Genetic enhancement of sorghum and millet residues fed to ruminants: farmers' perceptions of fodder quality in livelihood systems

This report summarises the results of a study of farmer perceptions of sorghum and millet biomass traits with specific reference to livestock feeding practices. The results reported here form part of a larger ILRI/ICRISAT study undertaken to identify genotypes of sorghum and millet with improved biomass characteristics. The approach of this study is to use on station assessment of plant material in conjunction with a survey of farmers' perceptions of preferred quality traits reported here. A series of 13 intensive village case studies were carried out over 11 districts in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajastan and Maharashtra. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methods were used to gain an understanding of farmers' perceptions of crop-residue-quality parameters and to gauge the trade-off between grain and fodder yields. The techniques used were: wealth ranking; focus group discussions; variety matrix ranking; fodder calendar; and household case studies on feeding systems. Wealth ranking information was used to select farmers from all categories for the household case studies and to relate findings from discussions to the wealth status of the participants