feeding systems

This article argues that farming systems approaches are essential to understand the multiple roles and impacts of forages in smallholder livelihoods. The article shows that improved forages in East Africa are at a crossroads: if adopted by farmers at scale, they can be a cornerstone of pathways toward intensified sustainable livestock systems in East Africa »

A novel aquaculture feeding concept is exploiting the pond ecosystem to encourage farmed fish and shrimp to ingest naturally occurring food alongside feed – a system that has the potential to reduce both production costs and environmental impacts. The trials for this nutritious-pond concept are part of the GCP project “Nutritious-system pond farming in Vietnam”.  »

This paper in the Global Food Security journal analyses global livestock feed rations and feed conversion ratios, with specific insight on the diversity in production systems and feed materials. Livestock contribute to food security by supplying essential macro- and micro-nutrients, providing manure and draught power, and generating income. But they also consume food edible by humans and graze on pastures that could be used for crop production. »

This article employs a calorie-based approach to determine which feed calories do compete with human consumption for crop use and considers to what extent alternative scenarios could have reduced this competition between food and feed. Animal production exerts significant demands on land, water and food resources. However, demand for animal source foods has more than tripled over the past 50 years and the livestock sector has transitioned towards more intensive and concentrated production systems. »

This report (PDF) by three partner organizations (IDF, FAO and IFCN) builds a knowledge foundation for animal feeding systems to serve as a valuable resource for the dairy sector and connected chain partners. The paper includes IFCN survey results on dairy cattle feeding systems for 44 countries; the IDF survey results on dairy cattle feeding systems »

In this article by The Guardian, six innovations in farmer technology as are highlighted relating to the increased agricultural productivity of the last half century. These include: 1) dairy hubs (see example); 2) fertiliser deep placement (FDP); 3) mobile apps, such as VetAfrica or Farming Instructor; 4) high-roofed greenhouses (see example); 5) new feeding systems »