Comments on: Development of participatory tools to guide feed entry points

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 13 May 2015 14:40:23 +0000

Thanks Alan – this is exactly the sort of thing that we should be investing in heavily.

By: Millicent Liani

Millicent Liani — Wed, 13 May 2015 13:07:50 +0000

Thanks you Alan for such an informative presentation. Do you also see any viable collaboration with LGI? I am very much convinced that LGI have much potential to offer when it comes to assessing the changes in knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of the farmers in the feeds intervention from a gendered perspective, keeping in mind that men and women farmers do/maybe facing different constraints.

At this juncture, I think we as ILRI need to change our slogan from “better lives through livestock” to “Better lives for men and women through livestock” so that we can all put on gender lens as we do our science.

By: PeterThorne

PeterThorne — Wed, 13 May 2015 12:00:03 +0000

In reply to a.duncan@cgiar.org. My birthday. What a wonderful present!

By: a.duncan@cgiar.org

a.duncan@cgiar.org — Wed, 13 May 2015 09:57:52 +0000

In reply to Isabelle Baltenweck.

Thanks Isabelle – following on from Susan’s comment, at some stage we should go back to EADD 1 sites and assess how FEAST helped guide interventions. This kind of systematic impact assessment would be interesting and useful…..

By: Isabelle Baltenweck

Isabelle Baltenweck — Tue, 12 May 2015 20:21:55 +0000

I know I’m late commenting but wanted to add that FEAST was used in the East Africa Dairy Dev (EADD) project and this has been THE mechanism through which we managed to move the needle on feed technologies and practises. Everyone recognise that we couldn’t implement a ‘one size fits all approach’ but we didn’t know what else to promote. FEAST (and TechFit) are still used in the 2nd phase of the project and this is a god outcome of Alan and Ben.

By: Jane Poole

Jane Poole — Tue, 12 May 2015 19:59:59 +0000

In reply to a.duncan@cgiar.org.

Thanks for the updates – i’m in Addis 18-19th for ACGG (but then leave on 22nd)…maybe we can find time to catch up when i’m there (will also be back June / July) because seems to be the data portal can be utilised easily with possibly a customised front-end for FEAST to query the data across projects. Will pull some clearer ideas from Carlos before we talk.

By: a.duncan@cgiar.org

a.duncan@cgiar.org — Tue, 12 May 2015 16:22:37 +0000

In reply to Polly Ericksen. Fair enough - I am quaking already.

By: Polly Ericksen

Polly Ericksen — Tue, 12 May 2015 15:26:43 +0000

In reply to a.duncan@cgiar.org.

well we need to get set because we have two new proposals for work on feed/ fodder in extensive systems… so quake away 🙂 :)….

By: Polly Ericksen

Polly Ericksen — Tue, 12 May 2015 15:25:06 +0000

In reply to a.duncan@cgiar.org.

Indeed I am not suggesting we make FEAST do it all! but the climate smart agenda is set to grow …. so we need some tools that build on what we know works but also speak to new issues… More collaboration is in the air!

By: a.duncan@cgiar.org

a.duncan@cgiar.org — Tue, 12 May 2015 15:14:43 +0000

In reply to Mats Lannerstad.

Mats – thanks (glad I inspired you :-)). Some caution needed on FEAST data – the data on crop residue yields and purchased feed are half reasonable. As always any certainty on how much biomass animals derive from pasture and other common resources is very elusive – FEAST simply asks farmers to make an estimate of what proportion of the diet comes from these sources – this is good enough to get the crude estimates needed for the purposes of FEAST but we need to be careful not to over-estimate the reliability.