Fodder shrubs boost for dairy farmers

By Dann Okoth

Producing enough milk to meet growing demand and make a living is a challenge for dairy farmers, most of who rely on one-three acre farms..

But thanks to the foresight of an old woman and the ingenuity of scientists there is now proof that a farmer can make a decent income by adopting easy to grow fodder shrubs.

From the humble settings of Embu West, 160km north of Nairobi, Mrs Purity Wanjiku Njagi, demonstrates how science can turn around dwindling fortunes of local farmers boxed in by the effects of climate change and spiralling costs of inputs.

Njagi, 60, earns Sh106,000 a year from her three dairy cows thanks to a novel animal feed known as fodder shrubs.

Soil fertility

According to the World Agroforestry Centre (Icraf) the shrubs are easy to grow and, by fixing atmospheric nitrogen, improve soil fertility. They can withstand repeated pruning and do not compete with food crops. The plants mature in about 12 months, after which they can be pruned and fed to livestock for up to 20 years.

Njagi has been raking in at least Sh32, 000 per cow a year since she started feeding the fodder to her cows, a far cry from the Sh7, 000 she made a decade ago. Then there is the extra cash she gets from growing crop.

When she started farming on the four-acre plot in 1973 favourable climate ensured Njagi reaped plenty. But soon with pressure on the land from a growing family and the effects of climate change, she had to re-think how best to use her small farm. She got fed up of growing coffee as payment took up to five years to arrive and decided to try her hand at dairy farming.

"I bought my first heifer in 1974 but had to sell it when I realised it was infertile, she says.

She bought another cow in 1982, which sired two more but their milk production was low owing to inadequate feeds.

In 1995, Njagi joined an Icraf and Kenya Agricultural Research Institute project to develop fodder shrubs to supplement lower quality grasses and ordinary crop residues that are fed to cattle and goats. "I was given 400 seedlings of a shrub called calliandra calothyrsus and within a year was already feeding my cows on the fodder," she recalls. For three kilogrammes of calliandra and one kilogramme of dairy meal she got two extra litres of milk from her cows. "In five years the milk production more than tripled. Now I get more 22 litres per cow daily, up from a paltry 12 litres in 1996," she says. "My customers say the milk has more protein and butter fat."

As they yield improved her spending on inputs went down by more 75 per cent.

A major advantage of calliandra and other fodder shrubs like Trichandra and Mulberry is that farmers do not have to stop growing other crops to make room for them. The shrubs are grown in hedges around the farm perimeter or along contours to reduce soil erosion. It is best to prune the shrubs to a height of about one meter to avoid shading nearby food crops.

It takes about 500 shrubs to feed a cow for a year.

The shrubs can withstand repeated pruning, do not compete with food crops and only takes a year to mature.

Njagi’s farm is now a learning model where farmers from across the country throng to learn about the new technology at a fee.

"This project proves farmers have more to benefit from agroforesty and research oriented agriculture, says Jonathan Muriuki an Associate Scientist in Tree Domestication with Icraf.

Fodder shrubs were first introduced in East African in 1995 to resolve a problem that has plagued dairy framers for generations — lack of inexpensive high protein animal feed.

Way out

Although dairy farming provides a way out of poverty by boosting family income, improving nutrition and providing a source of animal manure for crop production, the only caveat is that the animals be well fed.

But with good grazing land in short supply and periodic droughts raising animals in the region is a risky business. "Our intention is to reduce the risks by providing dairy farmers with a reliable form of high protein fodder that is available throughout the year," says economist Steve Franzel head of Icraf fodder tree research.

Smallholder use of the shrubs, is increasing rapidly in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, but are still only used by an estimated five per cent of dairy farmers who may eventually benefit.

It is projected that nearly 50,000 African farmers will feed their dairy cows this year with milk shrubs. The East African farmers who have adopted the technology are producing enough milk in a one-year period as well as saving money on purchased feeds to increase profits by Sh8,000 a cow. The researchers project that within a decade overall benefits in East Africa could exceed Sh7 billion a year arguing that experience has shown that even a small investment in the new technology produces high returns.

A recent investment of Sh11 million by Craft Systemwide Livestock Programme resulted in nearly 20,000 farmers planting some 6.5 million shrubs that generated a net return of nearly Sh188 million a year.

Franzel and Mr Erastus Kiruiko a Kari research scientist says farmers and researchers worked together to identify promising species. "The technology uptake was helped by involving farmers from the start.