State targets 40 million acres for fodder production to curb feed shortage

Some of the livestock at the ongoing farmer’s exhibition at KALRO center in Naivasha feed on drought resistant forage.[Antony Gitonga, Standard]

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has identified 40 million acres of rangeland, which will be turned into production of livestock fodder to meet the current shortage in the country.

The land can produce up to 80 metric tonnes of forage compared to the current production of 15 metric tonnes, a move that will solve the acute fodder shortage currently facing the country.

This emerged during the ongoing regional workshop on strengthening feed and rangeland security in pastoral regions of the Horn of Africa.

The four-day event organised by AU-IBER in Naivasha has attracted participants from Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia with an objective of addressing the fodder crisis in the region.

According to John Maina, who is in charge of livestock production in the Ministry, the country had a 50 per cent shortage of fodder, which was adversely affecting production.

To meet the deficit, he said that the government was targeting rangeland, which had a lot of potential to provide forage for over 30 million livestock.

“In the 40 million acres, we can get around 200 bales of hay per acre, and we can get up to 80m metric tonnes of forage, which is very useful to our livestock,” he said.

Speaking at the sidelines of the conference, Maina added that climate change had affected livestock production due to extreme droughts followed by floods.

“Extreme droughts have become very regular, and during drought we don't produce enough and in the process we get depressed production of fodder,” he said.

To address the shortage of fodder, he said that the government was keen to produce cotton and sunflowers, which could lead to the reduction of the cost of feed.

According to Ahmed Elbeltagy, the head of AU-IBER, they had identified drought and insecurity as the main challenges facing pastoralists in the Horn of Africa.

He said that feed was a major pillar for the livestock production system, adding that the current challenges affected the rangeland management and the feed security.

“We need to assess the private sector contribution to this sector and how we can promote the private sector integration into the security of rangeland management and feed,” he said.

On his part, Guyo Roba from IGAD noted that all the countries in the IGAD region had a substantial feed deficit, especially in pastoral areas, mainly caused by the 2020-23 drought.

“Feed deficit in pastoral areas varies between 30 to 40 per cent, and in some cases, like Somalia, the feed deficit is higher than the demand and the livestock population,” he said.