The natural conditions in the region exert serious limitation for natural feed production leading to scarcity of feed for animals effecting animal productivity and farmers income. These limitations result from:
The impact of feed shortage on the performance of small ruminants could be summarised as follows:
However, there are many different kinds of agricultural and agro-industrial by- products available in the region which are seriously under exploited. These agricultural and agro-industrial by-products include rice straw, spineless cactus, wheat straw, cotton stalks, corn stalks, chick peas straw, faba bean straw and agro-industrial by-products such as bagasse, citrus pulp, tomato pulp, olive cake, peanut hulls and cotton seeds hulls. It is estimated that about 18 million ton of such by-products are available in the countries involved in this programme, in addition to fruits and vegetable processing by-products. Biological processing could be a useful tool for upgrading such by-products to a valuable and cheap source of feed for ruminants. On the other hand the accumulation of farm and feed processing by-products cause environmental pollution, which need to be duly addressed. The great challenge for the region is the effective exploitation of the this potential increasing both the productivity in animal production and its economic viability. This requires however much greater awareness and thus training and information for the available technologies to be productively brought into use.
Situation in Egypt:
There are about 6.0 million heads of sheep and goats in Egypt. Using non traditional feed for livestock feeding reduces the dependence of small ruminants on feed concentrates. There are about 17 million tons of low quality roughages including different straws and stalks. Part of these roughages (specially corn stalks, rice straw and cotton stalks) are burned in the fields, thus causing environmental pollution. Moreover, agro-industrial wastes from vegetables and fruits produced during food processing could be used as animal feed after being subjected to special treatment to improve their nutritional value.
Improving the feeding quality of roughages and agro-industrial by -products along with silage making and other biological treatments increases the availability of feed stuffs for animals in terms of quantity and quality. This improvement allow the ruminant animals to express their real productive performance in addition to reducing environmental pollution. Moreover, production of silage will help the farmers to face a severe shortage of green fodder during the summer time.
This will certainly be reflected on improving the living conditions in the rural area. It also increases the productivity of the ruminant animals which will create job opportunities for the women in these areas and emphasize the role of gender in sustainable agriculture development. The Egyptian government is highly interested in increasing the available feed stuff through improving the quality and availability of crop residues and agro- industrial by product. In this respect the Central Laboratory for Food & Feed has gained substantial experience in this field and the Laboratory staff is working on constantly improving the quality of agricultural and agro- industrial by- products since 1993 and is therefore also the lead institution in implementing this programme. Situation in Israel: By-products produced in Israel as fodder are mainly produced in “Kibozim” and “Masovim” that are processing large amount, using high technology equipment. Over a number of years researchers have been developing new species of cereal, winter legume and other crops. Table 2:The annual crop of forage roughage and by-products used as feed ( 1998):
Table 3: The annual crop of forage and by-products used as feed in 1999
Table 4: The expected consumption of straw and hay for Small Ruminant
Situation in Palestinian Authority: The animal production sector in Palestine contributes up to 30% of the income of the agricultural sector in Palestine. Sheep and goats are the most important species in the livestock sector. Recent studies showed that the population of sheep and goats in Palestine is about 1 million heads. The animal production sector suffers various obstacles such as concentrate feed shortage and lack of natural pastures due to overgrazing and the Israel laws to confiscate lands. Feed prices are high as most of the raw material used in feeding are imported from abroad at high prices. It is concluded that feeding costs make up to 75% the of production cost. In order to reduce the feeding costs, by products such as from agro-industrial production could be used as a potential source of raw material in sheep and goats feeding, especially after subjecting such wastes to biological treatments. Literature showed that such by-products are available in large amounts in Palestine. However, only few studies are available to investigate the impact of using these by-products in feeding small ruminants. The most important wastes that are available in local communities are: In Palestine, these by-products are estimated to average 18000 tons/year. Table 5: Annual production of agro-industrial by-products in Palestine
Situation in Jordan: Jordan is participating since 1991 until 1995 in an FAO Regional Project entitled “Regional extension network for improving the use of straw and other fibrous crop residues in ruminants feeding” GCP/INT/523/FRA. It is aimed at encouraging all initiatives related to the better utilization of agro-industrial by-products (AIBP) in animal feeding. It acts as a catalyser by increasing communication and coordination at national and international levels between scientists, extensionists and farmers through the setting up of National Committees for by-products, emphasizing collection and dissemination of technical information through efficient and well targeted means (leaflets, brochures or video films), training for scientists (international exchanges with the participation of international consultants), training of technicians and extensionists, and field days for farmers. Jordan is also participating in another regional project, the Mashreq Project (RAB/89/016), which started its activities in 1989. Its objectives is to improve the production of barley forages and sheep in zones with an average rainfall of 200-350 mm. This project is managed and technically supported by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). There exists a close collaboration between the GCP and the Mashreq Projects in Jordan in view of their common final objectives of developing sheep production and of the fact that the majority of national experts participate in both project activities. These two projects show the interest and the will of the Jordanian Government in increasing the share that the local feed resources (range, straw, agro-industerial by-products) represent in the total sheep diet. The long term objective is to reduce the dependence on the feed sector with regard to barley (40% of the sheep diet) of which 90% is imported.
3.1.2 Objectives The region has with reference to this activity specified a number of development that have been stipulated as follows:
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