Integrating Indigenous and Biological Knowledge into Dry Season Feeding Strategies

Research Project

Project ID: R7637

Title	Integrating indigenous and biological knowledge to implement improved dry season feeding strategies on farms in the hills of Nepal
Species	Goat, Sheep, Poultry, Pig
Commodity	Meat
Livestock Keeper Group	Smallstock Keepers
Production System	Forest Agriculture Interface
Country or Region	Nepal
Research Theme	Nutrition
Research Approach	Participatory Techniques/ Laboratory based
Funding Agency	DFID Livestock Production Programme

Summary

This project integrated indigenous and biological knowledge to implement improved dry season feeding strategies in farms in the hills of Nepal. The project compared indigenous knowledge of fodder trees with their nutritive values- indigenous knowledge broadly in line with nutritive values but more work required to fully understand the basis of some indigenous knowledge.

Primary Relevance	Low - High
Feeding and Nutrition
Animal Health
Commodities and Markets
Other Husbandry
Policy Relevance

Documents

	Investigating the biological basis of tree fodder evaluation by farmers
	Using local knowledge as a basis for planning ruminant diets in the mid hills of Nepal.

Criteria applied by farmers when comparing amongst tree fodder species (or nutritional quality)

Tree fodder	Reasons for assigning importance to the fodder species
Bambusa nutans	Stimulates milk production. Palatable to animals, even during rain or cold weather conditions.
Sambucus hookeri	Heat giving. High leaf yields and does not cause diarrhoea. Leaves do not absorb rain and become wet.
Thysanolaena maxima	Similar to B. nutans but produces less fodder because lower leaf:stem ratio.
Ficus nerrifolia	High fodder yield, palatable and promotes milk yield.
Ficus semicordata	Leaves may be given to dry cows and retain greenness late during the dry winter season.
Saurauria nepaulensis	Leaves are coarse, unpalatable and cause weakness to animals particularly when lactating However, leaves remain green late during the dry winter season and may be used as an emergency feed. Acts an appetite satisfier only when other sources of green fodder are dwindling away.

Related Projects

R5690

Strategies for the allocation of seasonally varying feed resources to optimise
productivity from mixed species livestock holdings