Participants of the Workshop, ILRI Campus, Addis Ababa, July, 23-24, 2014
An in-depth analysis of the Ethiopian Small Ruminant Value Chain identified “feeding” as one of the key intervention areas to mitigate under-performance of sheep and goat production and productivity in the country.
The International center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) recently invited livestock breeders, livestock nutritionists and socio-economists from partner research centers to a consultative workshop to discuss ways to modify existing feeding strategies in sheep flocks in the context of the ongoing Community-Based Sheep Breeding Program in Ethiopia.
The 2–day workshop identified scenarios on sheep fattening and ewe feeding that would inform interventions to improve lamb fattening performance and ewe reproductive performance.
The next step for the participants is to undertake on-farm fattening scenarios with sheep farmers in CBBP that will assess the economic viability of fattening lambs for peak festive seasons vis a vis fattening for the off-peak low season markets as well as ewe supplementation. Appropriate site specific feeding strategies and market linkages will be incorporated and facilitated in the interventions.
Story by Jane Wamatu (ICARDA-Ethiopia)
CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish 