Across Sub-Saharan Africa, livestock is essential to livelihoods and food security. But cattle, goats, and sheep are also a major source of methane emissions, while farmers struggle with feed shortages and declining productivity.Scientists are now exploring whether climate-smart feed can cut emissions and boost livestock production at the same time.
This episode of Africa Science Focus covers the UK-CGIAR Centre project, Defining new phenotypes for forage and crop by-products improvement based on rumen function and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Reporter Solomon Yimer examines the growing push for climate-smart livestock feed and asks whether efforts to reduce emissions can work for farmers under pressure. Scientists from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) are screening hundreds of forage varieties to identify those that can reduce methane emissions while maintaining or improving milk and meat production.
Image credit: Solomon Yimer.