Abstract:
The study was carried out in Gombora district of Hadiya Zone,Southern Nations Nationalities
and Peoples Regional State,Ethiopia with the objectives of assessing available livestock feed
resource and feeding systems,determining annual feed balance and requirements in terms of dry
matter,crude protein and metabolizable energy as well as identifying constraints and opportunity
for livestock production in relation to feed availability.Field observation key informant discuss
and structured questionnaire interview were employed to generate data.The study district was
classified into low and mid land altitude-regions and 61 and 65 households were selected from
low and midland altitude regions,respectively and interviewed.Data were collected and analyzed
using statistical procedure for social sciences(SPSS)verion 20 (SPSS,2011).The results of study
showed that crop-livestock production system was the dominant farming system in both altitude
regions.The average livestock holding size per HH was 6.78±0.15TLU;and higher(P<0.01) for
lowland than midland,with the TLU of 6.06±0.14cattle,2.04±0.06oxen,0.29±0.05bulls2.71±0.13
cows,0.71±0.06heifers,0.13±0.03calves,0.13±0.03sheeps,0.13±0.03goats,0.10±0.02donkeys,0.1±
0.03horses and 0.17±0.02mules.Cattle were kept for milk,draught,meat,income,calves and
manure production.The major feed resources were crop residues 48.88% and grazing resources
33.64%,then fodder trees/shrubs 8.45%,non-conventional feeds 4.58% and cultivated improved
forage 4.46%.Free grazing,late to grazing,stall feeding,tethering,supply feeing and hearding
practices are major livestock feeding systems.The major constraints related to livestock feed
were shortage of feed,shortage of grazing land,poor market access,lack of awareness on forage
cultivation and poor feeding practices.The productivity is low due to feed shortage.The overall
feed balance in terms of DM,CP and ME yield per year to a total TLU value of 854.35 was found
to be 851t,60t and 7,200,000MJ respectively,with negative balance of 1097.98t,40.9t and
3,116,000MJ,respectively.Based on the findings of the present study,low output of livestock in
Gombora district is linked with feed shortage.Therfore,adoption of alternative feed production
technologies such as integrating improved forage,efficient feed utilization,urea treatment,also
technical and institutional intervention would be very crucial to overcome the prevailing feed
shortage problem.
