Assessment of livestock production and available feed resources in Bedele District

The study was conducted in Bedele district, Bunno Bedele Zone of Oromia regional state from December to February aimed to assess livestock production system and available major livestock feed resource. Single-visit-multiple-subjects formal survey technique was used to collect data with the use of pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaires prepared in the local language. The collected data was managed and organized with MS-Excels (2007) and was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) (version 20). The major livestock production constraints in the study area were feed shortage followed by disease, water scarcity and low genetic potential. Natural pasture and crop residue were the main livestock feed resource in Bedele district. An average of 12.44 tons of feed dry matter was produced per household from the major available feed resources, in which 83.58% was obtained from crop residue. The total annual feed dry matter produced in the study area was significantly higher (P<0.05) in rural (14.84 tons) than in the peri-urban (5.96 tons) kebeles. Overall livestock feed balance in terms of dry matter yield showed that a total of 1492.4 tons of DM (tDM) per annum was produced for a total TLU value of 796.49 and 1816.8 tDM is required with a negative balance of 324 DM. Hence, the study indicates that the available feed DM satisfy 82.16% of DM requirement for both rural and peri-urban kebeles.