Climate Resilience Through Dual-Purpose Crops for Small-Scale Dairy Farming in Benin

Abstract

In response to livestock feed constraints, farmers are increasingly exploring new options to improve the productivity and efficiency of their crop-livestock enterprises (Snapp et al, 2018). One such option is dual-purpose crops, which has a high potential to simultaneously improving grain yields and livestock feed availability and quality (Erenstein, et al, 2013; Hassan et al, 2015). A promising method of enhancing crop and livestock productivity is increasing the availability and quality of cereal residues as livestock feed (Amede et al., 2009; Alkemade et al., 2012). Dual-purpose crops provide food and income to households, while crop residues are an essential fodder source for livestock (Tarawali et al, 2011; Salmon et al, 2018).Compared to grain-only crops, dual-purpose crops help to significantly improve the profitability, environmental sustainability, and resilience of the whole farm system (Tarawali et al, 2011). It is recognized that dual-purpose crops have positive effects on nutrition and adaptation to climate change. However, policy recommendations do not consider climate variability across the country and the tolerance of each dual-purpose crops to the various climate regions. This policy brief aims to share evidence for dissemination of appropriate use of dual-purpose crops on dairy farms across the various climate regions of Benin.