article · Agronomy Journal
Forage conservation can help address seasonal feed shortages and herder-farmer conflicts across sub-Saharan Africa. Current practices differ significantly according to farm scale. Large commercial operations in countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya use mechanised mowers, balers, and silage systems. Conversely, smallholders, who dominate the farming landscape, make hay from natural pastures or use crop residues and stockpiled forage. Smallholders rarely produce silage due to constraints in resources, knowledge, and technical skills. Furthermore, forage preserved by smallholders is typically poor in quality owing to substandard base materials, inadequate storage, and markets where feed prices do not reflect nutritional quality. Addressing these issues requires capacity building, appropriate technology investments, quality-linked pricing mechanisms, and incentives to encourage the private sector, women, and youth to participate in producing and selling conserved feeds.
Seasonal deficits in feed quantity and quality drive livestock insecurity and herder-farmer conflicts across sub-Saharan Africa. Improving forage conservation helps bridge critical dry-season feed gaps. Identifying the operational and market barriers that prevent smallholders from producing high-quality hay and silage enables development partners, policy makers, and enterprises to introduce targeted storage, equipment, and market interventions.
The findings outline commercial opportunities in supplying appropriate harvesting and storage technologies, as well as establishing enterprises for producing and selling preserved feed. The primary users are livestock smallholders and agricultural entrepreneurs. Commercial deployment is largely in an applied stage, requiring private-sector investment alongside the creation of regional quality-based pricing mechanisms to make commercial feed production economically viable.
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Abstract Forage conservation is an important potential solution to seasonal variation in feed quality and quantity and herder‐farmer conflicts in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). Considerable variations exist in the type of forages conserved and the preservation methods across SSA. Hay from cultivated forages is commonly made with mechanical mowers and balers by large‐scale commercial farms. In contrast, smallholder farmers, who dominate farming on the continent, make hay from natural pastures and straw from crop residues or stockpiled forage. Mechanized harvesting and storing of silage are also practiced by commercial farmers in various countries including South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. Smallholder farmers rarely make silage, despite repeated recommendations about its potential to bridge the dry season feed gap. This is due to the limited resources, knowledge, and skills. Hay and silage produced by smallholders is typically poor in quality due to use of lower quality forages, improper storage methods, and lack of an economic incentive because feed prices do not reflect quality in most regions. This paper discusses the status of forage conservation across SSA and recommends strategic interventions and technologies to improve the quantity, quality, safety, pricing, and utilization of preserved forages in SSA. Key deductions include the need to raise awareness about their role in bridging the feed gap, to build capacity and invest in appropriate technology, to optimize their production and use, to develop mechanisms to relate prices to quality, and to incentivize women and youth and the private sector to engage further in making and selling preserved forages.
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DOI: 10.1002/agj2.20954
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