nile basin livestock-water productivity

Nile Basin Livestock-Water Productivity

PO Box 5689Addis Ababa

Ethiopia

ESTIMATED TROPICAL LIVESTOCK UNITS (TLU) IN THE NILE BASIN PART OF RIPARIAN COUNTRIES

COUNTRY TLU Sudan 23,237,976Ethiopia 11,712,283Egypt 6,521,339Kenya 5,281,630Uganda 5,192,513Tanzania 4,790,060Rwanda 638,544Eritrea 627,170Burundi 275,444Congo 83,800TOTAL 58,360,759

DEVELOPMENT GOALTo sustainably improve food security and reduce poverty:• Through more effective and efficient use of water for livestock production and • By promoting livestock keeping practices to safeguard water resources.

SPECIFIC PROJECT OBJECTIVES1. To identify hotspots involving negative livestock-water interactions and to advance

policy and targeted innovations enabling more efficient and equitable water resource use for all purposes including livestock production.

2. To identify potential technologies, INRM practices and policies that are feasible, socially acceptable and gender-sensitive for sustainably improving food security and well-being through management of livestock-water interactions across the Nile Basin and to test a sub-set of these in collaboration with participating communities

3. To increase capacities for undertaking improved, integrated and gender-equitable livestock-water management of key target groups including selected communities, development professionals, policy makers and researchers.

BENEFICIARIES TARGETEDParticipating communities, NGOs, Extension and research institutions, policymakers

and CP collaborators

Hotspots and options in the Nile Basin identifieda) GIS-based hotspot map of Nile livestock-water conflicts.b) Water component for FAO’s Livestock & Environment Toolbox.c) Policy recommendations to improve basin-wide livestock and water R&D.d) Basin-wide synthesis of livestock-water interactions and R&D priorities.

Management of livestock and water in selected Nile communitiese) Important livestock-water interactions involving soil moisture, equitable access to water, water quality and constraints to production identified. f) Increased awareness of livestock-water management options to increase agricultural production including livestock, to safeguard water, soil and other resources, and to enhance well-being.g) Promising technologies & practices (including good local governance, feed sourcing strategies and manure, soil, ground cover and livestock watering management) identified and constraints to their adoption documented.h) Synthesis of options to improve community management of livestock & water and priorities for future R&D.

Capacity building, training and disseminationi) Doctoral students trained.j) Results widely available for use in research, policymaking and development.k) Stakeholders experiencing improved livestock-water management. l) Graduate course on livestock-water interactions for the Nile and larger CP.

OUTPUTS

• Objective 3 will include workshops for Nile policy makers, graduate student training, dissemination of information through NGO networks, increasing capacity of R&D personnel in development NGOs, governments, intergovernmental organizations and enhance CP collaborators’ knowledge of the importance of livestock in water resource management.

A Novel CP Partnership

CARE, Ethiopian Rainwater Association, Nile Basin Initiative, A-AARNET, Makerere U., NARO,

EARO, ARRC, FAO, IWMI, ILRI & the CP

Community assessment

Understandlocal

issuesImplement

intervention

Prioritize local livestock-water management options

COMMUNITY INNOVATIONObjective #2

Basin assessment

Understandbasin

hotspots

Target community

development

Prioritize basin livestock-water policy options

INTEGRATED BASIN PLANNINGObjective #1 (hotspots and policy)

Change Change

ELEMENTS OF ACTIVITIES & METHODS• Gender and participatory approach mainstreamed.

• Need to help standardized GIS & indicators to enable CP synthesis.

• Community, basin (and watershed) learning cycles mutually inform each other’s R&D options & actions. Stakeholders engage in an iterative cycle of assessment, increased understanding prioritization, and intervention that leads to further assessment and action.

• Objective 1 will use existing data and limited ground truthing to map out livestock-water hot spots across the Nile Basin, develop decision support tools to describe how animal production affects supply and demand for water and how livestock impact on water resources in major agricultural production systems. Results will lead to basin level policy recommendations and enable better targeting of future community and watershed R&D to most problematic areas.

• Objective 2 will in partnership with development NGOs and selected communities identify and understand major livestock-water interactions, test technical options to improve management, and identify enabling governance conditions.

PO Box 30709NairobiKenya

• Drinking.• Feed production.• Processing meat, milk & hides.• Maintenance of animal hygiene

especially in peri-urban and urban production.

Water for production of animal-based human food products

Impact on water resources

WHAT IS LIVESTOCK-WATER PRODUCTIVITY?It is part of overall productivity of water for food production and the “scale dependent efficiency of direct and indirect use of water for provision of livestock products and services”. It includes water used for production of livestock products and services and the impact of livestock keeping on water quality and its availability and value to subsequent users.

Water for maintenance of draft animals is also necessary for crop production but should this be considered as a component of crop water productivity?

• Manure, urine & processing of livestock products contaminate domestic, surface & ground water. • Run-off, soil compaction, soil organic matter & ground cover loss, evaporation, & use of animal power affect soil moisture.• Livestock keeping affects down-slope & down-stream hydrology, & sedimentation & ecology of water-borne disease vectors.

Animals drink water, but feed production uses much more. Feed marketing and storage contributes to livelihoods coping with dry season shortages.

Poorly managed animals contaminate and compete for drinking water. Excessive grazing reduces ground cover, reduces infiltration, promotes flooding, erosion and sedimentation.

Photo courtesy of S Fernandez, ILRI

Photo courtesy of A. Astatke, ILRI Photo courtesy of A. Astatke, ILRI Photo courtesy of A. Astatke, ILRI

Photos by D. Peden

GENDER, LIVESTOCK AND WATER: Gender roles in livestock and water management vary across production systems and social groups. In pastoral lands, men usually make decisions on grazing and trekking routes, and they herd and water animals, but women and children care for young, sick and pregnant animals. In mixed farming, children often herd and water animals while in urban and peri-urban systems, women and children normally collect drinking water. This research will take into account gender-disaggregated time and labour costs, vulnerability to health risk from water borne diseases and the differential benefits women, men

and children can can anticipate from “improved” management of livestock and water.

NILE BASIN LIVESTOCK ARE IMPORTANT Fifty-eight million tropical livestock units (TLU) consisting of cattle, sheep, goats, equines and camels occupy the basin. One TLU equals 250 kg of living animal biomass. More than half are found in The Sudan and Ethiopia where they make up about 50% of the agricultural GDP. They are produced in diverse agricultural production systems totaling 2.1 million km2 or two thirds of the entire basin (See map and table). Livestock-only rainfed production is most widespread (1.2 million km2 mostly in The Sudan and Ethiopia) followed by mixed crop-livestock rainfed production (763,292 km2 around Lake Victoria and in the Ethiopian highlands), mixed crop-livestock irrigated production (150,435 km2 mostly along the Egyptian and Sudanese Nile), and Urban and peri-urban production (794 km2). The importance of livestock keeping necessitates consideration of the efficiency of water use for food production in the CP on Water and Food.

Domestic animals provide many important products and services such as:

Livestock drink about 25 l/day/TLU/day of water, but the amount varies depending on factors such as animal species, temperature, quality of drinking water, and feed characteristics. However, water required for daily feed production can be more than 100 times greater than what animals drink. Water scarcity limits feed production and thus livestock production. Inappropriate feeding and manure management contribute to soil erosion, run-off, reduced infiltration, and downstream flooding and sedimentation. Manure and urine often contaminate surface and ground water. Food-feed crops and grazing systems that meet both animal and human dietary needs and minimize water depletion and degradation are needed along with watering practices that reduces human labor costs, stress on animals, energy use, and degradation and depletion of soil and water resources. A great gap exists in our knowledge of how best to manage water-livestock interactions at different geographic scales ranging from households to river basins.

Meat, dairy & eggs Manure for fuel Animal power

Photo courtesy of S Fernandez, ILRIPhoto from D. Peden Photo from ILRI

TLU/km2

One TLU = 250 kg living of animal biomass

Nile livestock density* Major Nile production systems*

*GIS analyses courtesy of Russ Kruska, ILRI

Project Leader: D Peden1 ([email protected]) and Principal Investigators: C Ebong5 ([email protected]), N El-Khodari8 ([email protected]), H Gessesse10 ([email protected]), M Jabbar1 ([email protected]), Gabriel Kiwuwa6 ([email protected]), Tesfaye Kumsa7 ([email protected]), D Merrey2 ([email protected]), J Ndikumana4 ([email protected]), M Rosales3 ([email protected]), Hilmy Sally2 ([email protected]), B van Koppen2 ([email protected]), M Vigoda9 ([email protected])

1) International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), 2)International Water Management Institute (IWMI), 3) FAO – Livestock, Environment and Development Initiative (LEAD), 4) ASARECA Animal Agriculture Research Network (A-AARNET), 5) National Agricultural Research Organization of Uganda, 6) Makerere University Department of Animal Science, 7) Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization (EARO), 8) Nile Basin Society, 9) CARE – Ethiopia, 10) Ethiopian Rainwater Harvesting Association

nile basin livestock-water productivity

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