Dual-purpose Millet Varieties for Crop and Livestock Integration

Harvest More, Feed Better, Farm Smarter

Dual-purpose Varieties for Crop and Livestock Integration" refers to a specialized agricultural technology that involves the development and cultivation of specific millet and sorghum varieties designed to serve the dual purpose of providing both human food and animal fodder. These innovative cultivars are engineered to address the challenges faced in African drylands, where natural pastures and rangelands are suffering from overgrazing, soil degradation, and the effects of climate change, exacerbated by increasing livestock populations.

This technology is TAAT1 validated.

7•8

Scaling readiness: idea maturity 7/9; level of use 8/9

Adults 18 and over: Positive high

They benefit from increased agricultural productivity and economic resilience.

The poor: Positive high

It helps them reduce production costs, by offering an affordable way to maximize resources and producing both food and livestock feed from the same crop.

Under 18: Positive high

It improves food security and nutrition for children and teenagers by providing both quality grains for human consumption

Women: Positive high

With better yields from crops and livestock, women can improve household food security and generate additional income

Climate adaptability: Highly adaptable

This variety is more resilient to drought, temperature extremes, and degraded soils, enabling farmers to adapt better to changing climatic conditions.

Farmer climate change readiness: Significant improvement

The ability to produce both grain for food and stover for livestock feed from the same crop helps farmers maintain productivity even in adverse climate conditions.

Biodiversity: Positive impact on biodiversity

The use of crop residues for animal feed reduces the pressure on overgrazed natural pastures and rangelands, allowing these ecosystems to regenerate

Carbon footprint: Same amount of carbon released

By growing a single crop that serves both human and livestock needs, farmers can lower the energy and resource demands of their operations

Environmental health: Greatly improves environmental health

It helps restore balance to ecosystems by promoting the sustainable use of resources, such as crop residues for feed.

Soil quality: Improves soil health and fertility

This technology improves soil quality by enhancing organic matter through crop residues used as mulch or organic fertilizers.

Water use: A bit less water used

This variety is often drought-tolerant and require less water than traditional varieties, making them well-suited for regions with water scarcity.

Problem

Diminishing Productivity of Pastures and Rangelands: Natural pastures and rangelands in African drylands are experiencing reduced productivity due to overgrazing, soil degradation, and the effects of climate change.

Increasing Livestock Numbers: The growing livestock population exacerbates the demand for animal feed resources in these regions.

Unsuitable Traditional Millet and Sorghum Varieties: Traditional millet and sorghum varieties are unable to meet the dual requirements of providing both human food and high-quality animal feed due to unfavorable grain-to-stover ratios.

Digestibility and Palatability Issues: Commonly cultivated millet and sorghum lines have higher lignin content, making them less digestible, and some may contain bitter-tasting tannins.

Solution

Dual-purpose Varieties: The technology offers new "dual-purpose" millet and sorghum varieties with ideal grain-to-stover ratios, ensuring suitability for both human and animal nutrition.

Reduced Lignin and Tannin Content: These improved cultivars have lower lignin and tannin content, enhancing digestibility and palatability.

Extended Fodder Availability: The new varieties remain green through grain harvest, providing farmers with greater fodder quantity and quality, particularly during the dry season.

Crop-Livestock Integration: Enhanced fodder availability through these dual-purpose varieties allows for more intensive crop-livestock integration, leading to increased manure availability for soil fertility management.

Yield Information: The dual-purpose varieties produce about 40% of grain and 60% of stover on a dry matter basis. Sorghum lines achieve grain yields of 2.5 - 4.0 ton ha-1 and stover yield of 10 - 15 ton ha-1. For millet cultivars, productivity ranges between 2.0 and 2.5 ton ha-1 for grain, and 4.0 - 6.0 ton ha-1 for stover.

Stress Resistance: The new cultivars possess traits that help them survive dry spells and quickly resume growth when moisture returns.

Drought and Cold Tolerance: Sorghum lines tolerate both drought and cold better than other fodder crops, such as maize and Napier grass.

Energy-rich Stover: The stover of dual-purpose sorghum cultivars is sweet with a high sugar concentration of around 15%, matching the energetic value of maize. It can also be used for syrup or bioethanol production.

Greater Digestible Stover Yield: While traditional millet varieties achieve higher production of fodder on a dry matter basis, the new dual-purpose lines provide greater digestible stover yield and metabolizable energy per unit of land area.

Key points to design your project

These dual-purpose varieties enhance food security by providing both human food and high-quality animal feed, reducing hunger. They improve digestibility and palatability, benefiting both humans and animals, and their energy-rich stover supports bioethanol production for clean energy. Their resilience to drought and cold helps mitigate climate change impacts, while promoting sustainable agriculture conserves biodiversity and ecosystem health.

To incorporate this technology into your project and delineate the necessary activities and prerequisites, follow these steps:

Conduct awareness campaigns highlighting the benefits of improved nutrition, enhanced fodder quality and quantity, and climate resilience.
Develop investment and regulatory frameworks in collaboration with public agencies and private entities to establish formal seed delivery systems.
Provide capacity building for seed producers on quality assurance standards and multiplication of certified seeds.
Facilitate access to low-interest credit for seed companies to expand their seed portfolios and micro-loan programs for farmers to acquire the improved varieties.

Considering that dual-purpose millet typically incurs a total cost of USD 204 per hectare for seed, fertilizer, and labor, estimate the required quantity of seeds for your project.

Ensure adequate training and post-training support by engaging a team of trainers. Develop communication materials such as flyers, videos, and radio broadcasts to promote the technology.

For better optimization, it is recommended to associate this technology with Proactive Management of Striga Infestation Fertilizer Micro-Dosing to Enhance Yield and Use Efficiency Motorized Crop Residue Processing of Animal Feed.

Collaboration with private seed companies, cooperatives, seed growers, and farmers is crucial for successful technology implementation.

Cost: $$$ 204 USD

Production cost for seed, fertilizer, and labor per Ha

ROI: $$$ 31 %

increase in yield

204 USD

Per hectare for seed, fertilizer, and labor

2.5—4 tons

Sorghum grain yield per Ha

10—15 tons

Sorghum stover yield per Ha

15 %

Sugar concentration

IP

No formal IP rights

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested

Countries where the technology has been tested and adopted
Country	Tested	Adopted
Burkina Faso	Tested	Adopted
Chad	Tested	Adopted
Ethiopia	Tested	Adopted
Kenya	Tested	Adopted
Mali	Tested	Adopted
Niger	Tested	Adopted
Nigeria	Tested	Adopted
Senegal	Tested	Adopted
Sudan	Tested	Adopted
Tanzania	Tested	Adopted
Zimbabwe	Tested	Adopted

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.

Agro-ecological zones where this technology can be used
AEZ	Subtropic - warm	Subtropic - cool	Tropic - warm	Tropic - cool
Arid
Semiarid		–		–
Subhumid		–		–
Humid	–	–	–	–

Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.

Goal 1: no poverty

The technology helps increase income for smallholder farmers by improving crop and livestock productivity, thus contributing to poverty alleviation.

Goal 2: zero hunger

This technology enhances agricultural yields and livestock productivity, directly addressing hunger and malnutrition.

Goal 13: climate action

The climate-resilient nature of these crops helps farmers adapt to climate change, reducing vulnerability to extreme weather events and enhancing climate resilience.

Goal 15: life on land

this technology contributes to the protection and restoration of ecosystems, supporting biodiversity and combating desertification

For effectively utilization of dual-purpose millet and sorghum varieties for integrated crop and livestock farming, it require to:

Develop dual-purpose millet and sorghum varieties using conventional techniques such as crossing and hybridization. Subject these varieties to rigorous field testing before releasing them to farmers.
Prepare the land for cultivation. Follow generally prescribed practices for seed rate, plant spacing, and fertilizer application based on local growing areas and seasons.
Wilt sorghum stover for at least 12 hours before feeding it to animals to break down hydrogen cyanides, which can be toxic. Ensure proper handling to prevent poisoning.
Chop green or dry sorghum stover into pieces of approximately 2 cm when using it as fodder for cows, pigs, and goats. Shred it into smaller pieces of less than 0.5 cm for poultry.
Millet and sorghum stover can be used for silage in pits or under plastic. During silage preparation, fermentation releases extra sugar and breaks down anti-nutrients.
Avoid adding molasses to sorghum silage due to its already high sugar content.
Utilize fodder from sorghum, either as green chop or silage.
It can replace maize at equal amounts for all types of livestock.
Sorghum fodder provides up to 67% of required roughage and up to 20% of the total diet for livestock.