Youth look to harvest BIG from agriculture
Dr. Jolly Kabirizi (Kyakuwa Farm & Livestock consultant)
If you ask “what is the biggest threat facing livestock production systems in Uganda”? The obvious answer is – poor nutritional status of livestock (cattle, goats, sheep and rabbits). It is a result of shortage of quality and quantity feed. Fingers have been wagged at climate change, climate variations,
Land shortage; and unimproved farming practices.
The shortages also extend to high quality pasture seed/planting materials. The downturn has been under production and utilisation of cultivated pastures
A well-managed cultivated pastures grass mixed with forage legumes
As feeds run out, cows are severely underfed, and unable to build sufficient body reserves (particularly energy and protein). Thus, dairy cows are experiencing low milk yield, poor body condition, severe weight and body condition score losses or/and fail to conceive.
This could be reversed by improving dairy cattle diets to boost reproductive performance, herd productivity and economic status of the household.
The field is fat with yields
A fresh breathe of air travelling through the field is announcing good times ahead: demand for high quality pasture seed for livestock feed resources is rapidly increasing in Uganda. This demand is fuelled by the expanding beef and dairy production occasioned by the increased demand from rising population and improved income particularly in the urban centres. Availability of adequate and good quality pasture seed is critical to meet the expanding meat and milk demand in the country. Further, the need to restore degraded natural pasture (the major source of livestock feed) through reseeding and/or over-sowing interventions emphasize the urgency for concerted efforts to ensure availability of large quantities of good quality seeds. However, production of adequate quantities of good quality pasture seed is greatly constrained by inadequate knowledge on appropriate agronomic practices among farmers.
Why grow pastures?
- Livestock feed contributes over 60 percent of the total cost of production in a profitable livestock enterprise.
- Pasture is a crop (grass, legume or fodder tree and shrub, both native and introduced) grown for feeding animals. Pastures provide a major source of feed (nutrients) for cattle.
- Pastures provide a soil cover, conserve soil moisture, improve soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, supress weeds, improve crop yield and household income
- Pastures can be grown as fodder for sale to livestock farmers without land:
- Fresh fodder e.g. elephant grass, signal grass and others,
- Conserved pastures (hay, silage, haylage),
- Crop residues (bean husks, sweet potato vines, straw and maize stover),
- Some pastures are used in the control of pests and diseases.
- Greenleaf Desmodium planted between maize rows, repel (“push”) the stem borer. Napier grass planted around maize crop attract and trap maize stem borer (“pull”). Desmodium provides a soil cover, controls striga weeds and is nitrogen fixing, which improves soil fertility and maize grain and fodder yield.
6. Pasture seed production is a cash crop (seeds, seedlings and cuttings) similar to coffee, beans and maize. Establishing a new pasture or renovating an existing pasture requires good quality pasture seed. The pasture seed crop must be established and managed using recommended agronomic practices to maximize yields.
Pasture seed crop must be established using recommended agronomic practices such as “row planting” which makes weeding easier than when seed is broadcasted
Pasture seed production – youth pick a leaf
Pasture seed production can spur youth survival: The potential to create employment, and self-reliance is over flowing. The impact of natural disasters on animal production, has grown the need to increase production and ensure more sustainable livestock feed systems and food security.
In this article, some innovative individual youths have made important milestones to liberate livestock farmers: Decisive investments in pasture seed/planting materials intent on more supply of high quality seed or fodder to livestock farmers who do not have sufficient land to grow their own fodder.
What is your favourite pick for a farming venture? A good number will point to: poultry, food crops, tree planting, citrus fruits and livestock cross their mind. Mr. Vincent Lutwama, a Chairperson of Bavubuka Twekembe Group and the owner of Austin Farm in Luwero district looked to commercial pasture seed production to assist farmers make the right decision on the type of pasture as animal feed.
The 33-year-old entrepreneur started the pasture business over 6 years ago. A holder of a Master of Science degree in Animal nutrition from Makerere University says his entry into the pasture seed production business was after attending a practical training by Dr. Jolly Kabirizi on pasture establishment and conservation for farmers in Kole and Apac Districts funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The training was an eye opener for opportunities for persons interested in pasture as a business.
Watering the seed of opportunity
Vincent said: “When I got the opportunity, I shared with my friends but we were advised to do more research about pasture production and productivity. This was to help us understand opportunities and challenges on production, the type of pastures that a farmer would get a good market for and the costs of production involved”. We further engaged Dr. Jolly Kabirizi, an expert on pasture production who was working with the National Livestock Resources Research Institute (NaLIRRI), one of the research institutes under the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO).
Her research centred on different types of pastures and their impact on dairy cattle production make her undeniably, one of the top pasture specialists in the Eastern and Central African region.
It is from this interaction with Dr. Kabirizi that Lutwama derives inspiration. Vincent started off with 4 acres. As a Masters’ degree student, he used his stipend from the INSFEED project of Makerere University as starting capital. He purchased numerous types of pasture seeds and planting material from the NaLIRRI which included: 40 kg of Rhodes grass at Shs 45,000 per kg, 5 kg of lablab at Shs 30,000 per kg and 10 sacks of elephant/Napier grass cuttings Shs 30,000 per sac.
Lutwama has majored in pasture seed and fodder production. He says, “As a pasture producer, I know that different farmers, depending on the type of animals they are rearing and management system, need specific types of pasture. So, we produce pasture seeds for beef and dairy cattle, rabbits, pigs and goats,” The improved pastures have a high growth rate and are resistant to drought thus solving the biggest problem of inadequate feeds during prolonged dry seasons. Vincent deals two textures of pasture: grasses and legumes. Pasture grasses include: Rhodes grass, Elephant grass, Guinea grass, Signal grass, forage sorghum and others. Pasture legumes include Lablab, Desmodium, Centrosema and others.
With pasture, you cannot go wrong
Lutwama notes that once a pasture crop fully establishes, it has a high ability to colonize the places where they are grown and they have high levels of required nutrients needed by animals for quick maturity, increased production, good health and quality products.
Improved pastures he says has an edge in; high regeneration potential (after grazing) and soil fertility improvement by nitrogen fixation. With very good management, a pasture field can be maintained for more than 10 years unlike food crops such as maize where you have to replant every season.
“Before I sell the seed, I inquire about the kind of animals the farmer is rearing and the objective of the farm. This gives me a clear picture of what exactly she or he will need,” he reveals, adding, “Different animals need different pastures depending on the objective. Beef and milk cattle are fed differently because they are reared for different purposes. So, as I give advice to the farmers, I mainly consider their objective with other land owners who part with 50 percent of the profit at the end of the harvest season. He has so far established over 10 acres of pasture crop for both seed and hay production.
Reaping what he sowed
Lutwama smiles to the bank “I sell the seed towards and during the planting season and grass hay during the dry season”.
- From Rhodes grass seed alone, he makes about Shs 2.5 million per year per acre. After harvesting the seed, he cuts back the remaining residues, dry and bale it and sell it as low quality hay.
- From Signal grass (Kifuta), he makes about Shs. 3 million per acre per year from sale of planting material (splits).
- About how much seed he produces, Lutwama reveals “it all depends on the size and fertility of the land plus the availability of water (rain). “I harvest about 200-300 kg of Rhodes grass seed per acre per year,” he says.
- Lutwama mainly produces Lablab, a forage legume seed. The average yield is 200-300 Kgs per acre per year depending on the management, soil fertility and climate.
- The price of pasture seed normally shoots when the demand is high.
- He employs 12 permanent employees at a salary of Shs. 150,000-200,000 per person per month. He, however, contracts more man-power during the planting, weeding and harvest time.
Clients
Lutwama says that his clients are mostly cattle and goat farmers, who are informed or knowledgeable and have done research and need the best for their businesses. He has also got agricultural institutions that have started taking the seeds in large qualities.
No easy harvest on goals
He points out land as a prime barrier “Given the kind of clients I deal with, I need more land to satisfy their needs.” In scenarios where some farmers take large quantity of pasture seed, others whose demands rain towards the end of the planting season take little or no seed at all! I thus push them to the following season which is a costly option” he reveals.
Pasture farm establishment
After encountering several losses Lutwama Vincent, opened an initiative to support farmers establish their farms to avoid losses. “Many farmers would not follow instructions thus yielding losses. This pushed their interest down,” he notes. To arrest the situation, he now: prepares the land, plants the pasture then hands it over to the owner when the pasture is fully established.
A good day’s work
- He has been able to expand and sustain farm operations
- He has been able to network with people from different walks of life
- Although Lutwama still has a lagging gap of satisfying the local market, he has not lost the plan of exporting pasture seeds.
- He has been able to steadily expand the pasture fields since the birth of his interest. In the last season, he made a net profit of Shs. 4 million but decided to re-invest the money to expand the farm operations.
- Lutwama has started poultry and dairy goat production enterprises. At the moment he owns 3,000 commercial layer birds and 50 dairy goats.
Youth, pick up the modern ‘hoe’ like Lutwama Vincent, and smile to a bright future.
