Emerging feed markets for ruminant production in urban and peri-urban areas of Northern Ghana

Abstract

Feed shortage in urban and peri-urban areas has triggered the emergence of feed markets in Northern Ghana. These markets were surveyed at three locations (Tamale, Bolgatanga, and Wa markets) to determine types and prices of feedstuffs sold across seasons; early dry (November-January), late dry (February-April), early wet (May-July), and main wet (August-October). Semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Three samples of each feed type in the markets were bought from three different sellers per market in each season. The samples were oven dried to constant weight and price/kg DM of each feed determined. The total respondents were 169. Out of this number, 41% were feed sellers, 46% buyers, and 13% retailers. The feedstuffs found were crop residues (groundnut haulm and cowpea haulm), agro-industrial by-products (bran of maize, rice, and sorghum), fresh grasses (Rotteboellia cochinchinensis), and local browses (Ficus sp. and Pterocarpus erinaceous). Prices of feeds differed (P < 0.05) among markets and were higher in Bolgatanga than Tamale and Wa markets. Prices of cereal bran were not different (P > 0.05) in all seasons but that of crop residues were higher (P < 05) in early to late dry season than the wet season. Majority (90%) of respondents opined that the feed market will expand due to increasing number of livestock population in the peri-urban areas.

Leveraging Available Resources and Stakeholder Involvement for Improved Productivity of African Livestock in the Era of Genomic Breeding

“…Several countries have made efforts on the extension of market access as well as to encourage foreign trade. For example, the Ethiopian government has completely strategized to encourage foreign trade for sheep and goat products which has led to the creation of employment opportunities for its citizens (Nwogwugwu et al, 2018) or the emergence of livestock feed market in Ghana (Konlan et al, 2018).…”

Improving adoption of technologies and interventions for increasing supply of quality livestock feed in low- and middle-income countries

“…The feed value chains in LMIC are characterized by: limited capacity to produce feeds and feed ingredients ( Van der lee et al, 2014 ) and exploit the production capacity of feed mills; marked seasonal and other fluctuations in ingredient supply and quality ( Singh et al, 2013 ; Lukuyu et al, 2016 ); supply logistics challenges particularly for bulky crop residues; and absence of market incentives for improving quality such that prices are unrelated to quality. Additional factors include absence of vibrant seed systems for forage species; weak governance of the value chain; absence of market information systems; and absence of enabling policies ( Konlan et al, 2018 ). In many LMIC, quality and safety regulatory institutions also either do not exist or lack the means or authority to incentivize or deploy penalties.…”

Nutritional quality, digestibility and growth performance of sheep fed fodder obtained from early-or-late-maturing groundnuts cultivars

“…In many parts of West Africa, groundnut is an essential plant in the production of fodder in smallholder croplivestock farming systems (Olorunju et al, 1996;Larbi et al, 1999). In Ghana, groundnut fodder is often utilized as supplementary feed for ruminants by small-scale farmers who rely mostly on natural grassland as source of basal feed (Konlan et al, 2018). In tropical Africa, smallholder crop-livestock farmers consider forage yield and quality, and seed yield as joint products with equal value and significance in the production of groundnuts (Olorunju et al, 1996;Larbi et al, 1999).…”

“…In tropical Africa, smallholder crop-livestock farmers consider forage yield and quality, and seed yield as joint products with equal value and significance in the production of groundnuts (Olorunju et al, 1996;Larbi et al, 1999). In northern Ghana, income from the conservation and sale of groundnut fodder serves as an important source of household income (Konlan et al, 2018). Agronomic characteristics of groundnut such as variety and duration to maturity can affect forage yield and quality.…”