Land Use Fodder And pasture production And Conservation In Relation to dairy Cattle Management

Abstract

Livestock industry in Kenya contributes a tenth of the recorded national gross domestic product and provides half of the employment in the agricultural sector (KARl, 1993).According to the latter report, nearly 48% of the land used for food crop and livestock production is accounted for by dairying especially in the wetter districts. Dairy cattle population is estimated at 3 million with an approximate contribution of 80% of the total milk produced in Kenya (Mukisira, 1996) with the rest of the milk coming from beef breeds. This milk production is estimated at 2 billion litres of which 65% comes from exotic dairy breeds and their crosses and the rest from the zebu herds. At this rate of production therefore, it is clear that the burden of maintenance of the dairy animals lies most squarely on the medium and high potential areas which form approximately 18% of the Kenya land mass (Kusewa and Guiragossian, 1991) and which, incidentally, happen to be the most densely populated with highly fragmented land units.