It depends on the rain: Smallholder farmers’ perceptions on the seasonality of feed gaps and how it affects livestock in semi-arid and arid regions in Southern Africa

Lamega, Sala; Komainda, Martin; Hoffmann, Munir P.; Ayisi, Kingsley Kwabena; Odhiambo, Jude J. O.; Isselstein, J.

doi:10.1016/j.crm.2021.100362

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…9e, f). This also agrees with the findings of Lamega et al (2021) that mixed crop-livestock farmers in the drier parts of Limpopo perceive spring as the time with the most pronounced feed gaps. In most years, the biomass shortage started in August and intensified until October/November before gradually declining.…”

Section: Feed Gaps At Village-level and Village-specific Differencessupporting

confidence: 92%

Modeling the effects of alternative crop–livestock management scenarios on important ecosystem services for smallholder farming from a landscape perspective

Pfeiffer

Hoffmann²,

Scheiter³

et al. 2022

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Smallholder farming systems in southern Africa are characterized by low-input management and integrated livestock and crop production. Low yields and dry-season feed shortages are common. To meet growing food demands, sustainable intensification (SI) of these systems is an important policy goal. While mixed crop–livestock farming may offer greater productivity, it implies trade-offs between feed supply, soil nutrient replenishment, soil carbon accumulation, and other ecosystem functions (ESFs) and ecosystem services (ESSs). Such settings require a detailed system understanding to assess the performance of prevalent management practices and identify potential SI strategies. Models can evaluate different management scenarios on extensive spatiotemporal scales and help identify suitable management strategies. Here, we linked the process-based models APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator) for cropland and aDGVM2 (Adaptive Dynamic Global Vegetation Model) for rangeland to investigate the effects of (i) current management practices (minimum input crop–livestock agriculture), (ii) an SI scenario for crop production (with dry-season cropland grazing), and (iii) a scenario with separated rangeland and cropland management (livestock exclusion from cropland) in two representative villages of the Limpopo Province, South Africa, for the period from 2000 to 2010. We focused on the following ESFs and ESSs provided by cropland and rangeland: yield and feed provision, soil carbon storage, cropland leaf area index (LAI), and soil water. Village surveys informed the models of farming practices, livelihood conditions, and environmental circumstances. We found that modest SI measures (small fertilizer quantities, weeding, and crop rotation) led to moderate yield increases of between a factor of 1.2 and 1.6 and reduced soil carbon loss, but they sometimes caused increased growing-season water limitation effects. Thus, SI effects strongly varied between years. Dry-season crop residue grazing reduced feed deficits by approximately a factor of 2 compared with the rangeland-only scenario, but it could not fully compensate for the deficits during the dry-to-wet season transition. We expect that targeted deficit irrigation or measures to improve water retention and the soil water holding capacity may enhance SI efforts. Off-field residue feeding during the dry-to-wet season transition could further reduce feed deficits and decrease rangeland grazing pressure during the early growing season. We argue that integrative modeling frameworks are needed to evaluate landscape-level interactions between ecosystem components, evaluate the climate resilience of landscape-level ecosystem services, and identify effective mitigation and adaptation strategies.

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Section: Feed Gaps At Village-level and Village-specific Differencessupporting

confidence: 92%

Modeling the effects of alternative crop–livestock management scenarios on important ecosystem services for smallholder farming from a landscape perspective

Pfeiffer

Hoffmann²,

Scheiter³

et al. 2022

Biogeosciences

Self Cite

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“…Given that very low feed intake levels further reduce OMD in the rumen physiologically [64][65][66]-even when extra protein is added [67]-it can be assumed that both the forage quantity and quality of communal rangelands from the selected sites are extremely poor. This assumption was validated by Lamega et al [37] in forage and feed value analyses from other communal rangelands in Limpopo. On the other hand, slightly reduced feed intake at 80% of the maintenance energy requirement increased OMD, and only further reductions led to decreased OMD [68,69].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…In periods of drought, basic requirements like water and feed were experienced as the greatest limitations. As shown by Lamega et al [37], smallholder farmers primarily resort to feed purchase (or using on-farm crop residues, where applicable) and herd size reduction as coping strategies during periods of drought-induced feed shortages. Feed aid schemes played a minor role in the farmers' perceptions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In ruminants, the isotopic composition of ingested biomass is then subject to further fractionation due to metabolic, physiological and microbial processes. As Southern African savannah monocots are dominated by C 4 -plants, and shrubs and forbs are commonly C 3 -plants [35], these distinct carbon isotope compositions are reflected in the faeces of ruminants that consume these different plant forages, thereby providing a useful indicator for short-term dietary reconstruction [36][37][38][39][40]. Feed nitrogen fractionation in ruminants occurs in the rumen and during intestinal digestion.…”

Section: Of 14mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Drought-Induced Challenges and Different Responses by Smallholder and Semicommercial Livestock Farmers in Semiarid Limpopo, South Africa—An Indicator-Based Assessment

2022

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Increased seasonal climatic variability is a major contributor to uncertainty in livestock-based livelihoods across Southern Africa. Erratic rainfall patterns and prolonged droughts have resulted in the region being identified as a climate ‘vulnerability hotspot’. Based on fieldwork conducted in the dry seasons in a semiarid region of South Africa, we present an interdisciplinary approach to assess the differential effects of drought on two types of livestock systems. Organic matter digestibility, faecal crude protein, C/N ratio and the natural abundance of faecal 15N and 13C isotopes were used as ecophysiological feed quality indicators between smallholder and semicommercial systems. These measurements were complemented with qualitative surveys. In a novel approach, we tested the potential of the isotopic signature to predict feed quality and present a significant relationship between organic matter digestibility and isotopic ratios. Indicators assessed smallholder feed quality to be significantly higher than semicommercial feed. However, animals from semicommercial farms were in significantly better condition than those from smallholding farms. Differential access to feed resources suggests that a complex feed–water–land nexus pushes smallholders into high reliance on off-farm supplements to bridge drought-induced feed deficits. The paper thus offers a contribution to intersectional work on drought effects on livestock keepers of semiarid South Africa and illustrates how ecophysiological indicators mirror socioeconomic differences.

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“…Traditionally, smallholder farmers may sow their crops when they perceive that the rainy season has started mostly after receiving the first rain or a few days after the first rain (Lamega et al, 2021;Stern et al, 1981). The reliability of such kind of practices has been decreasing due to the increasing frequency of false starts which are often followed by prolonged dry spells after the first rains (Porkka et al, 2021) which create crop water stresses that, depending on their severity and timing, lead to failure or poor germination of the planted seeds (Krell et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the relations between crop yield variability and the onset and intensity of the West African Monsoon

Joseph

Akinseye

Worou³

et al. 2023

Agricultural and Forest Meteorology

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It depends on the rain: Smallholder farmers’ perceptions on the seasonality of feed gaps and how it affects livestock in semi-arid and arid regions in Southern Africa

Cited by 16 publications

References 43 publications

Modeling the effects of alternative crop–livestock management scenarios on important ecosystem services for smallholder farming from a landscape perspective

Modeling the effects of alternative crop–livestock management scenarios on important ecosystem services for smallholder farming from a landscape perspective

Drought-Induced Challenges and Different Responses by Smallholder and Semicommercial Livestock Farmers in Semiarid Limpopo, South Africa—An Indicator-Based Assessment

Assessment of the relations between crop yield variability and the onset and intensity of the West African Monsoon

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