Enhancing Production, Nutritional Qualities and Utilization of Fibrous Crop Residues in Smallholder Crop-Livestock Systems: Potential Intervention Options and Progress toward Sustainable Livestock Production

Abstract

Large quantities of cereals and grain legume crop residues (CRs) such as straw, stover and haulms are produced every year. They are used as a major and cheap source of livestock feed in developing countries especially during the dry season. However, the overall contribution of CRs as feed for ruminants is much less than the potential estimates because of several factors. In crop-livestock systems, most estimate of cereal CRs production and quality traits available in literature are based on the whole residue and do not represent farmer’s practices/context related to the various uses of residue fractions. In addition, there has been a strong focus on post-harvest interventions, but little adoption has been observed, with less emphasis on pre-harvest interventions and residue handling, storage and utilization. This book chapter aims to review the determinant factors and the reasons for low adoption and explores potential intervention options for improving whole-farm productivity and sustainability as a ‘win-win’ solution. Overall, understanding the local/on-farm socio-economic factors and practices/methods is crucial to estimate the production and quality of CRs/CR fractions actually available as feed for ruminants, and to select and promote the possible intervention options that are more practical for wide adoption by the smallholder farmers.