Production and potential utilization of crop residues and agro-industrial byproducts in ruminant nutrition in Eritrea

Sufficient and quality feed resource has been identified as the main limiting factor to increasing animal flock sizes especially in the tropics where feed quality and quantity fluctuates within and between years. Eritrea is setting up programmes aimed at increasing animal productivity. One of the considerations in this process is the exploitation of crop residues and agro-industrial byproducts as feed. One of the main challenges to this however is that the amount of crop residues and agro-industrial by-products available to the country is not known. This information would enable designing of a proper policy towards utilization of crop residues as animal feed. This study was carried out to establish the production and utilization status of crop residues and agro-industrial byproducts in Eritrea. A comprehensive survey utilising various data collection tools was carried out in the five administrative zones of Eritrea. Findings indicated that approximately 1.3 million tonnes of crop residue is produced annually mainly from sorghum, millet, barley, wheat, chick and field peas, vetch and groundnuts. The production and utilisation of these crop residues varied across zones although all farmers indicated that they used their crop residues primarily for animal feeding. Further analysis of data indicated that crop residues accounted for 9.63 to 36.31% of the total annual maintenance feed requirements of the grazing ruminants. The contribution varied according to land size set aside for crop production. The total agro-industrial by-products were estimated at between 19,604-19,788 tonnes and mainly comprised of brans, oilseed cakes and brewers grains. This study is the first one in a series that intends to determine the quantities, chemical and nutritive value of the crop residues and agro-industrial by-products. The implication of the findings is discussed in the manuscript.