Nutritional value of pastures in enclosure systems in semi-arid rangelands of Chepareria, West Pokot, Kenya

Abstract: Of all pastoralists in the world 42 % are living in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). West Pokot is situated in the North Western part of Kenya where 45% of the farmers are pastoralist, 29% are agro-pastoralists and 26% have mixed-farming. There is an ongoing change in the way of farming where pastoralist are settling down and starting to cultivate, so-called agro-pastoralists. The organization Vi Agroforestry has been helping farmers in several areas in West Pokot but mostly in the Chepareria area. The organization has been helping to introduce so called enclosures which is a fenced area were the farmer can cultivate and grow pasture. It is also used to keep animals out from an area, then called exlosure. Even by the use of enclosures, farmers find themselves having trouble to have enough feed during dry seasons. There is a gap in knowledge about nutritional compositions and management of these pastures and thereby how to get the best returns of their pasture. A total of 30 farmers were visited during a six week period where samples of enclosed pasture were taken. The 30 farms were divided into two different areas, Ywalateke and Psereum with 15 farms in each of the areas. Of these 15 farm five were selected by the local extension officers as being “the best” in each area and 10 were randomly chosen. The samples where then taken to Sweden and analyzed to determine Dry matter (DM), Energy, Crude protein (CP) Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and Ash. Results showed no significant difference between the selected farms and the randomly chosen. However, there was a significant difference between the DM in the two areas (p<0.001) were the pastures in Pserum had significantly higher DM content and also in the content of CP were CP content in the pasture collected in the Ywalateke area was significantly (p<0.05) higher.