Sra. MAZGANGA MHONE
LIVESTOCK BEST PRACTICE EXPERIENCES AND BIODIVERSITY SENSITIVE MITIGATION MEASURES IN MALAWI
By
Mazganga Suzanna Mhone
Introduction
Biodiversity is the cornerstone of sustainable agricultural production and food security. Biodiversity in simple terms can be defined as the variety of all living things and their interactions and is usually explored at three levels: genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity. A lot of human activities on earth have led to biodiversity loss thereby threatening food security and sustainability of ecosystem livelihoods including plants, animals, insects and human beings. The agriculture sector is no exception. Main drivers of biodiversity loss include habitat change, climate change, invasive alien species, overexploitation and pollution. Most agriculture related biodiversity loss contributions are related to climate change.
This presentation aims to share livestock best climate smart practices that target to reduce biodiversity loss in Malawi. Below are some of the interventions.
Experiences and best practices in Malawi
The economy and livelihood of Malawi is largely dependent on natural resources. This dependence on natural resources, coupled with rapid population growth, makes Malawi particularly vulnerable to effects of climate change. In the recent past climate change related effects like floods and droughts have become more frequent. The result has been crop failure, reduced livestock productivity due to increased pests and diseases incidence leading to food insecurity. In order to mitigate the effects of climate change on biodiversity like land degradation, reduced water levels,number of plant and animal species , the Government of Malawi has started to embrace climate-smart agriculture (CSA) concept in its polices as part of an ambition to improve the integration of agriculture development and climate responsiveness. CSA initiatives can sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience and reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions through the synergies between the three CSA pillars, namely: productivity, adaptation, and mitigation.
As part of best practices in keeping livestock through climate smart agriculture principles, the Ministry of Agriculture encourages smallholder farmers to keep a variety of animal species in order to mitigate the negative effects of climate change by following good animal husbandry practices such as selection of good animal breeds, good animal housing, good feeding practices and control of animal parasites and diseases resulting in improved animal productivity and food security among the rural communities. Construction of good housing for animals inevitably leads to using trees as raw materials for walls and roofing. In the long run, as livestock sector grows especially in rural areas will contribute to deforestation thereby disturbing the ecosystem.
Furthermore, indigenous trees provide livelihoods to some wild species like insects and even larger animals as sources of feed. Removal of these trees leads to destruction of their natural habitat and therefore threatening their survival. As a government initiative to curb this, every household constructing housing for livestock is encouraged to plant at least ten trees as replacement. In addition, use of cement building blocks are being promoted when constructing animal housing instead of burnt bricks because unlike of burnt bricks, cement blocks do not require the use of firewood. Habitat loss resulting from ecosystem disturbance will also directly reduce pollinator population growth. Fewer pollinators could lead to a decline or extinction of some plant species that depend on them thereby affecting food and nutrition security with potential losses in agricultural yields. In order to maintain the indigenous species diversity, farmers are encouraged to collect seeds of wild trees species in their locality when they become available to plant back in their local environment.
To improve the productivity of indigenous animal species like cattle, chickens, goats and sheep, government has been promoting the importation and distribution of exotic breeds in rural communities to cross with local breeds to have increased yields in meat, milk and eggs at household level for food and nutrition security across the country. However, the observation has been that survival rates of these imported breeds and their offsprings have been challenging. In addition, there has been a dilution of the genetic makeup of the local breeds leading to loss of important traits like disease resistance . In order to conserve the genetic makeup of the indigenous breeds, government in collaboration with research and academic institutions are embarking on community based breeding program where they are promoting selection of breedable dams and sires of desirable traits like high growth rate within the local goat breed in a particular agro-ecological zone where there are more adaptable to the local environment and thereby reducing the death of these animals which occur when transferred from one particular area to the other.
Over the years, government has also focused on improving local chickens through cross breeding with an exotic breed called Black Australorpe where six weeks old cocks are sold to poultry farmers where they cross with indigenous hens to improve meat and egg production through heterosis (hybrid vigour). Farmers embracing this have reduced interest in some local chicken strains they used to keep before. Recent studies have shown that about eight chicken strains that were common in villages some of them are now nearing extinction in Malawi resulting in biodiversity loss in the indigenous chicken. As such Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) came up with an initiative for in-situ conservation of local chicken. However, the initiative is meeting financial resource challenges and cannot have other nucleus centres for the program. Furthermore, the current parent stock of Black Australorpe breed has been around for over 2 decades without being replaced resulting in reduced growth rates and high disease incidences in the offsprings due to recycling the same genes over a long period of time leading to inbreeding. Looking at these challenges LUANAR through Animal Science Department are trying to improve one of the local chicken strain through selection and back crossing to come up with an improved local chicken breed that can have the same characteristics of the Black Australorpe of high growth rate and egg production. This initiative is still ongoing but lack resources of scaling it up within the university so that in the end will have produced a number of this chicken strain and be able to distribute for multiplication in other research centers.
As the population increases, per capita land holding for agricultural crop production is decreasing. Marginal areas that were used for livestock production before are now being encroached for crop production. Where marginal lands including sloppy areas are cultivated this leads to increased soil erosion and land degradation. In order to reduce soil erosion in these vulnerable areas government is promoting good soil and land management practices where farmers are advised to construct contour bands reinforced with vetiver grass at intervals. However, vetiver grass is not palatable to livestock as such Napier grass is being proposed as an alternative grass which can be cut and fed to animals while effectively controlling run-off water. Similarly, in an effort to increase crop and livestock productivity in these marginal lands appropriate technologies should be designed so that these areas are farmed sustainably. There is need for supplementing existing cropland with marginal land by developing ago-forestry systems which will benefit not only crop production but also livestock as farmers will be able to get feed for their animals.
Further due to lack or scarcity of grazing are in the dry season in most areas, crop residues like maize stover have for long been used as animal feed during this time. However, this feed resource is being threatened by other upcoming technologies like the zero tillage crop production systems where crop residues are now being used as mulching materials. There is need to strike a balance.
Conclusion
Agriculture plays a significant role in Malawi’s social and economy growth but like many other developing countries the current key challenge is how to increase livestock productivity to meet the increasing demand for meat, milk and eggs by a growing population while conserving biodiversity and reducing the pressure on natural resources and ecosystems. In response, the Malawi government through the Ministry of Agriculture is promoting climate smart agricultural technologies like use of improved indigenous breeds which not only aims improving food and nutrition security but also reducing biodiversity loss.
