STATUS AND CHALLENGES OF AVAILABLE MAJOR FEED RESOURCE AND ITS QUALITY UNDER THE CLIMATE CHANGE IN LUME AND ADAMI TULU DISTRICTS OF EAST SHOA ZONE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract:

The study was conducted in Lume and Adami Tulu Jido Kombolcha (ATJK) districts of the East Shoa Zone, with the objectives to assess the existing status of feed resource in relation to climate change, and examine chemical composition and IVDMD of the major feed resources. One hundred twenty respondents (60 from each districts) were purposively used for the interviews. For sample collection, the grazing land was stratified based on the grazing land present in the study area as protected communal (PC), protected private (PP) and unprotected communal (UnPC). For chemical composition analysis, 36 samples from natural pasture (NP) and 48 samples from crop residues (CRs) were evaluated. The average mean landholding hh-1 was 2.27 and 1.93 ha in ATJK and Lume, respectively. About 50% of the respondents in ATJK and Lume districts revealed that the total number of livestock composition hh-1 was decreasing. Feed shortage, expansion of cropland, water shortage, drought, and animal diseases were the major problem for livestock production in the study area. Out of 23 and 16 herbaceous species identified in ATJK and Lume district, Cynodon dactilon in ATJK, Andropogon abysincus and Cynodon dayctilon in Lume district, respectively were the dominant grass species. The average mean DMY (ton ha-1) of grass and legumes obtained from PPGL (2.43) and PCGL (2.36) was significantly (P