed the remains to her animals. 6 5 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:59 AM Page 66 U R BA N WA S T E WAT E R F O D D E R P R O D U C T I O N The following is excerpted from a 2002 article in Urban Agriculture Magazine by staff of ILRI’s sister Future H a r vest centre, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), based in Sri Lanka. ‘ The Musi River wh i ch runs through Hyderabad is dry upstream of the city except for four months during the monsoon season. How e ve r, domestic, hospital and industrial wa s t e water released from the twin cities of H y d e rabad and Secunderabad converts it into a perennial rive r. The wa s t e water has high levels of faecal contamination, wh i ch increases the health risks of the wa s t e water to farmers and agricultural laborers in direct contact with it. Among a variety of crops grown in this area, the predominant crop is para grass, amounting to 65 per cent (tunga and garika grass are also grown). Green leafy vegetables are grown on small sections of the land both for subsistence needs and for sale in markets close by. ‘ Fodder grass cultivation is a very important activity in the area. It provides an economic hub around wh i ch a number of dependent beneficiaries revo l ve. The ave rage landholding here is 0.4 ha of irrigated land. Much of the land dedicated to fodder production is rented to dairy producers. A few own the land. They save money by c u l t ivating much of the feed for their live s t o ck themselves. The renters with live s t o ck do the harvesting (cutting) of the grass themselves. Buffaloes are the preferred consumers of this fodder because they provide more milk with a higher fat content, wh i ch receives a higher price than cow's milk. Household members also consume this milk, thus saving on this expenditure. Approximately 50 percent of the fodder grass grown is sold in the market. The other half is used directly by farmers who produce it for their own live s t o ck. On a daily basis, thirty mid- sized vehicles carrying 5 tons each transport the grass to the market. With one full vehicle, employment has been generated for 40 casual laborers to cut grass, make bundles and load the vehicle (for wh i ch women earn US$0.68 and men US$0.91) as well as for one truck cleaner and one truck drive r. ‘ Wa s t e water agriculture in this urban area along the Musi River provides livelihoods to a diverse group of people, including very low-income groups of urban dwellers, to temporary and permanent migrants from rura l areas. The agriculture and live s t o ck activities based mainly on a fodder grass market seem well-suited to the only type of water available (wa s t e wa t e r ) . ‘ E ven though there is a flourishing business from urban agriculture with wa s t e wa t e r, it continues to be a hidden e c o n o my, existing in busy areas of an eve r- g r owing megalopolis that will only produce more wa s t e water in the future. The agriculture is neither recognized nor supported as of yet by the gove r n m e n t .’ 6 6 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:59 AM Page 67 U R BA N WA S T E WAT E R F O D D E R P R O D U C T I O N Further research will have to be conducted to shed more light on the risks to people’s health in using this wa s t e wa t e r. ILRI estimates that some 60,000 people in Hyderabad make a living on wa s t e water fodder production. Staff from ILRI and IWMI are looking into the health issues associated with this production system. R e s e a rch-based information from ILRI-partner fodder research is stimulating recognition by governmental agencies of the existence and positive impact of urban agriculture on livelihoods. ILRI is interested in helping to safeguard both the health and livelihoods of urban farmers in Hyderabad and elsewhere. Seve ral factors are coming together for this to happen, says ILRI director general Carlos Seré. ‘Consumer perceptions of vegetables grown in this setting are negative . The health issues associated with grass grown with wa s t e water and fed to ruminant animals are negligible while the health issues regarding vegetables produced with wa s t e water and consumed by people may be significant. In addition, there is a growing demand for green feed to add to dry stover for a balanced diet for animals. Furthermore, grass grow s continuously and its productivity per hectare can be high. In a risky land tenure situation, such as along Hydera b a d ’s Musi Rive r, low investment per hectare is an important consideration for poor people.’ Fodder grass is grown under wa s t e water along the banks of Hydera b a d ’s Musi Rive r. ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:59 AM Page 68 V A L U E O F G I R L S B E L OW A student at Ko t h a cheruvu Vi l l a g e Primary School, west of Hydera b a d . ABOVE and RIGHT K. Swapna (with her grandmother, right) from Velmakana Village, in Andhra Pradesh, attends grade 7 and wants to be a teacher. That will be difficult; most girls in this part of the country do not go on to secondary school but drop out of primary school about the age of 12 to look after younger children. Soon after, at the age of 14 to 16, they enter an arranged marriage. Improved livestock livelihoods help to keep more girls in school. 6 8 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 11:59 AM Page 69 V A L U E O F C R O P R E S I D U E S Crop residues are the mainstay for live s t o ck keeping in India in both good and drought ye a r s . ILRI scientist Michael Blümmel says private industry is interested only in hybrid seeds. ‘Crops that are very important to the poor—such as groundnut and other legumes—have no hybrids, but there is a high demand for improved cultiva r s .’ B lümmel says the inventory of fodder resources in India is advanced. ‘Most states in India have developed maps of wh i ch fodder is available, where the fodder is located and where the gaps are. The importance of crop residues to feed animals is increasing here. Although ploughing these residues back into the land helps maintain soil fertility and structure, on the whole, very few people here can afford to put their crop residues into the ground.’ L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:00 PM Page 70 K O N D A K A L V I L L A G E D A I R Y D U K A N In Kondakal Village in A n d h ra Pra d e s h, Mr Ramch a n d ra Reddy and his wife, Mrs Saritha R e d dy, manage a ‘dukan (small shop) and have run a dairy business for the last 20 ye a r s . They milk their buffalo cows every morning, bring the milk back to the house to pour into 20- 25-litre cans, and then transport these to Hyderabad, 40 minutes away, by scooter. They sell 80 litres of milk a day to individuals and hotels in the city. Their main problem is milk s p o i l a g e . B E L OW A N D RIGHT Their older teenage daughter minds the shop when they are away. Girls from households like this one, invo l ved in a dairy enterprise, tend to stay in school longer, and marry later, than girls from households with no regular dairy income. ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:00 PM Page 71 K O N D A K A L V I L L A G E D A I R Y D U K A N RIGHT Mrs Reddy carries a tray and feeds her 6 - ye a r-old son, Omse Sridhar, buffalo curd. Omse Sridhar goes to primary school, wh e r e he is in standard one. He wants to be a policeman and drive a motor scooter when he g r ows up. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:00 PM Page 72 W A T E R H A R V E S T I N G F O R F O D D E R In the Kothapally Watershed, in A n d h ra P radesh, water is harvested to grow more fodder for animals. Landless women wo r k here erecting bunds and harvesting run-off wa t e r. They grow G l i r i c i d i a for green animal fodder. LEFT A man waters his s t o ck here. About five years ago people revised their a p p r o a ch to watersheds in India by including small-scale farmers and their l ive s t o ck in their considerations. ‘Th i s rethink needs to be tested on the ground,’ s ays Michael Blümmel, an ILRI scientist based at ICRISAT. ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:01 PM Page 73 W A T E R H A R V E S T I N G F O R F O D D E R L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 7 3 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:01 PM Page 74 Re s e a rc h - I m p ro ved Fo o d - Feed Cro p s Nourish People and Their Animals in Kano, Nige r i a The population of West Africa has risen rapidly over the past seve ral decades, increasing demand for cereals and pulses, wh i ch produce crop residues for live s t o ck. Demand for live s t o ck products is rising particularly fast. Systems of crop production combined with live s t o ck keeping are becoming more intensive to meet these demands. As grazing land has diminished, crop residues have become a more important element in live s t o ck raising and fattening penned live s t o ck has become profitable. With 137 million people, Nigeria is the most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also one of the wo r l d ’s poorest countries, with 70 percent of the population living on less than a dollar a day and almost 40 p e rcent of young children chronically undernourished. Agriculture accounts for over 41 percent of GDP and t wo-thirds of employ m e n t . This report focuses on a project of the Systemwide Live s t o ck Programme (SLP) conducted in Nigeria by ILRI and t wo other Future Harvest centres of the CGIAR–the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), based in Ibadan, Nigeria, and ICRISAT, wh i ch has a Sahelian Centre in Niger–as well as national partners. Since 1998, this team has been working in villages outside Kano, a city of one million people in the north of Nigeria, wh e r e the dominant ethnic group, the Hausa-Fulani, are facing great ch a n g e s . 7 4 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:02 PM Page 75 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:02 PM Page 76 N I G E R I A T H E C H A N G E S ILRI scientists estimate that by 2050 human population density across much of West Africa will look like Nigeria does now. Fa l l ows will largely disappear while the cropping intensity increases. Grazing reserves in the north of Nigeria will provide a future for few of the country’s live s t o ck. Most live s t o ck will be kept by mixed farmers, some of whom will be ex-pastoralists, who combine crop production and live s t o ck raising in an integra t e d system. As former nomads are taking up farming, traditional crop farmers are using transhumance in the wet s e a s o n . A major change in the last 40 years in Nigeria’s Kano State has been the adoption of ox plows and an increase in cattle keeping, with sheep and goats kept by the great majority. In the densely settled and closely cultiva t e d Kano State, farmers are able to keep live s t o ck despite a shortage of communal grazing. Almost all households keep goats, sheep and poultry; 20–40 percent of the households keep cattle. All farmers and pastoralists here use crop residues to feed their ruminant animals, sorghum straw being the most common, followed by cowpea hay, groundnut hay, rice straw and others. All pastoralists purchase rights to use crop residues on the farms their animals graze. Bundles of crop residues are also sold in markets. T H E C H A L L E N G E S The dry season in West A f r i c a ’s dry savannas lasts 7–9 months; rainfall, 400–1200 mm a ye a r, is erratic and the g r owing period just 90–150 days a ye a r. The sandy soils are poor and easily degraded. Increasing human populations are threatening the land’s productive capacity. Traditional production systems and the management of natural resources within them are breaking down as indicated by progressively shortened fallow periods and expansion of agriculture onto marginal lands. Current nutrient losses from the soil are estimated to occur at alarming annual rates, with farmers harvesting less than 1 ton of food per hectare. Poor roads often hinder p e o p l e ’s access to markets while high prices put inputs beyond the means of most farmers. Credit and insura n c e markets are inadequate or absent. T H E R E S E A R C H The news for the research and development communities is that these vast drylands also present great opportunities. Of all the farming systems being practiced in the dry savanna zones of West Africa, integra t e d c r o p - a n d - l ive s t o ck systems, wh i ch are expanding, have the highest potential for increasing farm production and p r o d u c t ivity in a sustainable manner. 7 6 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:02 PM Page 77 N I G E R I A The challenge is how to maximize the benefits from crop-live s t o ck integration, using minimal inputs, to sustain and improve people’s livelihoods and lands. Development of alternative technologies involving cereals, gra i n legumes and ruminant live s t o ck could help ameliorate severe constraints such as soil infertility and scarce and p o o r-quality feeds for live s t o ck. What has been missing is knowledge of what mixes of technologies and practices maximize benefits to crop- l ive s t o ck farmers in given areas and circumstances while also conserving rather than depleting their scarc e n a t u ral resources. W h a t ’s also missing is knowledge of how best to give farmers access to these interve n t i o n s . T H E W E S T A F R I CA N P R O J E C T A research for development project begun in 1998 has made a concrete start at determining such mixes. Th i s project, building on decades of past research, took new approaches that optimized synergies between crop and l ive s t o ck production to sustain this region’s outputs over the long term. Specifically, the project employed and i n t e g rated complementary research on cereal and legume breeding and selection, live s t o ck-mediated nutrient cycling (including improved nutrient capture), socio-economics, live s t o ck husbandry and rangeland management. This multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional project conducted research in five West African countries—Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Nigeria—from 1998 through 2003. (Burkina Faso and Ghana joined in 2002.) Because cowpea is almost always intercropped with sorghum or millet and the farmers value the residue as l ive s t o ck fodder, scientists from ILRI and IITA began to work together to assess the fodder value of different IITA c owpea varieties. Researchers from ICRISAT provided input on cereal components of the farming systems. In mid-1997, scientists from these three institutes met and agreed that for the subsequent year resources allocated for component research from each institute would be pooled towards developing joint research to take a more holistic approach to improving the dry savanna farming systems. The scientists met again in early 1998, joined by staff from the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC). At this planning meeting, the ‘best bet’ concept was developed. Combining the best of each aspect of crop va r i e t y, crop geometry, live s t o ck feeding and crop residue/manure management gave the ‘best-bet’ options. T H E N I G E R I A N C O M P O N E N T In Nigeria, this initial approach included just three treatments: a best bet with and without minimum inputs (just enough fertilizer for the cereal and pesticide for the cowpea) to be compared with farmers’ traditional pra c t i c e . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 7 7 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:02 PM Page 78 N I G E R I A These options would be evaluated together with farmers, who were co-developers, using a holistic strategy that would assess not only crop grain yields but also fodder yield, animal performance from this fodder, manure output, nutrient cycling and socio-economic factors. In terms of the crop varieties and crop and live s t o ck management options, best-bets would vary from region to region, according to the dominant farming system. Recognizing the challenge of implementing this approach, it was decided to start small. A pilot study in Bichi, an h o u r ’s drive from Kano, in northern Nigeria, began in 1998 with just 11 farmers. In 1999, the SLP funded site ch a racterization in Mali and pilot activities in Niger. From 2000 to 2001, maintenance funds from SLP complemented by institutional resources allowed on-the-ground trials with farmers to get under way in all three countries. Funds from the Danish International Development A g e n cy (Danida) to the SLP in 2002 enabled ch a racterization and feeding trial activities to begin in Ghana and Burkina Faso and activities in the other three countries to be consolidated. The consortium of stakeholders in this project included farmers and a wide spectrum of research and d e velopment institutions. In many respects, the work in Nigeria led the way. The Kano State A g r i c u l t u ral and R u ral Development Authority played a significant role, including seconding staff within research villages. To meet the twin challenges of increasing productivity and sustainability, these groups pioneered a strategy with t wo pillars. One pillar was to bring together components of previous research, developed and tested with farmers, as ‘best-bet’ options that aimed simultaneously to increase food and feed production while maintaining soil fertility. A second pillar was to take full account of all the factors impinging on the adoption and adaptation of these innovations by farmers. The combination of interventions with their holistic farmer-based evaluations distinguishes this research from others like it. Practical implementation proved the best way for all stakeholders, from farmers to extension workers, research assistants, scientists and local policymakers, to learn. Considerable sharing of tacit know l e d g e was responsible for much of the success of this approach . A c t ivities in Nigeria focused on intensive crop-live s t o ck systems involving predominantly cereal-legume i n t e rcrops, mostly sorghum-cowpea but with maize in wetter areas and groundnut as an alternative to cow p e a . The farmers are smallholders, typically with less than 3 hectares of land and a few small ruminants that are managed fairly intensive l y. There are no fallow periods and every piece of potentially arable land is cropped e very ye a r. All crop residues are removed from the fields after grain harvest and conserved for dry-season l ive s t o ck feeding. Cereal stalks may also be used as fuel and building material. At the onset of each grow i n g 7 8 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:02 PM Page 79 N I G E R I A season, live s t o ck manure accumulated during the dry season is returned to the crop fields. Among the options this research project provided were improved dual-purpose (food and feed) varieties of sorghum and cowpea, optimal use of these improved varieties in measured daily feeding regimes for ruminant animals, improved simple housing for animals allowing manure collection and the return of feed refusals to crop fields for their fertilization, and improved crop husbandry practices including dense planting of 2 rows of cereal and 4 rows of legumes with judicious use of mineral fertilizer for sorghum and pesticide for cow p e a . R E S E A R C H I M PAC T S O ver 1500 farmers in Nigeria have participated in this project since 1998, with many recording 100–300 p e rcent increases in grain yield. Live s t o ck management options resulted in better performance in liveweight and manure output. Benefit:cost ratios of 1.8 have been estimated for the improved options, compared to 1 or less for local practices. The project facilitated the formation of farmer groups, including wo m e n ’s groups, with potential to link to credit and other services. Options to maximize the benefit for live s t o ck from available feed r e s o u rces indicated that a net benefit of up to ten times more than the local strategy is possible. Farmers in three villages, about a third of them women, benefited. This project reduced seve ral severe live s t o ck feed problems in the complex crop-live s t o ck systems of West A f r i c a by employing new paradigms of integrated natural resource management. The project succeeded in incorpora t i n g a live s t o ck perspective into crop improvement and natural resource management research. Project staff learned lessons about socio-economic, policy and institutional options that can enhance the introduction and adoption of i m p r oved crop-live s t o ck options. The project also contributed to getting seve ral crop breeding programs (notably c owpea at IITA and sorghum at ICRISAT as well as national programs) to pay greater attention to the use of these crops by live s t o ck. A similar approach was subsequently adopted by IITA within the CGIAR Systemwide Integra t e d Pest Management Programme, where strategies for reducing Striga hermonthica were combined to provide best- bet options. Farmer income in Kano was increased as a result of adopting the best-bet options offered by the project. Many farmers now use this additional income to buy inputs such as seed, fertilizer and pesticide. They are confident in the viability of these new options and no longer view purchasing these inputs as risky. In addition, the contribution women make to household livelihoods was enhanced through improved goat feeding. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 7 9 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:02 PM Page 80 N I G E R I A ’ S D R Y S A V A N N A S Farm families in the dry savannas of West Africa, where Kano, Nigeria, lies, face harsh challenges. The dry season here lasts seven or more months a year and the region’s poor soils are easily degraded by over use. Th e g r owth of rural populations and the burgeoning of urban markets in recent decades have led to enormous changes in Nigerian agriculture. The increasing numbers of people are placing more and more demands on the l a n d ’s capacity for live s t o ck and crop production. I t ’s hard for outsiders to imagine how difficult it is for people to live in the drylands of West Africa, wh e r e households survive on a field of sorghum and a few goats and sheep and most people do not eat enough to meet their basic requirements. Child malnutrition is a huge problem. Families slaughter and eat just one animal a ye a r, at the end of Ramadan, because goats and sheep are too precious as emergency ‘bank accounts’ to squander by eating. Lowered land productivity and the emergence of unsustainable farming practices are the potentially disastrous consequences for people already living at the edge of food and environmental security. 8 0 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:02 PM Page 81 N I G E R I A ’ S D R Y S A V A N N A S ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:03 PM Page 82 H O L I S T I C R E S E A R C H A P P R O A C H ‘ The farmers had all the pieces in place. What they needed was an optimized system that exploited every single r e s o u rce and conserved every single nutrient.’ — B. B. Singh, IITA-Kano and lead scientist in the CGIAR Systemwide Live s t o ck Programme (SLP) project in Bich i ‘ Farmers in this region have to work with considerable complexity. So do the scientists and others aiming to s e r ve them. We don’t know as much as the farmers. We had to determine with the farmers what was most important to work on. Together we chose food and feed crops, live s t o ck and soils and their links with farm household social and economic circumstances. We carried out research on these key interacting factors in an i n t e r-related manner.’ — Jimmy Smith, former coordinator of the SLP (now at the Canadian International D e velopment A g e n cy ) ‘A persistent challenge to this project was to retain the project’s holistic aims. Frequently the focus was the o bvious crop yield, especially grain yield. But this project had broader measures for success, incorpora t i n g l ive s t o ck production, sustainable options, soil fertility and social and economic issues.’ — Salvador Fe r n á n d e z - R ive ra, coordinator of the SLP 8 2 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:04 PM Page 83 H O L I S T I C R ENS I EGA E RR CI AH A P P R O A C H ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:04 PM Page 84 T H E I L R I - I I T A - I C R I S A T C O N N E C T I O N Whereas much component-based research on crops, live s t o ck and soils has been implemented in the past, bringing together the best of these components—something closer to the farmers’ circumstances—has been largely lacking. This SLP project sought to combine the best options from earlier, on-farm component research . Building upon decades of previous work, ILRI, IITA, ICRISAT and national partners in Nigeria and four other West African countries—Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Niger—tested research-based options to increase synergies between crop and live s t o ck production. This project brought together a variety of tech n i c a l i n t e r ventions to address challenges facing crop-live s t o ck farmers in these countries. Tra d i t i o n a l l y, crop improvement programs have operated in isolation from live s t o ck improvement programs, so plant breeders have always emphasized grain yield. Scientists at ILRI, IITA and ICRISAT have made a good beginning in having plant breeders work hand in hand with animal nutritionists. They are working together to d e velop improved dual-purpose crop varieties, improved cropping systems and better crop-residue feeding s t rategies to enhance crop-live s t o ck integration in West A f r i c a . Direct invo l vement of the partners in what was actually happening on farmers’ fields—learning by doing— helped partners identify their roles and tra ck and appreciate their contributions. Limited funding for this project, wh i ch resulted in a somewhat restricted level of activities over a fairly long period, actually worked to develop a highly cohesive team with an excellent spirit of understanding and communication. An outstanding feature of the project has been the strength of the partnerships amongst a range of diverse stakeholders, from farmer groups to national and international research and development institutions to government ministries and non- g overnmental organizations. C o l l a b o ra t ive work by ILRI, IITA, ICRISAT and national partners in Nigeria has given farmers real options to i m p r ove their livelihoods. In the village of Bichi, near the city of Kano in northern Nigeria, these partners conducted participatory experiments to test holistic, best-bet options for a very complex mixed crop-and- l ive s t o ck farming system. Best-bet options were evaluated not only in terms of yields of crops or live s t o ck products but also in terms of economic value, feasibility for farmers to implement and implications for labour and nutrient management. This required a shared and coherent vision among the partners of this project. Th e t e chnologies tested subsequently have spread on their own. Fa r m e r-to-farmer dissemination of seed, methodologies and enthusiasm have moved the experiments into the lives of many farmers without much external intervention. This research is an example of how good multidisciplinary science—including crop breeding, socioeconomics, animal feed and waste management systems, and market analysis—can, combined with farmer wisdom, lead to deve l o p m e n t . 8 4 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:04 PM Page 85 T H E I L R I - I I T A - I C R I S A T C O N N E C T I O N ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:05 PM Page 86 B I C H I F O D D E R C R O P S The Guinea savanna of northern Nigeria is great sorghum country, with the sorghum plants i n t e rcropped with cowpea, a legume that feeds people, animals and soils. At harvest, farmers ‘privatize’ their crop residues, either by hoisting them into trees, fencing or adopting other measures to preserve them for their own use. With declining per capita availability of land and other farm resources in West Africa, it’s hard for farmers to grow food and fodder separa t e l y. Crop residues have thus become the major s o u rce of feed for live s t o ck being integrated into the farming system. Researchers are d e veloping improved dual-purpose crop varieties with higher grain and fodder yields. Maize, sorghum, pearl millet, cowpea, groundnut and soybean are all major sources of both food and fodder in West Africa. High-yielding dual-purpose varieties have been developed for s e ve ral crops wh i ch are catalyzing development of improved crop-live s t o ck systems through multi-centre collaboration and holistic research approach e s . In northern Nigeria, farmers are adopting strategic feeding options for their small ruminants from improved dual-purpose varieties of cowpea and sorghum. These varieties are grown in an improved cropping system that ensures ample quantities of good-quality fodder as well as g rain for the family’s consumption. Excess grain and fodder are sold. Dual-purpose crops, especially legumes, offer the potential to increase the fodder ava i l a b l e from a limited land base, thereby increasing the number of live s t o ck that can be fed as well as the amount of manure available to enhance cropland productiv i t y. The adoption of i m p r oved varieties of food-feed legumes is high in northern Nigeria because in addition to the food and cash obtained from grain legumes, the production of fodder is a significant sourc e of income. Some farmers sell cowpea fodder during the dry season, when feed shortage is critical; income from fodder sales can make up a substantial proportion of their total farm income. Farmers are also aware that such legumes provide a source of high-quality fodder for l ive s t o ck and improve soil fertility. 8 6 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:05 PM Page 87 B I C H I C O W P E A C owpea grain is consumed as food by people while cowpea dry haulms are fed to l ive s t o ck, particularly in the dry season, when feed is scarce. The price of cow p e a haulms ranges between 50-80 percent of the grain price per unit and they often constitute an important source of income. Farmers have been positive about the project interventions, referred to as ‘best-bet options’, wh i ch included improved dual-purpose varieties of cowpea and sorghum crops, l ive s t o ck feeding and manure management options. The feeding regime used either 300g or 600 g a day of cowpea fodder per sheep or goat rather than an ad hoc feeding s t ra t e g y. Because of the multiple benefits of cowpea, this research led to a systems approach to responding to the opportunities for farmers in the dry savannas of West Africa. Dual- purpose cowpea became a component part of research aimed to improve live l i h o o d s wh i ch invo l ved farmers as co-developers of options including also live s t o ck management, cereal varieties, and soil fertility. LEFT TOP A girl pounds grain for the day ’s meal in Bichi Vi l l a g e . B E L OW Red and white sorghum for sale in the Dawanau Grain Market, outside Kano. 8 7 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:05 PM Page 88 L I V E S T O C K P R O J E C T I M P A C T S This project’s ‘best-bet options’ have resulted in increase grain and fodder yields for farmers. Gra i n yield from improved cowpea ave raged three times that of the local variety and fodder ave ra g e d 2.5 times that of the local va r i e t y. All the participating farmers in Bichi abandoned local sorghum in favour of improved dual-purpose sorghum. Whereas the local sorghum has thicker stalks and thus provides more material suitable for building, at least twice as much of the improved sorghum can be consumed by animals. The project has presented farmers with options that allow them to begin to address some of the market opportunities and challenges of intensification. Dual-purpose cowpea, for example, helps farmers respond to and benefit from changing demands for live s t o ck and crops. Given current rates of adoption and a number of assumptions, a potential 900,000 farmers could plant 1.4 million hectares of new dual-purpose cowpea varieties. If these assumptions hold true, for e very US$1 invested in this research, US$63 would be realized, with a total value amounting to US$606 million. 8 8 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:06 PM Page 89 B I C H I V I L L A G E L I V E S T O C K ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:06 PM Page 90 C R O P - L I V E S NT OI GC EK R II AN T E G R A T I O N L ive s t o ck have a key role to play in the management of nutrients within households and ove r landscapes. Research options can enhance nutrient capture and cycling. What is needed are land and live s t o ck management practices that do not deplete the soil nutrient supply (e.g., by h a r vesting feed) in one location in order to maintain or improve soil productivity (e.g., via manure) in another location. C r o p - l ive s t o ck integration is evolving in the dry savannas of Nigeria and other West A f r i c a n states as a strategy to maintain soil fertility. Crop farmers used to obtain manure to fertilize their lands from crop residue grazing contracts with transhumant pastoralists whose live s t o ck deposit manure on the contracted fields. As integrated crop-live s t o ck systems e vo l ve, two groups of farmers are emerging: crop-based village farmers who are now acquiring some live s t o ck to s o u rce manure and agro-pastoralists wh o keep greater numbers of animals and h ave less cropland and crop residues for their live s t o ck . RIGHT TOP Manure is piled in mounds on fields of sorghum intercropped with c owpea. The manure comes by bullock carts or in containers carried by donkeys, or in baskets carried on heads or in empty grain sacks strapped onto Chinese m o t o rcy c l e s . The mounds of manure will be broadcast over the fields by hand, then ploughed or hoed into the earth just before the ground is seeded with this ye a r ’s crop. RIGHT BELOW A newly sewn field. 9 0 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:06 PM Page 91 P E N N I N G BL II VC EHSIT COOC WK PF EO AR M A N U R E Caring for live s t o ck penned for fattening or to prevent crop damage consumes a lot of labour time in Nigeria. Farmers in this project are increasingly interested in options that will allow them to keep animals confined ye a r-round as opposed to the strategic dry-season confinement and feeding, a major reason being to maximize manure collection. By constructing simple shelters to retain the animals, farmers in northern Nigeria have found that their animals grow better and that they are able to accumulate substantial quantities of animal manure to put back on their croplands. ‘If you visit West A f r i c a ’s dry savannas in many months, it’s bleak—mostly baobab trees and bare earth. And yet these lands are intensively cropped with cereals and legumes. Everything is r e m oved from the fields—grain for food, leaves for ruminant fodder and cereal stalks for building or fuel. In this environment, manure from live s t o ck is a scarce but valuable input into the soil.’ —Shirley Ta rawali, International Live s t o ck Research Institute (formerly a joint appointee with ILRI and IITA ) L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 9 1 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:06 PM Page 92 B R E A K F A S T I N B I C H I C owpeas (black - e yed beans) are usually dried and stored for human use or made into a f l o u r. It can also be made into a cake or a paste with pepper, oil and salt. B E L OW Youth eat their breakfast on a street in Bichi Village, outside Kano. 9 2 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:06 PM Page 93 K A N O ’ S D A W A N A U G R A I N M A R K E T The Dawanau Grain Market, on Kasina Road, on the outskirts of Kano, is the largest gra i n market in West Africa—perhaps in all of Africa. Here children collect grains that have fallen on the ground to sell as ch i cken feed. This little girl, R a m a t u , is collecting maize, cow p e a and soyabean grain that she will make into a snack for herself. She comes here every day to collect and clean grain, wh i ch she usually takes home to her family. Her competition is goats, wh i ch lick the grains from the dirt. White and ye l l ow maize; red, white and ye l l ow sorghum; millet; cowpea; soya b e a n ; and wheat are cleaned, packed and sold in 100-kilo bags. Most of the grain is t ransported to the humid South. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:07 PM Page 94 V I L L A G E H O M E S T E A D O F G A R B A S A L E Mr Garba Sale is one of the Bichi Village farmers participating in this SLP research project. His sun-dried mud household, like most here, has a well. A bag fashioned from the inner tube of a tire is used to draw the well wa t e r. Mr Sale keeps sheep. He will fatten the two biggest and sell them at the end of the harvest to make a profit. He say s he has received tremendous benefits for this research. He produces 4-5 times the amount of cowpea using the improved varieties. He feeds his family well on this and makes a profit on the surplus. And his live s t o ck have multiplied. His animal stock are crucial to him. He had to sell 12 animals in the last year because he was very sick. He used the money from his animal sales to buy medicines and to pay for his seve ral stays in hospital. ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:07 PM Page 95 L I V E S T O C K O N T H E S T R E E T S O F B I C H I At the end of the long dry season, wh e n l ive s t o ck feed is scarce, a thin Red Bororo zebu, with tall legs and ch a ra c t e r i s t i c large horns, stands outside the compound of his ow n e r, Mr Mai A n g wa Umaru, wh o is the head of this warden in Bichi. Such oxen sleep in the compound at night. A t d aybreak they are tied outside and f o d d e r, such as this millet straw, is brought to them. The straw also prov i d e s bedding for cattle. Oxen are used to till the land. They work three months of the year at the onset of the rains. During the dry season, they are used to tra n s p o r t m a n u r e . A group of goats being taken for sale at Bichi Market. ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:07 PM Page 96 B I C H I W O M E N ’ S G R O U P S Only men ride bicycles and motorbikes and drive cars here. Except for Ms Esther Odoya , wh o got a degree from Plateau State College of Agriculture and has been working for two years with B i ch i ’s wo m e n ’s groups. Esther is employed by IITA to work on this project. USAID is funding E s t h e r ’s work with the wo m e n ’s groups. A cement hall in the compound of the village head wa s prepared by IITA for the women to meet. IITA refurbished it in 2003 and put on a new corrugated iron roof to shield the women from the sun. The cement floor is new. This wo m e n ’s group grew out of the ILRI-IITA project. It is now a strong social group. The group is registered with a secretary. This group started in 2002 with 6 women and now has 75 wo m e n and is still growing. These mostly Hausa women plant cowpea and raise goats (men own and tend the sheep). According to them, goats don’t eat as much as sheep and are more fertile. Before this research project, the women didn’t have sorghum fodder. They say the variety they h ave now is more leafy and the improved cowpea they are planting has a lot of pod walls for use as fodder. So their goats are fatter, healthier and produce more young. When they have plenty of goats, they sell the males and use the money to prepare for ceremonies. The women say they no longer have to rely on their husbands to buy things for their ch i l d r e n or to send their children to school. Their first priority is their children—they feed them better and buy them school uniforms and books. Then they might buy a spaghetti maker or a sewing m a chine. They buy fertilizer and insecticides and pay for farm labour. These women have their 9 6 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:07 PM Page 97 B I C H I W O M E N ’ S G R O U P S own fields. They say they want their sons to go beyond secondary school—through unive r s i t y. They want their daughters to finish primary school before marrying. A few girls will go to secondary school, very few to unive r s i t y. But when asked, all of the women say they would like their daughters to attend unive r s i t y, like Ms Esther Odoya did. ‘We only heard stories of such daughters before’, they say. ‘It is our dream that we would have such daughters.’ The women are g rateful for the interventions this project brought. ‘We never dreamed these things would come to us.’ They want to continue to empower themselves. Interest in these wo m e n ’s groups has grown tremendously. To d ay each group has grown from about 20 to more than 50 women participating. Most are g r owing improved dual-purpose cowpea and sorghum and are harvesting the g rain and fodder. They are getting higher quantities and quality of feed for their goats. Pictured here is a wo m e n ’s group meeting to discuss a r rangements for raising goats ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 98 B I C H I F O D D E R M A R K E T At Bichi Market, Mr Galadima Mohammed, a pioneer farmer participating in this SLP project, sells groundnut and cowpea haulms. He is a dealer as well as farmer. Tr u cks bring in the fodder. All over the drier areas of the tropics, feed for live s t o ck is becoming as economically important as food grains for people. Through participating in the project, Mr Mohammed has money to send his children and gra n d children, most of whom used to herd animals, to school. ‘This project told us how much fodder to feed our live s t o ck, so we can stretch our fodder reserves for a whole season.’ At the market, sheep, goats and cattle are sold and meat is roasted and sold in the form of kebabs. ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 99 T R A N S P O R T I N G F O D D E R A N D M A N U R E Fodder is stored in trees and on roofs. Here a man carries firewood and green fodder home on a donkey. He had gone to his farm to drop off manure he collected from the animals penned in his household compound. Then he collected greens planted around the farm to take b a ck to feed his penned animals. Th e women pictured here are carrying home b ra n ches they have lopped off trees to s e r ve as browse to feed their animals. Th e fields are unfenced—eve r yone know s whose plots are wh o s e . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 9 9 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 100 K O R A N S C H O O L In a Ko ran school in Bichi Village, children recite bits of the Ko ran they have written in A rabic on homemade wooden boards, wh i ch rest against the mud plaster wall when not in use. They fashion their own pens out of reeds made from stiff grass stems, wh i ch they dip into an ink they make by blending grounded ch a rcoal with gum arabic. Children here start attending Ko ran school at the age of 5 or 6. Those children that also go to the g overnment primary school go to the Ko ran school only after the government school day s h ave ended, in the afternoon. Those children whose families cannot afford to send them to the government school attend Ko ran school both mornings and afternoons. Girls tend to stop attending Ko ran school when they are 12 to 15 years old, when they are expected to marry. Boys leave the school about the age of 20, to farm or market. ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 101 V I L L AGE HOMESTEAD OF MAI A N G WA UM ARU Mr Mai A n g wa Umaru, the head of a ward in Bichi Village, holds his 26-day - o l d g rand-daughter Nana Fi r d a u s i . B E L OW His wife, A s a m o a h , takes pieces of stiff maize meal porridge out of a pot of hot wa t e r, where it has been warmed for breakfast. Th i s will be eaten along with a soup made from baobab leaves, tomatoes, onions, a stock cube, fermented locust bean and tiny fish. Another woman feeds the animals kept in the compound with stalks of sorghum, wh i ch are also used for fuel. At the onset of the ra i ny season, most animals are confined within household compounds. When all croplands have been planted, the village head asks the town crier to go round telling people to tie their stock. The animals will stay in the compounds through the ra i ny season, when children collect grass and weeds and bring these back to the compounds for the animals to eat, until Nove m b e r, when all the crops have been h a r vested. After the harvest, the farmers let their animals into the fields to feed on the crop residues, while also storing some of the residues in trees or on roof tops to feed the animals at the end of the dry season, when feed is scarce. This SLP research has come up with more strategic feeding regimes for these households. For example, the residues of cowpea after harvesting and the pod walls of the peas after shelling are provided in feeding regimes that make these valuable crop residues last longer and feed more animals. ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 102 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 103 A p p e n d i c e s L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 0 3 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 104 Financial inve s t o rs 2004 I N V E S TO R S I N C O R E A N D S P E C I A L P R O G R A M S I N V E S TO R S I N S P E C I A L P R O J E C T S Au s t ra l i a African Union/Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resourc e s B e l g i u m ( AU / I BA R ) C a n a d a Au s t ralian Centre for International A g r i c u l t u ral Research (AC I A R ) China Asian Development Bank (AsDB) D e n m a r k Au s t r i a Fi n l a n d B e l g i u m Fra n c e CAB International G e r m a ny Canadian International Development A g e n cy (CIDA ) I n d i a Centre Te chnique de Coopération Agricole et Rurale (CTA ) I r e l a n d C o l o rado State Unive r s i t y, USA I t a l y Comart Foundation, Canada Ja p a n Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) Ko r e a Cornell Unive r s i t y, USA N e t h e r l a n d s Danish International Development A g e n cy (Danida) N o r way Department for International Development (DFID), UK P h i l i p p i n e s Empresa Brasileria de pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA), Bra z i l South A f r i c a E t h i o p i a S w e d e n European Community S w i t z e r l a n d Farm A f r i c a United Kingdom Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO ) United States Foundation for A dvanced Studies on International Deve l o p m e n t World Bank ( FA S I D ) Fra n c e G a t s by Foundation, UK G e s e l l s ch a f t fur Te ch n i s che Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Germany Global Environment Facility (GEF) Heifer International, USA 1 0 4 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 105 Imperial College, London, UK United States National Science Foundation (NSF) Instituto Nacional de investigación y Tecnología A g raria y United States A g e n cy for International Development (USAID) Alimentaría (INIA), Spain United States Department of Agriculture (USDA ) International Atomic Energy A g e n cy (IAEA) United States Environmental Protection A g e n cy (EPA ) International Development Research Centre (IDRC) U n iversity of Florida, USA International Fund for A g r i c u l t u ral Development (IFA D ) U n iversity of Hohenheim, Germany I r e l a n d U n iversity of Nagoya, Ja p a n I t a l y U n iversity of Nairobi, Ke nya Ja p a n U n iversity of Nottingham, UK Ke nya A g r i c u l t u ral Research Institute (KARI) Utah State Unive r s i t y, USA Ko r e a Vétérinaires sans Frontières–Belgium (VSF–Belgium) Limburgs Universitair Centrum (LUC), Belgium Wellcome Trust, UK Makerere Unive r s i t y, Uganda World Bank Montana State Unive r s i t y, USA Mpala Research Centre, Ke nya C G I A R I N V E S T M E N T S I N P R O J E C T S N a t u ral Environment Research Council, UK C o n s u l t a t ive Group on International A g r i c u l t u ral Research N e t h e r l a n d s ( C G I A R ) Netherlands Foundation for the A dvancement of Tropical Research Desert Margins Program (DMP) ( WOT R O ) International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tr o p i c s N o r way ( I C R I S AT ) National Research Institute (NRI), UK International Food Po l i cy Research Institute (IFPRI) Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEC) International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA ) O r o m i ya Agriculture Development Bureau (OADB), Ethiopia International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) P h i l i p p i n e s International Potato Center (CIP) R o ckefeller Foundation, USA International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) S a s a k awa Global 2000, Ja p a n International Water Management Institute (IWMI) S CA NAGRI, Denmark Urban Harvest (Strategic Initiative on Urban and Pe r i - U r b a n S w e d e n A g r i c u l t u r e ) S w i t z e r l a n d West Africa Rice Development Association (WA R DA ) Syngenta Foundation, Switzerland World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) S y racuse Unive r s i t y, USA Texas A&M Unive r s i t y, USA L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 0 5 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 106 Financial highlights 2004 Expenditures for 2004 were at US$31.7 million compared to 2003 expenditures of US$30.7 million, or about 3 percent higher. ILRI reve n u e increased by 13 percent and reached US$34.9 million. Although ILRI continued to grow in terms of programmatic investment, the resulting surplus of US$3.2 million was due largely to exchange gains. Unrestricted funding represented 43 percent (US$15.1 million) of total reve n u e in 2004. Restricted funding made up 51 percent (US$17.8 million) of the total support while center income provided the remaining 6 percent (US$2 million). P r o g rammatic expenditure accounted for 78 percent of all expenses. The institute’s net assets amounted to US$30.3 million at December 31. ILRI’s short-term solve n cy and long-term liquidity are above the recommended CGIAR guidelines. The financial indicators at the end of 2004 suggest that ILRI is financially in a strong position and will continue to remain fiscally healthy for the foreseeable future. 1 0 6 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 107 I L R I expenditures by object I L R I funding by type of donor I L R I funding trend L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 0 7 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 108 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 109 Selected publications 2004 For a full list of ILRI publications, please visit the ILRI website: www.ilri.org Ayalew W. and Rowlands J. (eds). 2004. Design, execution and analysis of the livestock breed survey in Oromiya Regional State, Ethiopia. OADB (Oromiya Agricultural Development Bureau), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute), Nairobi, Kenya. 253 pp. + CD-ROM. Emwanu T., Okwi P.O., Hoogeveen J.G., Kristjanson P., Kruska R. and Owuor J. 2004. Where are the poor? Mapping patterns of well-being in Uganda: 1992 & 1999. UBOS (Uganda Bureau of Statistics), Entebbe, Uganda and ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute), Nairobi, Kenya. 86 pp. Holmann F. and Lascano C. (eds). 2004. Feeding systems with forage legumes to intensify dairy production in Latin America and the Caribbean: A project executed by the Tropileche Consortium. CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical), Cali, Colombia, SLP (System-wide Livestock Programme), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute), Nairobi, Kenya. 160 pp. + CD-ROM. ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute). 2004. CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme report 2003: Searching for synergies in livestock research. ILRI, Nairobi, Kenya. 76 pp. ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute). 2004. ILRI annual report 2003: Innovative partnerships. ILRI, Nairobi, Kenya. 80 pp. ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute). 2004. ILRI financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2003. ILRI, Nairobi, Kenya. ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute). 2004. ILRI medium-term plan 2005–2007. Livestock: A pathway out of poverty. ILRI, Nairobi, Kenya. 110 pp. Krishna A., Kristjanson P., Radeny M. and Nindo W. 2004. Escaping poverty and becoming poor in 20 Kenyan villages. Journal of Human Development (USA) 5(2):211–226. Nicholson C.F., Thornton P.K. and Muinga R.W. 2004. Household-level impacts of dairy cow ownership in coastal Kenya. Journal of Agricultural Economics (UK) 55(2):175–195. Omore A., Cheng’ole-Mulindo J., Fakhrul-Islam S.M., Nurah G., Khan M.I., Staal S.J. and Dugdill B.T. 2004. Employment generation through small-scale dairy marketing and processing: Experiences from Kenya, Bangladesh and Ghana. A joint study by the ILRI Market-Oriented Smallholder Dairy Project and FAO Animal Production and Health Division. FAO Animal Production and Health Paper 158. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), Rome, Italy, and ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute), Nairobi, Kenya. 47 pp. Sani R.A., Gray G.D. and Baker R.L. (eds). 2004. Worm control for small ruminants in tropical Asia. ACIAR Monograph 113. ACIAR (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), Canberra, Australia, ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute), Nairobi, Kenya and IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), Rome, Italy. 264 pp. + CD-ROM. Thornton P.K., Fawcett R.H., Galvin K.A., Boone R.B., Hudson J.W. and Vogel C.H. 2004. Evaluating management options that use climate forecasts: Modelling livestock production systems in the semi-arid zone of South Africa. Climate Research 26(1):33–42. Williams T.O., Tarawali S., Hiernaux P. and Fernández-Rivera S. (eds). 2004. Sustainable crop–livestock production for improved livelihoods and natural resource management in West Africa. Proceedings of an international conference held at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria, 19–22 November 2001. ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute), Nairobi, Kenya, and CTA (Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation), Wageningen, The Netherlands. 516 pp. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 0 9 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 110 De g rees awarded 2004 U n iversities awarded post-graduate degrees in 2004 to the following graduate fellows, who conducted their research at ILRI. Alemu, Te s f aye. 2004. PhD. Genetic ch a racterization of indigenous goat populations of Ethiopia using microsatellite DNA markers. National Dairy Institute, India. A s rat, Michael. 2004. MSc. Infection prevalence of ovine fasciolosis in irrigation schemes along the Awash River Basin and the effects of strategic anathematic treatment in selected upstream areas. Addis Ababa Unive r s i t y, Ethiopia. Aya l e w, Mulugeta. 2004. MSc. Characterization of dairy production systems in the Yerer Watershed in Adaliben Wo r e d a , Ethiopia. A l e m aya Unive r s i t y, Ethiopia. Bateta, Rosemary. 2004. MSc. Development and optimization of enzyme-linked immunoassays as a read-out system for a c t ivation of Theileria parva-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Ke nyatta Unive r s i t y, Ke nya . Dinku, Lemma. 2004. MSc. Smallholders’ irrigation practices and issues of community management: The case of two irrigation systems in eastern Oromia, Ethiopia. Addis Ababa Unive r s i t y, Ethiopia. Githiori, JB. 2004. PhD. Evaluation of anthelmintic properties of ethnoveterinary plant preparations used as live s t o ck d e wormers by pastoralists and smallholder farmers in Ke nya. Swedish A g r i c u l t u ral Unive r s i t y, Uppsala, Sweden. Gum’a, Darout. 2004. MSc. The socio-cultural aspect of irrigation management: The case of two community-based small- scale irrigation schemes in the Upper Tekeze Basin, Ti g ray Region, Ethiopia. Addis Ababa Unive r s i t y, Ethiopia. Kabirizi, Jo l l y. 2004. PhD. Impact of integrating leguminous fodder on forage production and dairy cattle performance in smallholder crop-live s t o ck farming systems: A case study of Masaka District, Uganda. Makerere Unive r s i t y, Kampala, U g a n d a . Ke d i r, Yusuf. 2004. MSc. Assessment of small-scale irrigation using compara t ive performance indicators on some selected farms in the Upper Awash River Va l l e y. A l e m aya Unive r s i t y, Ethiopia. Ko s g e y, IS. 2004. PhD. Breeding objectives and breeding strategies for small ruminants in the tropics. Wageningen Unive r s i t y, N e t h e r l a n d s . López, SG. 2004. MSc. Diagnostic participatif des exploitations agricoles dans la region de Debre Zeit, Ethiopia. Centre National d’Etudes Agronomiques des Regions Chaudes (CNEARC), Montpellier Cedex, Fra n c e . 1 1 0 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 111 Lungu, Bazak. 2004. MSc. The effect of information flows and linkages on self-help initiatives in Ethiopia: The case of A d a ’ a Liben Woreda Dairy and Dairy Products Marketing Association in Debre Zeit. Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. M a ch i l a - E i s l e r, Noreen. 2004. PhD. Improved targeting and appropriate use of trypanocidal drugs for the control of A f r i c a n b ovine trypanosomiasis in tsetse-endemic areas of western and coastal Ke nya within the context of primary veterinary care. Edinburgh Unive r s i t y, UK. Menge, David. 2004. PhD. Mapping quantitative trait loci controlling resistance to gastrointestinal nematode infections in mice. Ke nyatta Unive r s i t y, Ke nya . Njoroge, George. 2004. MSc. Studies on preve n t ive and cura t ive ethnoveterinary remedies applied by the Rendille/Ariaal and G a b ra communities of Marsabit District, Ke nya. University of Nairobi, Ke nya . Odongo, David. 2004. PhD. Molecular analysis of the Theileria parva carrier state and genetic diversity of the parasite in cattle. Brunel Unive r s i t y, UK. O m o ny, Jimmy. 2004. MSc. Modelling choice of breeding by smallholder dairy farmers in the Ke nyan highlands. Unive r s i t y of Nairobi, Ke nya . Pa n a ch a d ch a ram, C. 2004. PhD. Problems in the control of nematode parasites of small ruminants in Malaysia: Resistance to anthelmintics and the biological control alternative. Swedish A g r i c u l t u ral Unive r s i t y, Uppsala, Sweden. Ruto, Eric. 2004. PhD. Economic valuation of farm animal genetic resources: Methods and applications to indigenous cattle in Ke nya. Newcastle Unive r s i t y, UK. Xuebin, Qi. 2004. PhD. Genetic dive r s i t y, differentiation and relationship of domestic yak populations: A microsatellite and m i t o chondrial DNA study. Lanzhou Unive r s i t y, China. Z a n d e r, Kerstin. 2004. PhD. Pricing of unique ch a racteristics of indigenous cattle in East and Southern Africa. Center for D e velopment Research, University of Bonn, Germany. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 1 1 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 112 Selected staff 2004 Unless otherwise stated, staff are located in Nairobi, Ke nya, or Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. For a full and updated list of ILRI’s 734 staff members wo r l dwide, visit ILRI’s website: www. i l r i . o r g D i r e c t o ra t e Carlos Seré, Uruguay director genera l Kentice Tikolo, Ke nya special assistant to the director general John McDermott, Canada deputy director genera l – r e s e a rch G e t a chew Engida, Ethiopia director of finance, human resources and administra t i o n ~ Gordon MacNeil, USA interim director of finance, human resources and a d m i n i s t ra t i o n * ~ Bruce Scott, Canada director of partnerships and communications Rose Ndegwa, Ke nya intellectual property officer Maria Mulindi, Ke nya a d m i n i s t ra t ive assistant to the director genera l Theme 1: Targeting Opportunities Ade Freeman, Sierra Leone a g r i c u l t u ral economist, theme director* Albert Waudo, Ke nya p r o g ram assistant* Mario Herrero, Costa Rica systems analyst, joint appointment with the U n iversity of Edinburgh Patricia Kristjanson, Canada a g r i c u l t u ral economist Philip Thornton, UK systems analyst, based in UK Theme 2: Enabling Innova t i o n s Jeroen Dijkman, Netherlands tropical live s t o ck production specialist, theme director Mekdim Abebe Ketsela, Ethiopia p r o g ram assistant Douglas Gray, Au s t ra l i a animal scientist/regional representative for Southeast A s i a , based in The Philippines Dirk Hoekstra, Netherlands a g r i c u l t u ral economist/coordinator of the project ‘ I m p r oving Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian Farmers’ (IPMS)* 1 1 2 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 113 Xianglin Li, China agro-ecologist/China liaison scientist, based in China Bruno Minjauw, Belgium animal scientist/coordinator of Live s t o ck Farmer Fi e l d S chools, joint appointment with V S F - B e l g i u m JB Mulumba Kamuanga, DR Congo a g r i c u l t u ral economist, based in Burkina Fa s o Jean Ndikumana, Burundi coordinator of the A S A R E CA Animal A g r i c u l t u ral Research N e t work (A-AARNET) Theme 3 – Market Opportunities Chris Delgado, USA economist, theme director and director of the ILRI-IFPRI Joint Program on Live s t o ck Market Opportunities, based in U S A S t e ve Staal, USA a g r i c u l t u ral economist, theme deputy director Hellen Rugoiyo, Ke nya p r o g ram assistant* Federico Holmann, Nicara g u a a g r i c u l t u ral economist, based in Colombia, joint appointment with CIAT Mohammed Ja b b a r, Bangladesh a g r i c u l t u ral economist E dwin Perez, Costa Rica ruminant nutritionist, based in Nicara g u a Brian Pe r r y, UK veterinary epidemiologist Theme 4: Biotech n o l o g y Ed Rege, Ke nya animal geneticist, theme director Rosalyne Murithi, Ke nya p r o g ramme assistant* R i chard Bishop, UK molecular para s i t o l o g i s t John Gibson, Canada g e n e t i c i s t ~ O l ivier Hanotte, Belgium molecular biologist Stephen Kemp, UK geneticist, joint appointment with the U n iversity of Live r p o o l * Robert King, UK manager of research support units E vans Ta ra cha, Ke nya i m m u n o l o g i s t L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 1 3 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 114 Theme 5: People, Live s t o ck and the Env i r o n m e n t Shirley Ta rawali, UK agronomist, theme director Askale Worku, Ethiopia p r o g ram assistant Augustine Ayantunde, Nigeria ruminant nutritionist, based in Niger M i chael Blümmel, Germany ruminant nutritionist, based in India S a l vador Fe r n á n d e z - R ive ra, Mexico animal scientist, interim theme director, coordinator of the CGIAR Systemwide Live s t o ck System Progra m m e Jean Hanson, UK plant geneticist, joint appointment with IPGRI Aggrey Majok, Sudan veterinary epidemiologist, based in Syria, joint appointment with ICA R DA Don Peden, Canada systems ecologist/range management specialist Tom Randolph, USA a g r i c u l t u ral economist, interim theme director Robin Reid, USA landscape ecologist Azage Tegegne, Ethiopia Debre Zeit station manager William Thorpe, UK regional representative for Asia, based in India A r ve Lee Willingham, USA veterinary parasitologist, joint appointment with Danida* R e s e a rch Support Mamadou Diedhiou, Senegal b i o m e t r i c i a n L u cy Gacheru, Ke nya g rants officer Leah Ndungu, Ke nya r e s e a rch management officer Yilma Yobre, Ethiopia t raining officer Partnerships and Communications Loza Mesfin, Ethiopia assistant to director of partnerships and communications* Mulugeta Bayeh, Ethiopia senior editor~ Azeb A b raham, Ethiopia l i b ra r i a n Joan Abila, Ke nya a d m i n i s t ra t ive officer~ Veyrl Adell, Ke nya e vents manager and training officer 1 1 4 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 115 R i chard Fulss, Germany information manager, seconded from CIM G race Kamau, Ke nya l i b ra r i a n Susan MacMillan, USA head of public awa r e n e s s Ian Moore, UK head of information technology services, joint appointment with ICRAF A d m i n i s t ra t i o n Negussie A b raham, Ethiopia chief accountant Joseph Alaro, Ke nya treasury accountant Elizabeth Getach e w, Ethiopia human resources officer Tumuluru Ku m a r, India budget officer/operations manager Ju dy Ngugi, Ke nya financial accountant Jared Odhingo, Ke nya project accountant S a rah Onyoni, Ke nya human resources manager Antonio Silla, Ethiopia internal auditor Aguibou Tall, Mali head of administration, Ethiopia N o t e s * Joined ILRI in 2004. ~ Left ILRI in 2004. L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 1 5 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 116 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 117 B o a rd of trustees Dr Uwe We r b l ow Chair (since Nov), Germany Dr Romano Kiome, Ke nya Retired Head of Div i s i o n D i r e c t o r R u ral Development, Environment and Food Security Ke nya A g r i c u l t u ral Research Institute D i r e c t o rate General for Deve l o p m e n t Ke nya European Commission B e l g i u m Ms Jo Luck, U S A Chief Executive Officer Dr John Ve rc o e Chair (term ended Nov), Au s t ra l i a Heifer International Retired Chair of Committee of Board Chairs U S A C o n s u l t a t ive Group on International A g r i c u l t u ral Research Prof Paul-Pierre Pastoret (term ended Nov), Belgium Au s t ra l i a D i r e c t o r Institute for Animal Health Dr Agnes Casiple Rola Vice Chair, Philippines Compton Labora t o r y Professor and Director U K Institute of Strategic Planning and Po l i cy Studies College of Public A f f a i r s Prof Jan Philipsson, S w e d e n P h i l i p p i n e s C h a i r Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics Dr Fee Chon Chong-Low, M a l ay s i a U n iversity of A g r i c u l t u ral Sciences Project Manager S w e d e n U N E P - G E F / B i o s a f e t y S w i t z e r l a n d Dr Carlos Seré (ex officio), Uruguay Director Genera l Ato Belay Ejigu, E t h i o p i a International Live s t o ck Research Institute Minister Ke nya Ministry of A g r i c u l t u r e E t h i o p i a Dr Nthoana Tau-Mzamane, South A f r i c a President and Chief Executive Officer Dr Teruhide Fujita, Ja p a n Agriculture Research Council E x e c u t ive Director South A f r i c a Japan Live s t o ck Te chnology A s s o c i a t i o n Ja p a n L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 1 7 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 118 Institutional contacts ILRI Ke nya I L R I - Ke nya @ c g i a r. o r g ILRI Niger P. O. Box 30709 I L R I - N i a m e y @ c g i a r. o r g Nairobi 00100, Ke nya c/o ICRISAT Sahelian Center Tel + 254–20 422 3000 B. P. 12404 + 1–650 833 6660 (USA direct) N i a m e y, Niger Fax + 254–20 422 3001 Tel + 227–722 529, 722 725, 722 626 + 1–650 833 6661 (USA direct) Fax + 227–752 208, 734 329 Telex 22040 ILRI/Nairobi/Ke nya ILRI Nigeria ILRI Ethiopia I L R I - I b a d a n @ c g i a r. o r g I L R I - E t h i o p i a @ c g i a r. o r g c/o IITA P. O. Box 5689 PMB 5320 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Ibadan, Nigeria Tel + 251–11 646 3215 Tel + 234–2 241 2626 + 1–650 833 6696 (USA direct) Fax + 234–2 241 2221, 241 2974 Fax + 251–11 646 1252/646 4645 + 1–650 833 6697 (USA direct) ILRI Nigeria via UK: c/o L.W. Lambourn and Co. ILRI Ethiopia Debre Zeit Research Station Carolyn House, 26 Dingwall Road I L R I - d e b r e - z e i t @ c g i a r. o r g C r oydon, Surrey, CR9 3EE, UK P. O. Box 5689 Tel + 44–208 686 9031 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Fax + 44–208 681 8583 Tel + 251–11 433 9566 Fax + 251–11 646 1252 1 1 8 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 119 ILRI China ILRI Southeast A s i a x . l i @ c g i a r. o r g I L R I - P h i l i p p i n e s @ c g i a r. o r g ILRI-Beijing Office DAPO Box 7777 c/o CA A S Metro Manila, Philippines 12 Zhong-Guan-Cun South Ave n u e Courier address: Beijing 100081, China Suite 1009, 6776 Ayala Ave n u e Tel + 86–10 6211 4583 1271 Makati City, Philippines Fax + 86–10 6211 4585 Tel + 63–2 845 0563, 762 0127 Fax + 63–2 845 0606 ILRI India m . b l u m m e l @ c g i a r. o r g ILRI Colombia c/o ICRISAT Pa t a n ch e r u f . h o l m a n n @ c g i a r. o r g Pa t a n cheru 502 324 c/o CIAT A n d h ra Pradesh, India P. O. Box 6713 Tel + 91–40 3071 3071, 3071 3653 Cali, Colombia Fax + 91–40 3071 3074, 3071 3075 Tel + 57–2 445 0000 Fax + 57–2 445 0073 ILRI South A s i a w. t h o r p e @ c g i a r. o r g ILRI Central A m e r i c a c/o ICRISAT Delhi Office e . p e r e z @ c g i a r. o r g CGIAR Centres’ Block (1st floor) A . P. LM-311 Managua, Nicara g u a National A g r i c u l t u ral Science Centre Complex Tel + 50–5 265 8123 Dev Prakash Shastri Marg Fax + 50–5 837 5951 Todapur Road near Pusa Institute New Delhi 110 012, India Email addresses of indiv i d u a l s Tel +91–11 2584 9552 f o l l ow in general the format Fax +91–11 2584 1294 < Fi r s t i n i t i a l . s u r n a m e @ c g i a r. o r g > , e.g. a.smith@cgiar. o r g L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 1 9 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 120 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 121 About ILRI and the CGIAR The International Live s t o ck Research Institute (ILRI) works at the crossroads of l ive s t o ck and pove r t y, bringing high-quality science and capacity building to bear on poverty reduction and sustainable deve l o p m e n t . ILRI works in partnerships and alliances with other organizations, national and international, in live s t o ck research, training and information. ILRI works in the tropical developing regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America and the C a r i b b e a n . ILRI is one of 15 Future Harvest centres that conduct food and env i r o n m e n t a l r e s e a rch to help alleviate poverty and increase food security while protecting the natural resource base. The centres are funded by government agencies, d e velopment banks, private foundations and regional and international organizations and are supported by the Consultative Group on International A g r i c u l t u ral Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR (www. c g i a r.org) is an association of public- and priva t e - s e c t o r institutions. Its mission is to contribute to food security and poverty alleviation in developing countries through research, partnership, capacity building and p o l i cy support. The co-sponsors of the CGIAR are the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Fund for A g r i c u l t u ral Deve l o p m e n t . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 2 1 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 122 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 123 Our va l u e s R E S P O N S I B L E Our commitment to our mission inspires us, attracts others to our cause and enlarges the wo r l d ’s ambition and capacity to reduce poverty through a g r i c u l t u ral research. Integrity is the cornerstone of our business. We maintain ethical standards based on the highest regard for accura cy, fact, truth and t ra n s p a r e n cy and we recognize and reward those who exemplify these q u a l i t i e s . R E S P O N S I V E We value excellence, initiative and innovation. We are demand driven and outcome oriented. We think strategically and act opportunistically, wo r k i n g across themes, disciplines, departments, systems and scales, linking partners across the research - t o - d e velopment spectrum, for greatest impacts. We e n c o u rage risk taking and regard failure as opportunity. We aim for superior communications, placing high value on the art of listening. We daily take the time and time-out needed to build and maintain exceptional relations with e a ch other and with our partners. R E S P E C T F U L We treat all people with respect for their opinions, priva cy, differences, b a ckgrounds, dignity and natural desire to grow and we distribute resourc e s and opportunities among staff equitably as well as cost effective l y. We treat e a ch other as managers of our own work and defer decision making as well as responsibility to front-line workers. We define leadership by how much people help other people develop professionally. We hire, mentor and develop highly m o t ivated professionals, actively recruiting women and men from deve l o p i n g countries. We view our diversity as a central asset to be nurtured and we take particular pleasure, energy and courage from the cultures of the countries in wh i ch we wo r k . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 2 3 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 124 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 125 A c ronyms and abbre v i a t i o n s A AT F African A g r i c u l t u ral Te chnology Fo u n d a t i o n A I D S acquired immune deficiency syndrome A P R L P A n d h ra Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project A S A R E CA Association for Strengthening A g r i c u l t u ral Research in Eastern and Southern A f r i c a B e c A Biosciences eastern and central A f r i c a CA S R E N Crop-Animal Systems Research Netwo r k C G I A R C o n s u l t a t ive Group on International A g r i c u l t u ral Research C I AT International Center for Tropical A g r i c u l t u r e C I M Centrum fur Internationale Migration und Entwick l u n g C I P International Potato Center DA N I DA Danish International Development A g e n cy D F I D Department for International Deve l o p m e n t FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FA R A Forum for A g r i c u l t u ral Research in A f r i c a G A LV Global Alliance for Live s t o ck Va c c i n e s G D P gross domestic product G E F Global Environment Fa c i l i t y I CA R DA International Centre for A g r i c u l t u ral Research in the Dry A r e a s I C R A F World Agroforestry Centre I C R I S AT International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tr o p i c s I F D C International Fertilizer Development Center I F P R I International Food Po l i cy Research Institute I I TA International Institute for Tropical A g r i c u l t u r e I L R I International Live s t o ck Research Institute I P G R I International Plant Genetic Resources Institute I P M S I m p r oving Productivity and Market Success of Ethiopian Fa r m e r s I W M I International Water Management Institute J L A F G R Joint Laboratory for Animal and Fo rage Genetic Resourc e s N E PA D New Partnership for A f r i c a ’s Deve l o p m e n t N I R S near infrared spectroscopy O I E World Animal Health Organization S A K S S S t rategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System S A S A S i chuan Animal Science A c a d e my S L P Systemwide Live s t o ck Progra m m e S P S sanitary and phytosanitary standards U N E P United Nations Environment Progra m m e U S A I D United States A g e n cy for International Deve l o p m e n t V S F Vétérinaires sans Fr o n t i e r e s W H O World Health Organization L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 2 5 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 126 5. Doorway to a household in Bich i C a p t i o n s Village, outside Kano, in Nigeria’s northern Kano State. 3. Cattle graze a field of crop stubble 5. Food seller in Bichi Vi l l a g e , outside Hyderabad, in India’s A n d h ra outside Kano, Nigeria. P radesh State. 4. A worker in a fodder market 5.Mohamed Amash, a three-ye a r- o l d in Hyderabad, India. b oy living in Bichi Village, outside Kano, Nigeria. 4. Fodder being transported by 6. Black kanchu goats near Ve l m a k a n a b u l l o ck cart in Hyderabad, India. Village, west of Hyderabad, India. 4. The carved wooden wheel of a 8. In Bichi Village, outside Kano, fodder cart in Hyderabad, India. Nigeria, youth stand over a group of goats being taken to market for sale. 1 2 6 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 127 12. Buffalo resting on the 15. Farmhouse store in Sich u a n streets of Hydera b a d , P r ovince, China. I n d i a . 13. Food seller in Bichi Vi l l a g e , 15. Farmhouse store in Kano State, outside Kano, Nigeria. N i g e r i a . 13. Chicken in Sich u a n 16. In Zitong County of China’s P r ovince, China. southwestern Sichuan Prov i n c e , Mr Liang Tianfu and Mrs Liu Xingjun take their goats out to gra z e . 14. Farmer winnowing ch a f f 23. A farmer participating in the from grain in China. CASREN pig-feed tech n o l o g i e s project in Zitong County, S i chuan Province, China. 14. and 81. Mr Klada Ibrahim A j i g i , 25. Mr Liang Tianfu, a participant in extension officer from Kano CA S R E N ’s pig-feed tech n o l o g i e s State A g r i c u l t u ral and Rura l project in Zitong County, Sich u a n D e velopment Au t h o r i t y, P r ovince, China, carries sweet potato who works on the SLP silage to feed his stall-kept pigs. project in Bichi Vi l l a g e . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 2 7 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 128 27. Pigs kept by smallholder farmers in 49. Working oxen share the roads in India’s Zitong County, Sichuan Prov i n c e , A n d h ra Pradesh State with cars, lorries and C h i n a . t h r e e - wheeled auto rick s h aws. The oxen pull carts laden with fodder. 31. Farm roofscape outside Renhe 51. In Shankarpally Village, in the Ko t h a p a l l y Township, in Zitong County, Sich u a n Watershed region of India’s A n d h ra Pra d e s h P r ovince, China. State, farmers take a welcome tea break on market day. 45. Water buffalo kept by a household 55. A buffalo walks by a 70-ye a r- o l d in the countryside west of Hydera b a d r oyal tomb in Pa t a n cheru Vi l l a g e , in India’s south central state of A n d h ra outside Hyderabad, India, about two P ra d e s h . kilometres from the headquarters of I C R I S AT, where ILRI conducts c o l l a b o ra t ive research . 47. A buffalo cow and her calf kept by 73. Cattle in A n d h ra Pradesh, India, a dairy in Pa t a n cheru Village, outside feed on the residues of crops after H y d e rabad, one of India’s fastest- h a r ve s t i n g . g r owing cities. The cow is eating chopped sorghum residues. 48. A farmer ploughs his land in India’s 75. An underweight Red Bororo zebu A n d h ra Pradesh countryside with oxen bull stands outside the compound of its in preparation for planting maize or owner at the end of the long dry sorghum when the ra i ny season arrive s , season in a village in Bichi, an hour’s in Ju n e . d r ive from Nigeria’s great northern city of Kano. 1 2 8 ILRI Annual Re p o rt 2004 ILRI 2004Final edits 12/23/05 12:08 PM Page 129 83. Children make fun in the 116. Mr Liang Guorong, e n t ra n c e way to a home in a an 83-ye a r- o l d village in Bichi, Kano State, pig farmer in N i g e r i a . S i chuan Prov i n c e , C h i n a . 85. Mrs Aabu Ado shells cow p e a s 120. Laxmi, a woman who supplements in front of her goats, tied under a shelter, her farm income by cooking meals in her homestead in Yakasai Wa r d for children at the Ko t h a ch e r u v u in Bichi Village, Kano State, Village Primary School, in N i g e r i a . A n d h ra Pradesh, India. 89. Mr Garba Sale, 122. Mr Liang Tianfu, a pig farmer a farmer in Bichi Vi l l a g e , in Tianle Village, Zitong County, outside Kano, Nigeria, S i chuan Province, China. feeds his small stock . 102. Youth do their lessons in 124. A food seller from a live s t o ck - a Ko ran school in Bich i keeping family in Bichi Vi l l a g e , Village, outside Kano, outside Kano, Nigeria. Nigeria, where Usman Yusuf has been teach i n g for the last ten ye a r s . 108. Boys at the Ko t h a cheruvu Vi l l a g e Primary School, three hours’ d r ive west of Hydera b a d , in India’s A n d h ra Pra d e s h S t a t e . L i vestock as a Tool for Agricultural Intensification 1 2 9 ILRI 2004 A R Cover reflow 12/23/05 9:07 AM Page 2 w w w. i l r i . o r g P O Box 30709 Nairobi 00100 Kenya