Issue 5: 107-112; Sep 25, 2016 ISSN 2228-7701 CROP RESIDUE QUALITY LOSS AND FORAGE CONSERVATION STRATEGY IN MECHA DISTRICTS OF AMAHARA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

A cross-sectional survey was employed during the first phase of the research to collect primary facts on major crop residues growing in the four peasant associations (PA’s) of Mecha district West part of Amahara region. The objectives of the research were; to investigate the average harvesting time and conservation techniques of crop residues in the study area and to fill the gaps in the skill of improved forage harvesting and conservation techniques of the farmer. A semi structured questioner was employed to interview the farmers in each respective peasant association (PA’s). Data collected from the survey was administered in excel spread sheet for further process and analyzed using SPSS version 21. The research findings 159 (99.3%) of the respondents have the experience of harvesting the crop residue for animal feed, while 1 (0.7%) was not practiced for harvesting of the residues may be the animal grazed by cattle as stand feeding. The other findings on collecting and transporting of the crop residue (CR) to their home was 154 (97.3%) which depicts to their home for dry period feeding of their livestock, while other 6 (2.7%) was not used for harvesting and transport the CR at all, this may be due to the residues consumed as stand feeding. The research result also significantly showed that (73.7%) of which 11.3 and 22.7% used the residues improvement mechanism by urea treatment and chopping mechanism respectively. Whereas 44.49 (26.3) were not used any improvement mechanism. The feeding of the CR for oxen, milking cow and heifer were fed to their animal about 68.8, 62.7 and 42.2 respectively. Again the research significantly showed that, 149 (93.9%) of the interviewers have showed communal grazing land in their vicinity whereas, 11 (6.1%) do not have communal grazing land in the respective area. Since, the CR is very paramount important for animal feed and one of the drought escape feeding strategy. Therefore, CR quality loss in each harvesting stages and further laboratory analysis should also be done