Potential sources of feeds for small livestock are by-products from both arable crops and agro-industrial processes. These can be valuable sources of nutrients for livestock, rich in both protein and energy. However, they are often also rich in anti-nutritive factors as well and their availability to smallstock keepers may be low, particularly if the keepers are landless and marginalized.

Crop by-products may not be available to landless livestock keepers, unless they are part of a share-farming arrangement and most agro-industrial by-products are exported to countries in the North, with more industrialized livestock production systems.

Many of the crop by-products (such as straws and stovers) are also extremely fibrous and more suitable for feeding to large ruminants (such as cattle and buffalo) rather than sheep and goats.