Sustainsahel - Introducing the updated feed ration calculator to innovation platforms

Work package 6: Co-creation of a feed ration calculation tool for ruminants. Presentation of the tool to representatives of national producer federations and innovations platforms in all three of the project's focus countries.

Visit of a tree nursery during the field mission with representatives of the innovation platform in Ouarkokh, Senegal. Photo: M. Ablaye Guissé, representative of the innovation platform in Ouarkokh.

Visit of livestock farmers participating in WP6 studies in Ouarkokh, Senegal. Photo: Farmer in a village in Ouarkokh commune.

Following a first study with experts in Senegal on the applicability of a pilot ration calculator developed by the section Animal Husbandry in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Kassel ('Optimizing a feeding tool with nutritional details on shrub-foliage containing diets' July 2022), a field mission to all three partner countries was carried out in October/November 2022. This mission was a next step in WP6, the co-creation of an easy-to-use feed ration calculation tool to formulate balanced shrub foliage-based rations to reduce dietary imbalances between protein and energy supply of ruminants in sub-Saharan Africa and to offer adequate amounts of feed.

The objective of the field mission of Regina Roessler, senior scientist of the University of Kassel, was to introduce the tool to representatives of AOPP - Association of Professional Farmer Organisations in Bamako, Mali and CPF - The Peasant Confederation of Faso in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, as well as to representatives of the innovation platforms in Ouarkokh and potentially interested livestock keepers close to Dakar.

WP6 team got positive feedback from the representatives of national producer federations and innovation platforms about testing the tool as an innovation with lead farmers of the innovation platforms. In the course of 2023, the test of the feed ration calculator v2.0 will be performed by local students in each partner country together with selected lead farmers, representatives of national producer federations, national extension services, veterinarians, NGOs, and private feed consultants. The aim is to further co-develop the tool according to the needs of potential end-users in the partner countries through testing the tool and to evaluate the effect of site-specific prototype rations on livestock performances on livestock farms.

Written by: Regina Roessler, Coordinator of livestock-related research activities, UNI KASSEL - University of Kassel, Germany

Further information

Introducing the updated feed ration calculator to innovation platforms - Field mission of University of Kassel