By Harinder Makkar¹, Abay Bekele², Yosef Seyoum Mulugeta³, Andinet Adamu², Redwan Getachew Asfaw³, Wesinew Adugna Bekele³, Abdinur Ali Warfa³, Degefa Wayessa⁴, Merkeb Belay² & Genene Regassa²

During droughts, grass on the soil disappears. Only greens available on the rangelands are browses, shrubs and trees. A large biomass is available in situ, which the animals do not consume, mainly due to the presence of tannins. Browse-aid provision to animals enables them to start using browses as animal feed, not only preventing deaths but also maintaining and even enhancing body weight during drought emergencies. The cost of this approach is lower than those of other approaches used during droughts to prevent livestock deaths.

In the face of animal feed insecurities, the present perspective focuses on Tunisia and explores the potential oflocally available materials - such as, forages and by-products - to increase quality feed supply in the country. Forage production from a mix of forage species (triticale, oats, fenugreek, and vetch) in different proportions to pellet production using a mix of grains of maize, barley and soybean and locally available feed ingredients
such as date palm byproducts, grain brans, tomato plant, saline-tolerant local alfalfa, among others are being increasingly used by small and medium farmers. Business models through public-private partnerships that include feed densification technologies like pelletization provide a novel solution to spatially configure feed supply in the north and demand sink in southern Tunisia where agroecological conditions are arid. With appropriate and effective policy and enabling environment, these adaptive strategies that build local resilience have applicability in Tunisia and beyond.

By Chong Wang¹, Jianxin Liu ², Harinder P.S. Makkar³, Jinyong Yang⁴ 

This paper introduced the concept of Animal Raising Zones (ARZs) and lists advantages of rearing dairy cattle in these zones. In addition, some existing implementation issues that prevent realization of full potential of the ARZs are also presented. The site selection for, and construction of, the ARZs, production management, member participation options and dividend sharing modes of the Zones are discussed. The information presented here would help the upcoming ARZs managements and the existing ones to implement good management practices to harvest the maximum benefits from the ARZs.