28th February, 2024
By Vanwick Zulu
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) working with smallholder farmers in Southern Province is fostering the production of Crop-livestock integration and diversification trials aimed at increasing fodder production among smallholder farmers in the province.
Speaking with National Agricultural Information Services in Mazabuka district, Christian Thierfelder, who is a Principal Scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, highlighted that most farmers do not usually produce fodder in their fields.
Dr Thierfelder believes this is a new intervention and that it is necessary for farmers to adopt the technologies that have been tested with them on larger portions of land. By doing so, they can effectively harvest the crops and use them to make hay or silage, or for other ways of fodder conservation. This will ensure enough feed to sustain their livestock during the dry winter season.
“What we introduced here is new options for fodder production which involve green manure cover crops lablab and velvet beans but also new potential grasses like Brachiaria mulato which is a fodder grass of very high value, we heard from farmers that they can increase the milk production by 30 to 50 percent with this feeding strategy and also the meat production can be increased, in six weeks farms reported a 40kg weight gain in cattle,” he said.
George Malambo is a host farmer on the Ukama Ustawi Project working on an Innovation Research Trial in Ngwezi B of Mazabuka district. He stated that his dairy animals enjoyed the fodder he produced which led to an observed increase in milk production.
“What I tried was to feed 1 dairy animal and what I found was that it increased its milk production from 2.5 litres to 15 litres,” Mr Malambo said.
The Ukama Ustawi Initiative has set a goal to provide support for climate-smart agriculture and livelihoods in 12 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. This initiative aims to assist millions of small-scale farmers in intensifying, diversifying, and reducing the risks associated with maize-mixed farming.
To achieve this, the initiative will offer improved extension services, strengthen institutional capacity, provide targeted farm management bundles, offer policy support, develop enterprises, and attract private investment.
National Agricultural Information Services
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