Feed tables for animals
Producing consistent information
on feed resources in warm regions
I
n developing countries, boosting animal production
means using a wide range of farming systems. Making
optimum use of the resources available locally is
an economic necessity. Exploiting the diversity of
those resources is also an important part of ecological
intensification. It is thus necessary to know the available
resources, and the quality of the resulting products, in order
to ensure the profitability and sustainability of livestock farms.
CIRAD, INRA and the AFZ are compiling a knowledge base on the
nutritional value of these resources and products.
Unloading cassava .
© D. Bastianelli/CIRAD
Contacts
Denis Bastianelli
Specificity of tropical resources
While resources such as maize are common
to temperate and southern countries, some
raw materials and types of fodder are specific
to warm regions. Certain less common
products or by-products may be locally highly
significant for animal production systems.
Pigs eating mulberry (Morus alba) leaves, Colombia.
© D. Bastianelli/CIRAD
The quality of those resources is influenced
by the wide range of climatic factors and
cropping practices. Agroindustrial byproducts (straw, oilmeals, bran, etc) from
small-scale production units are particularly
variable.
In many cases, the data available for
industrialized countries, if indeed there are any, do not tally with those for the products
found in southern countries, and their use can thus result in formulation errors.
CIRAD, UMR SELMET
Mediterranean and Tropical
Livestock Systems
Campus international de
Baillarguet
34398 Montpellier Cedex 05
France
[email protected]
Gilles Tran
Association Française de
Zootechnie
16 rue Claude Bernard
75231 Paris Cedex 05
France
[email protected]
Compiling and harmonizing data
Harry Archimède
CIRAD, INRA and the AFZ decided, in partnership with the FAO, to compile a coherent
database on available feed resources in warm regions, for the main farm animals: ruminants
and other herbivores, pigs, poultry and fish. Using databases held by CIRAD, INRA and
their partners and existing data in the international literature, the project set out to pinpoint,
compile and harmonize the available data.
INRA, Unité de Recherches
Zootechniques
Domaine Duclos
97170 Petit-Bourg
Guadeloupe
France
[email protected]
Products
The tables will cover the main global plant
species (maize, soybean, rice, wheat, etc), the
main pantropical and Mediterranean grasses and
legume crops (panicum, digitaria, bersim, etc), and
more local resources. Some 500 products are to
be listed. For each species, the various resulting
feeds will be taken into consideration: green plant,
grain and seed, roots and tubers, agroindustrial
byproducts, etc.
A website, http://www.feedipedia.org, is on line,
co-produced with the FAO. It will include some
200 sheets giving documentary information as well
as nutritional value data. The collection will be
supplemented as the project progresses, and published in a book in 2013.
In addition to publishing coherent data, the project also set out to propose pragmatic
methods for assessing resources according to the information available to users: origin of
the resource, technology, and estimated composition based on rapid analysis methods
(near-infrared spectroscopy or NIRS).
Child and buffalo, sugarcane waste,
Vietnam. © J.-C. Maillard/CIRAD
Associated expertise
The project consortium and its partners have extensive experience of producing
and compiling nutritional information. They manage databases of global interest
(Banque de Données de l’Alimentation Animale) and help to disseminate
information
locally
through
national or regional tables, for
instance those produced for Kenya
(2006) and Chad (2012). They also
study feed systems in southern
countries and work to survey local
feed resources.
Trough feeding (Pennisetum
purpureum) of yellow cattle,
Vietnam . © P. Salgado/CIRAD
Partners
FAO, Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United
Nations
National research centres in
warm regions
Sorghum varietal trials at CIRAD, France.
© L. Bonnal/CIRAD
Goat browsing a fodder tree, Sultanate of
Oman. © C. Dutilly/CIRAD
© CIRAD, February 2012
www.cirad.fr