This document summarizes the Feeds and Forages Technology Development Platform. The platform aims to make animal source food production more efficient economically and environmentally by improving feed resources and technologies. Key partners include CIAT, ICARDA, ILRI, WorldFish, CIMMYT, ICRISAT, IRRI and private sector organizations. The main research issues are assessing existing feed resources, making better use of resources, producing more and better feeds, facilitating surplus-deficit transfers, and monitoring resource use impacts. Technologies being developed include improved food-feed crops, forages, processing options, and decision tools to optimize feed costs and income from animal source foods.

1. This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence May 2013 http://livestockfish.cgiar.org
Feeds and forages technology development platform
“Using feeds to make animal source foods production economically and environmentally more efficient”
Partners
Main research for development issues
• Assess feed resources in value chains (VCs) relative to
VC animal source foods production targets
• Make better use of existing feed resources
• Produce more and better feeds
• Facilitate feed surplus to deficit area transfer and
development of feed value chains
• Develop business opportunities for small
decentralized small scale feed processing enterprises
• Monitor different feed resourcing strategies for
natural resource use implication
• CIAT, ICARDA, ILRI, WorldFish
• CIMMYT, ICRISAT, IRRI and public
and private crop
improvement institutions
• Private feed processors and
fodder traders
• Dairy, beef, small ruminant and
aqua – enterprises
• Other relevant value chain
actors
Producing more and better
feeds
• Food -feed crops
• Forages
• Agro/bio-fuel products
Processing, fortification and options
Making better use of
existing feeds
• Diagnosis tools, prioritizing tools
• Supplementation, targeted feed
allocation
• On farm feed processing options
• Preservation options (hay,
silages)
• Decision making tool addressing feed,
feed processing, transport, labour costs
etc relative to income from animal
source foods
• Decentralized feed processing/feed
enterprise option
• Surplus to deficit feed/fodder
transactions, fodder markets
Technology
development:
1 Health
2 Genetics
3 Feeds
Inputs &
Services
Production Processing Marketing Consumers
4 Value chain development
5 Targeting: Foresight, prioritization, environmental impacts
6 Cross-cutting: gender, impact, M&E, communications, capacity
building
Approaches
A value chain framework used as a systematic approach to
define a set of feed research areas along animal health,
breeding and oher interventions