Far from being a threat, livestock is a complimenting asset to adoption of Conservation Agriculture

Philanthropist Dr. Howard G. Buffett, who is a farmer, states in a feature article, “one thing that has provided consistent success on our farms and for millions of farmers, both large and small, across the world is conservation-based agricultural production techniques”. He goes further in hisarticle and describes the ten common myths of Conservation Agriculture (CA) when applied to smallholder farmers used to dispel the use of CA and reduce its adoption. He lists the number two myth as “Retention of high levels of crop residue for ground cover mulch is not realistic for smallholder farmers because they are not able to produce sufficient biomass or must use biomass to feed higher value livestock”. He further argues, it is true that the residue of some crops is used for feed, but this is not always a result of best practices. The bottom third of the stalks of crops such as sorghum or millet can have negative nutritional value for animals, but offer good organic material for soil. However, without the proper training, these old habits will not change. There has also been little research in Africa to determine the value of simply leaving the root balls in place and planting between the old rows. In some cases it will be a challenge to overcome the issue of competition for residue, in other places it is not an issue at all. Therefore it is like everything else in life, you do it where it works and you make adaptations where necessary. In terms of increased biomass, as yields increase, biomass will increase - no one should be advocating for accepting current yield levels.

Most farmers and extension agents alike would ‘hide’ in this myth as the reason for non-adoption of CA. The worst hit are dairy farmers and pastoralists who would crave for any crop residue as a livestock feed. The African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) documentary “Feeding the Soil or Feeding the cow?” is meant to provoke thoughts on the subject and strongly convey the message that if we do not take serious action to feed the soil, it will be unable to feed the cow and subsequently our steak will be at stake.

In an effort to overcome the challenges of crop-livestock integration and motivate farmers to embrace and adopt CA, ACT has embarked on capacity building of farmers of Nyandarua County Kenya on improving dairy production by practicing CA. The focus is on climate smart fodder production and feeding trials where farmers are engaged in producing adequate fodder for their livestock while simultaneously producing more food crops with less by practicing CA. The farmers are introduced to an array of best-bet fodder crops (maize, sorghum, oats and nappier) capable of reducing dependency on crop residues which are only available to livestock when the crops are harvested at which time the biomass is of poor quality. They are also sensitized on production of the fodder crops through CA with emphasis on leguminous cover crops including Lucerne (Medicago sativa), Vetch (Vicia sativa), Desmodium (Desmodium intortum) and fodder trees (Calliandra, Leucaena) to supplement the nutritional needs of the livestock. Some of the cover crops play dual roles as livestock feed and human food.

This is a pilot project in Ngorika and Tumaini Wards of Nyandarua County, Kenya with dairy farmers supplying milk to the New Ngorika Milk Producers Company Limited (NNMPCL). The Conservation Agriculture and Fodder Production Demonstrations and Feeding trials project is funded by Inuka Africa MFI Ltd under the Climate Smart Agriculture initiative supported by Finance Innovation for Climate Change Fund (FICCF) of the UK Department for International Development (DFID). It is implemented by ACT in collaboration with NNMPCL and other stakeholders.

ACT held a farmers’ field day on 30^th June 2016 which was attended by over 200 farmers from the Sub-County, 20 invited guests and 12 stakeholder organizations. It was graced by the FICCF Team Leader, Noelle O’Brien, and attended by other FICCF staff, Inuka Africa Director, NNMPCL Directors and staff, Ward Administrator, Sub County Agriculture Officer and local MCA, among other invited guests.

Farmers were exposed to various CA and dairy production technologies including the three principles of CA, Feed production, preservation and utilization, clean milk production, biogas production, commercial maize and Irish potato production, fodder harvesting, livestock pest and disease control, energy saving and dairy concentrates formulation and production.

The field day was an eye opener for the farmers and stakeholders as it enabled them to erase the “myth” that dairy/livestock farmers cannot practice CA and instead, both were demonstrated to be complimentary enterprises. In crop-livestock integrated CA systems, livestock and crops would be produced within one common holistic framework where waste products of one component serve as a resource for the other. This enhances the synergy of the other as complementary enterprises and enhance the productivity of each – crops benefiting from improved soil fertility and moisture retention as well as the manure from livestock while the livestock benefit from increased quality and quantity of biomass and fodder crops. With the adoption of CA other accruing benefits to farmers especially women include the saved time which can be further invested in raising more livestock as well as increasing the variety/types of stock. For women this becomes an opportunity to invest the saved time in managing small stock/ ruminants like chicken, goats, rabbit and fish among others. This would be beneficial to farmers especially due to the benefits of balanced diets as a result for increased available proteins from livestock and the leguminous cover crops.

Livestock, such as oxen, are able to provide farm power and a means for transportation which acting as biological "savings accounts'' for farmers. Fluctuations in meat and poultry market prices are much smaller than in grains. This translates to increased income and reduces climate change risks for the agro-pastoralist. Given that for the majority of the farmers on monomodal farming systems, crop production is an enterprise lasting a mere 4-5 months of the year, crop-livestock integration diversifies the farm enterprises capable of meaningful employment for these farmers the whole year round.

The early lessons from this initiative (currently in its first season) is that farmers are in need of more information on CA, climate change and dairy production. Ignorance and myths have made farmers believe that high crop and milk production can only be achieved through use of high external inputs and “special” cattle breeds yet they already own Holstein breeds. The increase in milk production that the farmers have started experiencing through quality feeding and herd management has enabled them to see the vast resources that are within their reach but remain unexploited.

There are also challenges that relate to farmer expectations for handouts as previous projects may have introduced in the area. Scarcity of CA equipment that are needed and lack of CA service providers in the area remain a hurdle to be unlocked by the various service providers as it needs to be taken up by the private sector to make it more sustainable. There may be an urgent need for the county governments to relook at the prevailing policies for agricultural technologies to make them more farmer friendly especially where CA practitioners are leading the County to more environmental benefits.