The 2nd African Organic Conference – Mainstreaming ... - ICROFS

2 nd AFRICAN ORGANIC CONFERENCE 2012
May 2-4, 2012 in Lusaka, Zambia
Key words: marketing strategies, financing mechanisms, organic supply chains, value-adding
opportunities, and farmers’ income-generation
ORGANIC&LIVESTOCK&FARMING:&CASE&OF&AFRICAN&PASTAROLISTS&
Abstract
The future of Africa lies in integrating economic, social equity and environment concerns .Thirty years ago
everyone believed that condition and productivity of African rangelands was determined by stocking rates.
This knowledge derived from research and informed many government policies towards rangeland
management and African pastoralists due to keeping large livestock numbers were seen as the cause of
rangeland degradation. However this knowledge has been revisited and revealed that African rangelands
are not driven by stocking rates alone but a complex natural relationship between the people, their
livelihoods and the environment. These studies have further shown that degradation of Africa rangelands is
not mostly due to overstocking but to natural climatic cycles and most importantly to traditional rangeland
management by pastoralists when it was able conserve biodiversity and allow rangelands to recover.
In these practices livestock played the key role as a tool by grazing and trampling which ensures nutrient
cycling and preparing the soil surface for water penetration and improving the soil water holding capacity.
Soil biological activity is enhanced which is the key principle of organic agriculture. Therefore African
pastoralists are most experienced organic producers in quality and practice. Unfortunately the marketing of
livestock products from African pastoralist as certified organic produce is most constrained by
requirements of certified slaughter and processing facilities, difficulties in supplying consistent quality and
grades, interruption to market supply due to recurring droughts and most importantly the marginalization of
products produced by the poor. Keekonyokie masai abattoir in kiserian Kenya is community owned meat
enterprise that is marketing conservation organic beef products. In Addition the abattoir has biogas plant
that generates electricity to operate its meat cold rooms and sell organic fertilizer to local farmers
demonstrating in practice the full opportunity and challenges of organic livestock production by poor
pastoralists
This paper gives critical review of the of our pastoralists organic livestock production its challenges and
how masai pastoralists in Kenya have formed their own meat processing enterprises to overcome the
challenges of marketing their produce as high quality organic meat through innovation and lobbying for
awareness among consumers based on experiences of keekonyokie meat enterprise in Kenya
Keywords: Pastoralists, grazing practices, rangeland degradation, livestock, nutrient cycles, organic meat
products, biogas and market challenges
GROWING&ORGANIC&MAIZE&IN&ZAMBIA&
Abstract
Fertilizer prices have shown a general increase over the past few years due to increased energy cost and
futures markets in mined nutrient sources. Farmers all over the world are looking for alternatives in order to
reduce costs and increase profits. Organic systems offer potential ‘cheap fertilizer’ through efficient
nutrient cycling, but often organic farmer find their crop yields lower than those they obtain using synthetic
fertilizer. The challenge for all of us is to find efficient ways to improve our yield potential without relying
on expensive inputs, in order to feed and ever increasing population. This paper highlights some interesting
new and old innovations which may be able to improve yield and profit and at the same time improve and
re-generate our soils so we can feed more people now and in the future.
Green manure/cover crop (gm/cc) systems.
A new look at cover crops based on farm research in Kafue over the last 10 years and leading edge research
from South America reveals some evidence of how to capture, store and release nutrients in organic
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BOOK OF ABSTRACTS