Dual-purpose Millet Varieties for Crop and Livestock Integration

Harvest More, Feed Better, Farm Smarter

Dual-purpose Varieties for Crop and Livestock Integration" refers to a specialized agricultural technology that involves the development and cultivation of specific millet and sorghum varieties designed to serve the dual purpose of providing both human food and animal fodder. These innovative cultivars are engineered to address the challenges faced in African drylands, where natural pastures and rangelands are suffering from overgrazing, soil degradation, and the effects of climate change, exacerbated by increasing livestock populations.

This technology is TAAT1 validated.

7•8

Scaling readiness: idea maturity 7/9; level of use 8/9

Project adoption3

Technology integrated in the AFMPFNSHoA- Somalia, ENSURE- East Africa, and SEPAREF- Burundi, Comoros, Somalia, South Sudan projects.

Project	Beneficiaries	Budget	Duration	Key figures
AFMPFNSHoA- Somalia Additional Financing to Multinational Programme for Food & Nutrition Security in the Horn of Africa	50,000 people. 250,000 livestock.	5.4 million	2022–2026	100 tons of forage seeds. 16,500 farmers.
ENSURE- East Africa Enabling Environments for Sustainable Regional Agriculture Extension	3,000,000 farmers.	13.14 million	2024–2027	149,940 farmer leaders & trained farmers. 9,996 trained. 2 → 3.5 t/ha.
SEPAREF- Burundi, Comoros, Somalia, South Sudan Strengthening Emergency Preparedness and Response to Food Crisis	510,500 direct beneficiaries (50% women and 40% youth).	306.97 million	2022–2025	1,500 farmers. 60 climate-smart villages. 55,000 direct jobs (22,000 women & 33,000 young people).

See project details ›

Adults 18 and over: Positive high

They benefit from increased agricultural productivity and economic resilience.

The poor: Positive high

It helps them reduce production costs, by offering an affordable way to maximize resources and producing both food and livestock feed from the same crop.

Under 18: Positive high

It improves food security and nutrition for children and teenagers by providing both quality grains for human consumption

Women: Positive high

With better yields from crops and livestock, women can improve household food security and generate additional income

Climate adaptability: Highly adaptable

This variety is more resilient to drought, temperature extremes, and degraded soils, enabling farmers to adapt better to changing climatic conditions.

Farmer climate change readiness: Significant improvement

The ability to produce both grain for food and stover for livestock feed from the same crop helps farmers maintain productivity even in adverse climate conditions.

Biodiversity: Positive impact on biodiversity

The use of crop residues for animal feed reduces the pressure on overgrazed natural pastures and rangelands, allowing these ecosystems to regenerate

Carbon footprint: Same amount of carbon released

By growing a single crop that serves both human and livestock needs, farmers can lower the energy and resource demands of their operations

Environmental health: Greatly improves environmental health

It helps restore balance to ecosystems by promoting the sustainable use of resources, such as crop residues for feed.

Soil quality: Improves soil health and fertility

This technology improves soil quality by enhancing organic matter through crop residues used as mulch or organic fertilizers.

Water use: A bit less water used

This variety is often drought-tolerant and require less water than traditional varieties, making them well-suited for regions with water scarcity.

Problem

Diminishing Productivity of Pastures and Rangelands: Natural pastures and rangelands in African drylands are experiencing reduced productivity due to overgrazing, soil degradation, and the effects of climate change.

Increasing Livestock Numbers: The growing livestock population exacerbates the demand for animal feed resources in these regions.

Unsuitable Traditional Millet and Sorghum Varieties: Traditional millet and sorghum varieties are unable to meet the dual requirements of providing both human food and high-quality animal feed due to unfavorable grain-to-stover ratios.

Digestibility and Palatability Issues: Commonly cultivated millet and sorghum lines have higher lignin content, making them less digestible, and some may contain bitter-tasting tannins.

Solution

Dual-purpose Varieties: The technology offers new "dual-purpose" millet and sorghum varieties with ideal grain-to-stover ratios, ensuring suitability for both human and animal nutrition.

Reduced Lignin and Tannin Content: These improved cultivars have lower lignin and tannin content, enhancing digestibility and palatability.

Extended Fodder Availability: The new varieties remain green through grain harvest, providing farmers with greater fodder quantity and quality, particularly during the dry season.

Crop-Livestock Integration: Enhanced fodder availability through these dual-purpose varieties allows for more intensive crop-livestock integration, leading to increased manure availability for soil fertility management.

Yield Information: The dual-purpose varieties produce about 40% of grain and 60% of stover on a dry matter basis. Sorghum lines achieve grain yields of 2.5 - 4.0 ton ha-1 and stover yield of 10 - 15 ton ha-1. For millet cultivars, productivity ranges between 2.0 and 2.5 ton ha-1 for grain, and 4.0 - 6.0 ton ha-1 for stover.

Stress Resistance: The new cultivars possess traits that help them survive dry spells and quickly resume growth when moisture returns.

Drought and Cold Tolerance: Sorghum lines tolerate both drought and cold better than other fodder crops, such as maize and Napier grass.

Energy-rich Stover: The stover of dual-purpose sorghum cultivars is sweet with a high sugar concentration of around 15%, matching the energetic value of maize. It can also be used for syrup or bioethanol production.

Greater Digestible Stover Yield: While traditional millet varieties achieve higher production of fodder on a dry matter basis, the new dual-purpose lines provide greater digestible stover yield and metabolizable energy per unit of land area.

Key points to design your program

Dual-purpose millet and sorghum varieties are climate-smart crops that provide both grain for human consumption and nutritious stover for livestock feed. By improving the balance between food and fodder production, these varieties reduce the trade-offs that often constrain dryland farming systems, strengthen resilience to drought, improve livestock feeding during the dry season, and support more efficient crop–livestock integration. The technology is well suited for climate-smart agriculture, food security, livestock development, and sustainable land management programmes, contributing to SDGs 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), 13 (Climate Action), and 15 (Life on Land). It creates significant benefits for smallholder farmers through improved food security, livestock productivity, and resource-use efficiency. To successfully integrate this technology, consider the following key actions:

Identify dryland production areas where declining pasture productivity, seasonal feed shortages, and increasing livestock pressure limit agricultural productivity.
Establish partnerships with ICRISAT, national research institutions, extension services, seed producers, and farmer organizations to support the dissemination of adapted dual-purpose varieties.
Strengthen dual-purpose seed systems by facilitating access to certified seed, fertilizer micro-dosing, and other complementary crop management practices.
Strengthen technical capacity by training farmers and extension agents on dual-purpose crop production, fodder conservation, post-harvest management, and integrated crop–livestock practices.
Promote integrated crop–livestock systems by using crop residues as quality livestock feed while improving manure availability for soil fertility management.
Promote the participation of women and smallholder farmers through improved access to quality seed, technical training, and integrated production systems.
Monitor programme performance through indicators such as grain production, fodder availability, livestock productivity, household resilience, and the participation of women and smallholder farmers.

204 USD

Per hectare for seed, fertilizer, and labor

2.5—4 tons

Sorghum grain yield per Ha

10—15 tons

Sorghum stover yield per Ha

15 %

Sugar concentration

IP

No formal IP rights

Scaling Readiness describes how complete a technology\’s development is and its ability to be scaled. It produces a score that measures a technology\’s readiness along two axes: the level of maturity of the idea itself, and the level to which the technology has been used so far.

Each axis goes from 0 to 9 where 9 is the “ready-to-scale” status. For each technology profile in the e-catalogs we have documented the scaling readiness status from evidence given by the technology providers. The e-catalogs only showcase technologies for which the scaling readiness score is at least 8 for maturity of the idea and 7 for the level of use.

The graph below represents visually the scaling readiness status for this technology, you can see the label of each level by hovering your mouse cursor on the number.

Scaling readiness score of this technology

Maturity of the idea 7 out of 9

Semi-controlled environment: prototype

Level of use 7 out of 9

Used by some intended users, in the real world

Maturity of the idea										Level of use
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Project	Beneficiaries	Budget	Duration	Key figures
AFMPFNSHoA- Somalia Additional Financing to Multinational Programme for Food & Nutrition Security in the Horn of Africa	50,000 people. 250,000 livestock.	5.4 million	2022–2026	100 tons of forage seeds. 16,500 farmers.
ENSURE- East Africa Enabling Environments for Sustainable Regional Agriculture Extension	3,000,000 farmers.	13.14 million	2024–2027	149,940 farmer leaders & trained farmers. 9,996 trained. 2 → 3.5 t/ha.
SEPAREF- Burundi, Comoros, Somalia, South Sudan Strengthening Emergency Preparedness and Response to Food Crisis	510,500 direct beneficiaries (50% women and 40% youth).	306.97 million	2022–2025	1,500 farmers. 60 climate-smart villages. 55,000 direct jobs (22,000 women & 33,000 young people).

Countries with a green colour: Tested & adopted
Countries with a bright green colour: Adopted
Countries with a yellow colour: Tested
Countries with a blue colour: Testing ongoing

Countries where the technology is being tested or has been tested and adopted
Country	Testing ongoing	Tested	Adopted
Burkina Faso	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Chad	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Ethiopia	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Kenya	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Mali	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Niger	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Nigeria	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Senegal	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Sudan	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Tanzania	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted
Zimbabwe	–No ongoing testing	Tested	Adopted

This technology can be used in the colored agro-ecological zones. Any zones shown in white are not suitable for this technology.

Agro-ecological zones where this technology can be used
AEZ	Subtropic - warm	Subtropic - cool	Tropic - warm	Tropic - cool
Arid
Semiarid		–		–
Subhumid		–		–
Humid	–	–	–	–

Source: HarvestChoice/IFPRI 2009

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are applicable to this technology.

Goal 1: no poverty

The technology helps increase income for smallholder farmers by improving crop and livestock productivity, thus contributing to poverty alleviation.

Goal 2: zero hunger

This technology enhances agricultural yields and livestock productivity, directly addressing hunger and malnutrition.

Goal 13: climate action

The climate-resilient nature of these crops helps farmers adapt to climate change, reducing vulnerability to extreme weather events and enhancing climate resilience.

Goal 15: life on land

this technology contributes to the protection and restoration of ecosystems, supporting biodiversity and combating desertification

For effectively utilization of dual-purpose millet and sorghum varieties for integrated crop and livestock farming, it require to:

Develop dual-purpose millet and sorghum varieties using conventional techniques such as crossing and hybridization. Subject these varieties to rigorous field testing before releasing them to farmers.
Prepare the land for cultivation. Follow generally prescribed practices for seed rate, plant spacing, and fertilizer application based on local growing areas and seasons.
Wilt sorghum stover for at least 12 hours before feeding it to animals to break down hydrogen cyanides, which can be toxic. Ensure proper handling to prevent poisoning.
Chop green or dry sorghum stover into pieces of approximately 2 cm when using it as fodder for cows, pigs, and goats. Shred it into smaller pieces of less than 0.5 cm for poultry.
Millet and sorghum stover can be used for silage in pits or under plastic. During silage preparation, fermentation releases extra sugar and breaks down anti-nutrients.
Avoid adding molasses to sorghum silage due to its already high sugar content.
Utilize fodder from sorghum, either as green chop or silage.
It can replace maize at equal amounts for all types of livestock.
Sorghum fodder provides up to 67% of required roughage and up to 20% of the total diet for livestock.