High Yielding and Disease Resistant Elephant Grass Suitable for Intensive Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Kenya

High Yielding and Disease Resistant Elephant Grass Suitable for Intensive Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Kenya

In Kenya, over 80% of milk is produced by the smallholder dairy farmers who mainly practice semi or zero-grazing dairy management system. Scarcity of livestock feed is a great limiting factor in the dairy industry, especially in the small scale farming systems which rely mostly on fodder. Elephantgrass (Pennisetum purpureum) is the major livestock feed and its productivity depends mostly on management practices. The current fodder crops grown by farmers have been developed through systematic research of collection/introductions, screening and evaluation of forages for their suitability as livestock feed. These adopted fodder cultivars are undergoing yield reduction due to fungal diseases. This study evaluates new Elephantgrass genetic material with high yielding potential and disease resistance. Results show that accession 16791 (KAKAMEGA 1) is high yielding, highly nutritious and resistant to a fungal disease Ustilago kamerunensis.