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Candidate fodder trees and shrubs for sustainable ruminant production in northern Ghana

OAR@ICRISAT

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/11067/
http://www.lrrd.cipav.org.co/lrrd30/9/favor30154.html
 
Title Candidate fodder trees and shrubs for sustainable ruminant production in northern Ghana
 
Creator Avornyo, F K
Zougmore, R B
Partey, S T
Tengan, K
 
Subject Ghana
Livestock
 
Description A survey was done to document preferred browse plants and farmers’ knowledge about them for sustainable ruminant production in northern Ghana. The study was done in Jirapa and Lawra Districts of Upper West Region of Ghana. A questionnaire was used to interview 50 farmers per district. Tables and graphs were drawn to summarize results.

Ruminant production was a predominantly male occupation (p=0.032). It was also in the domain of the lowly educated (p=0.003). Ninety-seven percent (97%) of the respondents had goats with about half of them having sheep and 17% owning cattle. The overriding (99%) reason for rearing ruminants was to serve as a source of income. In the dry season, ruminants were kept on free range. In the wet season, small ruminants were tethered with or without feed supplementation. A total of 34 browse plants were identified and the most frequently browsed were Fadherbia albida, Ficus sycomorus gnaphalocarpa, Afzelia africana, Pterocarpus erinaceus, Combretum molle and Annona senegalensis. Paramount among the challenges faced by the owners were limited grazing land, feed scarcity and theft. Apart from being fodder sources, the identified browse species were soil improvers, medicinal and human food sources. All respondents grew crops and the most frequently cultivated crops were groundnut, maize, cowpea, bambara groundnuts, sorghum, millet, rice and yam in this decreasing order. Ninety percent (90%) of the respondents fed crop residue to their animals, with the commonest, groundnut haulm, fed by about 80% of the respondents. Twenty-eight different types of trees/shrubs were identified on respondents’ farms.
 
Date 2018
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/11067/1/Candidate%20fodder%20trees%20and%20shrubs%20for%20sustainable%20ruminant%20production%20in%20northern%20Ghana.pdf
Avornyo, F K and Zougmore, R B and Partey, S T and Tengan, K (2018) Candidate fodder trees and shrubs for sustainable ruminant production in northern Ghana. Livestock Research for Rural Development, 30 (9). pp. 1-8.