Researchers and scientists at the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARO) have embarked on developing high-value and improved varieties of grass for animals.
Allen Molly, a pasture scientist at NARO, said for the last four years, they have been developing a forage variety that Ugandan farmers can use for their animals and livestock.
She noted that they found out that what is developed locally comes at a lesser cost than the imported seeds. She said the government is funding NARO to develop and produce these varieties which will be cost-effective.
“For the biggest time, we have talked about high-value grasses and what we actually found out is that the grass is the natural grass in our farmland, these were picked by scientists, improved and now are being returned.”
Earlier, researchers and livestock scientists from Colombia returned three animal grass species which they took away for research 30 years ago.
These varieties of grass are said to be drought resistant with a high content of nutrients to feed the animals in Eastern and southern Africa.
However, Molly noted that much as the country can import the grass, it can develop its own and provide it to farmers.
She revealed that NARO is now at a stage where they are doing multi-location valuations, noting that this is being developed with the use of genomics and in the 4 years to come, the Ugandan product will be ready.
She explained that the new varieties being introduced will solve the issue of changing weather, and low yields, among others.
“Today, we are talking about climate change, we are talking about reduction of lands and because of such issues, we have to introduce varieties that can give us higher biomass in a small field, the changing environment. And these varieties give us that because today we know that it is only supposed to rain from March to June, but you can plant your variety, and receive no rain. So, these varieties are able to withstand that change of weather and be able to give you enough biomass for you to harvest and conserve and use during the dry season. Unlike our grasses, which when it’s not raining, you don’t have enough feed for the animal. We know that in Mbarara, most of the farmers lose their animals during the dry season. When you plan to improve forages you are able to save more grass and grades and keep it as hay and use it for animals,” Molly said.
She said these varieties will be of great value given the climate change and other changing environments, adding, the varieties will be able to tolerate a change in weather but also give enough biomass to conserve the environment.
Commenting on the developments and the new varieties that have been reintroduced, Juan Lucas Restrepo the Director General of New Alliance Bioversity International and CIAT but also the Global Director of Partnerships CGIAR, said the hybrid grass originated decades ago in the natural savannas of East and Southern Africa.
He said these are native grasses that were 30 to 40 years ago collected as part of the expedition to safeguard agro-agricultural diversity.
He says collections were made and seeds stored for longer-term conservation, at a seed bank in Colombia ( CGIAR centres), saying that they are held in trust for humankind for the future.
Juan says decades later, they are coming back as improved materials studied for uptake by farmers to enhance the productivity of their livestock.
He says these grasses with genetic diversity are collected and studied, explaining that scientists start combining and finding ‘mothers and fathers’, with those that are more nutritious for animals, and some that are very good at resisting pest pressure.
“We start cross-breeding them together. So, this is what is happening from this genetic knowledge gathered. We are working in a lot of testing sites across eastern South Africa, and we have seen great results,” he said.
Juan also underscored the importance of partnerships and collaborations in research.
“So we are seeing the interdependence and how science needs to be done globally and how we need to be able to exchange genetic diversity. We have success stories such as this one, that without this collection of 40 years of all the work of more than 20 years and now what we are doing here we will not have these technologies, ready for use and uptake for the livestock farmers in this part of the world,” he said.
Molly said that as a team, they are championing an initiative to bring forage varieties to the farmers to boost productivity in terms of more milk and more meat.
She said through an initiative ‘sustainable productivity for livelihood improvement’ that is focusing on the importance of issues of productivity, they are looking at animal genetics, feeds and forages for nutrition and market competency.
She explained as much as Uganda can import these varieties, scientists at NARO are also looking at developing these same varieties and availing them to farmers.
She argues that what is imported is very expensive but what is developed at home comes at a lesser cost.
“So the government is funding NARO to start forage breeding and we have a Brachiaria grass breeding program where we are saying yes we can have the reintroduction. But we can also develop our own varieties. So, we have the Brachiaria grass.”
