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| The Context |
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Who
Targeted at ...
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The tool is aimed primarily at small scale producers mainly in areas of higher potential who are or wish to become dairy producers. Secondarily it is directed to agricultural, livestock and veterinary extension and other advisory personnel (public and private sectors including NGOs). As milk production is an activity that is well suited to women and to women's groups, advisors in cooperative associations or home economics' advisors should also be part of the target group. |
When?
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The tool can be used at all times of the year but will be especially useful at times of chronic livestock feed shortage and in periods and places where there is a need to ensure a constant and readily available supply of good quality roughage for basal rations. |
Where?
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Most areas of the relatively wetter tropics and subtropics have some possibilities for developing dairy systems. As already indicated, however, the tool is likely to give best results in areas of higher potential in the highlands or in other areas suitable for more intensive production. Peri-urban areas near to concentrations of human population are a particularly suitable target area. |
| Methods |
A farmer Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approach was adopted in identifying problems and in finding solutions to them. One major problem identified was the cost of transport of forage that had to be bought in or even moved around on the farm. It was considered that compressed and baled forage would have a greater bulk density than loose forage and could result in a reduction in transport costs.
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Researchable questions that arose from the PRA with respect to baling in boxes were:
- what would be the most suitable box size;
- what would be the labour requirements; and
- what were the benefits expected from using a box-baling technique?
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Manual box-baling of forage reduces transport costs. In this photograph Farmers are cutting twine used to secure the bale (maize stover) which is compacted by trampling, then removed from the box. |
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| Resources Required |
Few resources additional to those already on the farm are required. Hand chopping can be practised on very small farms or a hand powered rotary chopper can be used for larger units. Appropriate storage of stover after harvest including some measures for collecting fallen leaves would increase the quantify and quality of feed available. |
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| Support |
Some support will normally be required from public and private advisory services in order to ensure the technology is correctly transferred and properly used. The extension personnel themselves, including women agents, will need to be trained in the technology. |
| Costs |
Additional financial costs are small. Non financial costs in correct storage, chopping and offering feed increase as a result of application of the technology. As farmers do place an intrinsic value on their time it is important to ensure that the perceived benefits assume dominance over the perceived inconveniences but as high value milk is the main output this should not present any problems. |
| Benefits |
An increase in weight of 63 per cent of forage transported in 1-ton pick up vehicles in bales as opposed to loose stover or other forage was achieved. The resultant cost of transport was reduced by 33 per cent. If leaves, sheaths and husks were separated out from the stover more than double the loose amount could be transported as bales. Baled forage also reduced the need for storage space on the farm Overall labour costs and those for handling forage were reduced by the use of bales. Use of bales increased the gross margin (annual enterprise budget) of a local 400 kg cow by 11 per cent for stover and by 22 per cent for leaves sheaths and husks.
These facts translate to the producer as a higher and more stable income. More widely correct employment of the tool should lead to more sustainable livelihoods. Maximum use of local feed resources has beneficial local and global effects as it reduces overall costs to the environment in reducing the number of "food miles" involved between point of production and point of consumption. More assured supplies of high quality livestock products would improve the diets and the quality of life of consumers at a lower cost than the use of costly imports. |
| Risks |
There appear to be few risks associated with the use of the technology. |
| Alternatives |
The alternative to baling is continued inefficient use of local resources including excessive transport costs and inappropriate use of finite natural resources, especially petroleum products. |
| Impacts |
The overall impacts are a more sustainable production system at least cost to the environment. |
| Policy Implications |
There are no major policy implications but national, regional and district administrations should include policy options that provide producers with information on the benefits of making more efficient and maximum use of local resources. |
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| Research Findings |
This project was designed around the hypothesis that feed resources were a major limiting factor to milk production in the high potential areas of Tanzania and that by taking a farmer-oriented approach to technological research, practical solutions to the most pressing constraints could be developed and promoted.
There was little evidence that the dairy production constraints facing poorer farmers in Tanzania had been adequately identified or addressed prior to this project. This project therefore applied participatory appraisal techniques so that farmers could identify and prioritize their constraints and participatory evaluation techniques so that farmers could evaluate experimental technologies for themselves. Finally, farmer-to-farmer learning and evaluation permitted the transfer of potentially beneficial technology from one group of farmers to another. The adoption of a participatory approach to all stages of the technology generation and dissemination cycle is rare in livestock research and this project serves as an example of the benefits which may accrue from this approach.
The technology of manual box-baling of maize stover has shown that real economic benefits can be gained from simple applied technology. Allied with stripping the more digestible portions from maize stover prior to baling, the cost of transported forage reduces from 10 Tanzanian shillings per mega Joule of metabolisable energy to 4 Tanzanian shillings. This same technology can be applied to the roadside grass trade and provide benefits to both sellers and buyers of this forage.
Farmer-to-farmer visit and learning showed promise as a means of technology transfer and may have benefits over either training and visit approaches or local farm open days.
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| References and Further Reading |
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