aistand south~ern afrkca - (PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

programme has since been redressed to some
extent. During 1992, crop, animal and social
scientists have been engaged in diagnostic
surveys addressing all aspects of smallholder
agriculture at the coast. Within the dairy
research programme, crop scientists have
contributed to the design of a large intercropping
experiment, begun in 1992, to investigate the
contribution that crops, and particularly
cassava, can make to solving seasonal feed
deficits (Reynolds et al, 1992). The continual
involvement of crop specialists will be essential
to ensure that effective solutions are developed
and tested for resolving feed resource issues and
their related capital and labour constraints in
those smallholder mixed farming systems where
adoption or improvement of dairy production is
the goal.
Four technical achievements stand out. The
epidemiological studies have identified East
Coast fever (ECF) as a major cause of losses in
smallholder dairy cattle. The losses have been
quantified and current control strategies shown
to be ineffective. In collaboration with the NVRC
and the Veterinary Department, target
populations have been identified for an
alternative control method, immunisation by
infection and treatment (Mutugi et al, 1991),
which has now been tested on some 500
smallholder dairy cattle. The research promises
to substantially reduce losses due to ECF and
provides a systematic methodology for the
evaluation of disease risk in smallholder herds
and for the identification of target populations
for control measures (Maloo et al, 1992a). A
further significant veterinary result is that field
studies and on-station experimentation have
shown trypanocidal drug prophylaxis to be
ineffective in controlling trypanosomiasis in the
coastal region (Maloo et al, 1992b). This has
major implications for trypanosomiasis control
in smallholder cattle in the region.
The feed resources programme has generated
results through cn-station and field research. It
has shown the shortage of feed on most farms
and modelling has demonstrated the scale of
seasonal scarcity and the inadequacy of dietary
nutrient concentration (Reynolds et al, 1992).
On-station, it has been demonstrated that
intercropping Napier grass with herbaceous and
nhrub legumes, and intercropping maize with
shrub legumes, can produce more feed of
considerably better quality than that readily
available on most smallholder farms (Mureithi
et al, 1992). The responses of lactating cows to
supplementation with legume forage and low
levels of concentrates have been quantified
(Muinga et al, 1992a; 1992b). These agronomic
and nutrition results show promise as the basis
for sustainable feeding systems appropriate to
smallholder resources,
Strong research-extension-farmer linkages
have been formed to solve feed resource
constraints. Early in the programme extension
40
workers were impressed by the potential of the
forage legumes on station. This led in 1990/91 to
testing selected legumes on some 20 farms.
Under research-extension management,
unreplicated plots of Napier cultivar Bana
intercropped with Leucaena, Clitoria and
Siratro were established. The success of the
Leucaenaand Clitoriain these on-fars Lest plois
has resulted in the establishment, during
April/May 1992, of farmer-managed trials of
Leucaena and Clitoriaon some 200 farms in four
districts of Coast Province. These farmermanaged
triuls, jointly planned and executed
with the dairy extension staff, will be an
important step in the transfer of these legumes
into existing farming systems.
A further important result has come from the
analyses of crossbreeding performance records
from KARI's Mariakani research station and
from the large, privately-owned Kilifi
Plantations herd. The analyses have confirmed
the competitive performance of the two-breed
rotational crossbreeding system as a means of
sustaining performance close to that of Bos
taurus-sired Fl dairy crosees (Thorpe et al,
1992b). Because of the simplicity anid lower
overhead costs of a rotational crossbreeding
system, itsbiologicalandecnomicefficiencywRi
surpass that of Fi crosses in most African
production systems.
Evaluation of research programme
Government policy environment
In general, the policy environment in Kenya has
been conducive to developing an effective
livestock research programme, particularly with
the increasing efforts by the ministries of
Agriculture and Livestock Development to
improve research-extension linkages. The
potential for impact has been enhanced recently
by the deregulation of milk prices, which is
expected to stimulate the adoption of dairy
production by a large number of new producers
and result in the expansion ofexisting herds. The
potential rapid expansicn of smallholder dairy
production in the coastal lowlands emphasises
the importance of having readily available
technologies appropriate to smallholder resources.
Institutional environment
The support being given to the ministries and to
KARI by major development agencies through
stimulating and funding programmes taking a
farming systems approach was critical to the
successful establishment and smooth runningof
the KARI/ILCA programme. National institutions
are emphasising research-extension
linkages and a farming systems perspective,
with researchers expected to spend an increasing
proportio of their time off station and on-farm.
While the institutional policy climate has
been favourable, administrative adjustments to