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.
Positive or neutral impact
Positive or neutral impact
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.
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.
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.
Production cost for seed, fertilizer, and labor per Ha
increase in yield
Per hectare for seed, fertilizer, and labor
Sorghum grain yield per Ha
Sorghum stover yield per Ha
Sugar concentration
No formal IP rights
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.
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.
For effectively utilization of dual-purpose millet and sorghum varieties for integrated crop and livestock farming, it require to:
Last updated on 23 May 2024