A Path to Prosperity New Directions for African Livestock

5.3 New Nutrition Technologies
for Africa
There are a range of simple and highly technical
feed technologies that might benefit from both an
AIS and GALVmed portfolio review approach.
An example of a simple technology with a potentially
very high impact is the utilisation of oilseed
meals/cakes in African ruminant production. It is a
technology that has been adopted in South Asia but
has not been adopted at scale in SSA. Most cereal
crop residues are deficient in the protein, sulphur
and other minerals vital for proper functioning of the
rumen. Oil seed cakes supplement the deficiencies
to improve rumen function and significantly increase
productivity. For example, supplementation of a low
quality pasture hay with cottonseed meal (CSM) can
produce a four fold increase in liveweight gain when
fed at 0.5% of body weight. Leng 99 showed that daily
oilseed cake supplementation at 0.35% of body
weight to steers produced a response of 1.2 kg
live weight gain per kg of the supplement.
This efficiency of conversion of oilseed cake to body
weight is better than that of grains obtained in pigs.
Whilst such a level of production will be affected
by breed, animal health and other livestock
management practices, the conversion of oilseed
cakes to useful products should not be undervalued
when compared to feeding human-edible grains to
pigs or poultry. Such growth rates could make small
holder production much more competitive.
Furthermore, the technology could be utilised by
both large and small ruminants.
FAO AGA has calculated that in 2007, 264,515
tonnes of oilseed cake were exported from
sub-Saharan Africa and if this was strategically
used within the continent, an additional 132,258
tonnes of meat could be produced. This could
reduce Africa's annual meat imports by 12.6%.
Furthermore, importing oilseed cakes would be an
attractive option. As one tonne of oilseed imported
has a value of US$208 in sub-Saharan Africa and
one tonne of oilseed cake, when strategically fed,
produces 0.50 tonne of meat (with a value of
US$1691 when exported and $610 when imported
into sub-Saharan Africa) a substantial value
addition could be achieved by using oilseed cakes
for meat production.
There would be further significant spin offs to oil
seed cake supplementation. Supplementation has
shown to reduce the age of first calving from 4 –5
years to 1.5 – 2 years and inter-calving interval
from over 2.5 years to 1 – 1.5 years. Enhancing
reproductive efficiency alone results in an
approximately two-fold increase in the number of
calves for fattening. Higher immunity due to good
nutrition could decrease the occurrence of diseases.
In addition, good nutrition of the dam would
decrease the number of calves that die at birth or
soon after birth. This higher productivity would
decrease emissions of methane per unit of animal
product formation. Finally, use of crop residues
could decrease pressure on pasture lands.
Of course, introduction of this technology isn’t
simple. It relies on the value chain being developed
and areas with easy access to oil seed cakes taking
the lead. FAO therefore plans to sustainably
intensify livestock production using strategic
supplementation of crop residues and oilseed
cakes. If an innovations systems approach is taken,
this will require a range of actors with concerted
efforts to bring their experience and knowledge to
designing more effective support and investments
in this type of feed supplementation.
The Impetus Strategy Paper I Page 39