Africa: A Grass Native to Africa Could Transform the Continent’s Dairy Yields. Here’s How

The cows saved by small-scale farmers in Africa are notoriously unproductive. The typical dairy cow, for instance, produces about 540 litres of milk per lactation. In contrast, dairy cows in North America that belong to industrial or intensive farmers can produce as much as 10,479 litres of milk per lactation.

One of many foremost variations between the 2 animals lies within the high quality of their feeds and forage. Merely put, the extra nutritious cows’ diets are, the extra and higher high quality milk they produce. And small-scale farmers – of which there are about 33 million in Africa, contributing as much as 70% of the continent’s meals provide – often can’t afford extra nutritious feed.

Brachiaria – the genus identify of Urochloa – consists of about 100 documented species of grass of which seven species used as fodder vegetation are of African origin. This grass might maintain the important thing to bettering milk yields from cows saved by small-scale farmers. Why is that this an essential objective?

First, it would assist to fulfill rising demand for animal-sourced meals – like cow milk – because the continent turns into extra urbanised and its inhabitants grows. Second, it would present an financial boon to particular person farmers and communities extra broadly. Lastly, there’s potential for Brachiaria itself to turn out to be a cash maker. Native seed merchants will profit if the grass seed is commercialised.

Brachiaria has already confirmed its price in some elements of the world. It has been instrumental to the meat business’s success within the tropical Americas. Brazil alone now has some 99 million hectares of land devoted to Brachiaria grass.

The seed varieties at present utilized in African agriculture are all imported, most from South America and South East Asia. Lengthy distance transportation and tariffs make these seeds costly. It might be ideally suited to develop a top quality, local weather resilient Brachiaria seed manufacturing system on the continent. However the place?

We consider the reply lies in Cameroon. Farmers there have lengthy planted Brachiaria seeds, however no one had ever examined their high quality. Our analysis stuffed this hole. Although the general seed high quality was poor, we have discovered that improved cultivation practices can tackle this situation. Now we’re exhausting at work to show Cameroon into Africa’s Brachiaria seed hub.

A high quality grass

Brachiaria’s forage high quality was recognised by scientists within the Nineteen Fifties. It has a excessive biomass yield potential and is adaptable to low-fertility soil. South American farmers, particularly in Brazil, began utilizing Brachiaria on a large-scale within the early Seventies and it’s recognised as being key to the area’s booming beef business.

In Africa, nevertheless, curiosity within the grass grew extra slowly. It was not till the early 2000s, when the continent started to really feel the consequences of inhabitants progress and urbanisation that increased demand for animal-sourced meals piqued renewed curiosity in methods to enhance agricultural yields.

As a plant scientist based mostly on the Worldwide Livestock Analysis Institute, I’ve researched Brachiaria grass since 2013. By way of varied partnerships, colleagues and I’ve labored on a climate-smart Brachiaria programme to check the varieties already developed in Australia and South America in varied African contexts. They carried out properly independently, however the subsequent step was to combine them into the combined crop-livestock methods typical of the continent.

Farmers responded enthusiastically to the grass: it considerably elevated milk manufacturing by as much as 40% and brought on substantial physique weight achieve in livestock, by as a lot as 50% in heifers. Its recognition grew as main journals and media shops publicised its advantages. Nonetheless, the seeds that made all this analysis doable have been nonetheless unavailable on the continent. We needed to import them, an arduous and expensive course of due to laws and distance. So we knew that, going ahead, we had to have a look at native seed manufacturing.

It was additionally essential to seek out the most effective nation for the duty at hand. Whereas our work in Kenya and Rwanda was promising, it wasn’t as profitable as we might have hoped, probably resulting from these nations’ proximity to the equator; the truth that night time and day are of equal size affected varied levels of seed improvement in species that favour longer days.

Why Cameroon?

Cameroon is commonly known as “Africa in miniature”. It represents the continent’s main climatic zones, creating an ideal place for seed analysis.

Throughout a go to to Cameroon, I famous that farmers had been rising Brachiaria grass for over 50 years and concurrently producing the seed for home makes use of.

Additionally they promote surplus seed to neighbours, and seed merchants from the Central African Republic and Nigeria. Nonetheless, the standard of seeds produced in Cameroon was not established till our examine.

There are ten areas in Cameroon; Brachiaria grass is often grown in 5. Our workforce collected seeds from these 5 areas to find out their high quality: trueness to selection, germination proportion, purity, vigour and look. The standard was typically too low to fulfill worldwide requirements, however with improved cultivation practices this hurdle might be overcome.

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