Ruminant livestock production and quality of pastures in the communal grazing land of semi arid central Tanzania

摘要

AssessmentofRuminantlivestockproductionandqualityofpasturesincommunalgrazinglandofsemi-aridcentralTanzaniawascarriedoutinChololovillageinMay2012.Thestudyaimedatestimatingcommunalgrazinglandarea;accessruminantanimalskept;identifyitspasturespeciescompositionandnutritivevalue.VillagecommunalgrazinglandwasidentifiedthroughvillageresourcemappingachievedbyusingParticipatoryGeographicalInformationSystem(PGIS).Areconnaissancesurveyoftheentiregrazingsitewasconductedtogetfamiliarizedwiththesiteaswellasexistingplantcommunities.Basedontheinformationgathered,variousavailablekeyspecieswereidentifiedandlisted.Athoroughbotanicalcompositionassessmentwasconductedin20acresofvillageforestreservewherenaturalpasturesareharvestedandconservedforusebylivestockduringthedryseason.Arbitrarytransectlinesweredrawnwherebyatotalof20quadrantsof0.5m2wererandomlyplacedalongthearbitrarydrawntransectlinesacrossthesiteafterevery20stepstoavoidbias.Ateachpointallavailableplantsfallingwithinthequadrantarea,wereharvestedatgroundlevel,identifiedandhand-sortedbyspeciesorspeciesgroups,countedandnumberofeachspeciesorspeciesgrouprecordedonthefieldrecordssheetforspeciesbotanicalcompositionassessment.Eachharvestedpasturespecieswaskeptinapaperbagforairdrying.Fornutritivevalueanalysis,theairdriedsamplesweresubmittedtotheSokoineUniversityofAgricultureMorogoro,AnimalScienceLaboratoryforanalysis.TheforagematerialwereanalyzedforDDryMatter(DM),CrudeProtein(CP),NeutralDetergentFiber(NDF)andAcidDetergentFiber(ADF).TheywerealsoanalyzedforInvitroDryMatter(DM)andOrganicMatter(OM)Digestibility.Otherprimarydatawerecollectedthroughhouseholdinterviewsofalmost10%ofvillagehousehold(1,111).Secondarydatawerecollectedfromthevillageoffice.ThedominantpasturespecieintheforestreserveareawasAristidaadscensionis.Resultsinchemicalanalysisshowedaverylowfeedingvalueoftheforagesinthestudysite.Highvaluesofstructuralconstituents(ADFandNDF),invitrodrymatterdigestibility(INVDMD)andchemicalcompositionofthesampledspecies,indicatethattheyhavealownutritivevalue.Thestudyrecommendthatthecommunityshouldbeenlightenedonimportanceofhavinggrazingplanandtoplantadaptablegrassandlegumespeciestoimprovethequalityinthecommunalgrazingareas.