Regional Dairy Policy Brief East Africa’s Forage Sub-Sector

In East Africa, the dairy sector has enormous potential to contribute to nutritious and healthy diets, create new jobs, increase income of farmers and agribusiness and improve livelihoods. Dairy production in East Africa is characterized by low productivity, mainly due to animal nutrition constraints. There is a mismatch between the push for genetic breeds with high potential for milk production and the availability of quality forages that can meet the nutritional requirements of these breeds. In addition to the generally low quality of fresh and preserved forages and pastures, resulting from relaxed management practices and limited availability of pasture and forage seeds and planting material, there is high seasonality in the supply of forages. Most areas experience an acute shortage during the dry season and in this period the available forage is of very poor nutritional quality. To increase production in pasture-based dairy systems and to reduce feeding costs in systems with supplementary feeding (e.g urban and peri-urban farming)- where feeding costs may present up to 60-70% of total milk income - this brief lists a number of solutions to enhance access to quality and quantity of forages year-round.