New forage crop introductions for the semi-arid highland areas of Kenya as a means to increase beef production.

Abstract

A UNDP/FAO Development Project has initiated and aided the establishment of a commercial beef cattle finishing sector in Kenya. The feeding systems developed utilize surplus cattle from rural areas which are fed on rations based on maize silage. The project has now initiated a search for forage crops suitable for cultivation under highland conditions, but more drought-resistant than the presently used maize. It appeared in a trial at 3 sites at 1850-1920 m alt. that new introductions of cold-tolerant sorghum cv. from the high-alt. areas of Uganda and Ethiopia produced consistently good yields which were comparable to, or better than, maize. Some of the high-alt. sorghum cv. were completely free from diseases which are typically encountered when 'lowland' cv. are grown above 1600 m in Kenya. In contrast with maize and sunflower, the new sorghum introductions were highly resistant to lodging. Correlation analysis showed that the unwanted tallness of crops is highly associated with the yield of maize and sunflower, whereas with cold-tolerant sorghum cv. there is scope for selection or breeding of high-yielding material which is shorter. The single highest-yielding entry for cold-tolerant sorghum, sunflower and maize produced 30.5, 29.5 and 26.6 t DM/ha, resp. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)