Livestock Development for Better Water Use in the Nile Basin

Don Peden, Tilahun Amede, Seleshi Awulachew, Hamid Faki, Denis Mpairwe, Amare Haileslassie, and Paulo van Breugel

International Congress on Water 2011 Integrated Water Resources Management in Tropical and Subtropical Drylands

Mekelle, Ethiopia, 19-26 September 2011

• International Livestock Research Institute• International Water Management Institute• Sudan Agriculture Research Corporation• Sudan Animal Resources Research Corporation• Makerere University• Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research

Details: Forthcoming book on Agriculture and water in the Nile CPWF PN37 (Nile Basin Livestock Water Productivity)

Take home message

Up to one trillion m3 of Nile rainfall are lost yearly as non-productive evapotranspiration (ET).

Increasing rainfed agricultural water productivity can help capture this water and divert demand on basin blue water.

Approach

Production systems

Livestock, people, and water

Primary opportunities for better water use

Principles of livestock water productivity

Examples

Major livestock production systems

Livestock: hyper-arid

Large scale irrigation

Mixed: temperate

Livestock: arid

Mixed: arid

Livestock: humid

Mixed: humid

Countries, livestock & people

Country Land area in basin

(1000 km2)

Number in basin (millions)

Cattle Sheep Goats People

Sudan 1,933 34 32 26 27

Ethiopia 362 14 5 4 26

Tanzania 86 6 1 3 7

Uganda 204 5 1 3 24

Kenya 47 4 2 2 12

Egypt 286 3 3 2 65

Others 76 1.9 1.1 2.2 13

Total 2,993 67 45 41 173

Systems, livestock & peopleProduction system X

climateArea

(1000 km2)TLU

(million)People

(million TLU)

Mixed Arid-semiarid 609 18.6 3.7

Grazing Arid-semiarid 759 14.8 1.9

Mixed Temperate 228 10.0 7.0

Mixed Humid 156 4.7 4.2

Grazing Hyper arid 935 1.9 1.1

Grazing Humid 124 1.2 0.2

Other 189 4.5 16.5

Nile Basin Total 2,998 55.7 34.6

One TLU = 250 kg live animal biomass Animal demand for feed > human food by weight

TLU density across the Nile

Basin

High

(100 km2)

Low (< 5 TLU/km2)

OOne TLU = 250 kg

live animal biomass

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

35

1715

13 13 12

54 4

0

11

Annual in-basin rainfallby country

(Thousand m3/capita)[Total ≈ 1.7 trillion m3]

WHO minimum

LGH

LGA

MRA

MRH

MRT

LGT

LGHYP

MRHYP

MIH

YPM

IATOTAL

0

50

100

150

200 191

52

23

9 8 6 4 1 0 010

Annual in-basin rainfallby production system(Thousand m3/capita)[Total ≈ 2 trillion m3]

Primary water depletion pathway in the Nile Basin

Six livestock production systems : Cover 60% of the basin

Support 50% of the people

Sustain 90% of the livestock biomass

Receive 85% of basin rainfall of 1.7 trillion m3

But livestock feed uses only 66 billion m3 for maintenance basin wide, 90X more than they drink

Lose one trillion m3 as non-productive evapotranspiration (mostly E) that does not contribute to the Nile’s blue water.

Primary opportunity for more effective water use

Convert non-productive E to T by rehabilitating degraded farm and rangelands (e.g. Tigray).

Increase effective crop and animal production per unit of T.

Implies increasing water productivity(kg/m3, kg/$, $/m3, $/$)

[kg by dry not fresh weights!!]

Water conserving strategies

Inflo

w

Ground

Rain

Infiltration

Drinking

Beneficialoutputs:

ProductivityenhancingStrategies

Feed sourcing strategies

Evaporation

Discharge

Transpiration

• food-feed crops• pasture• nature

Simplified LWP framework

What options for procuring more agricultural water in the basin

Focus on rainfed crop and livestock production

Convert E to T

Increase crop and livestock water productivity

50% increase in crop and pasture WP is feasible (Rocktrom et al. 2003)

LWP CWP∝

Similar additional gains in livestock WP also feasible (Peden et al. 2009)

\

Example 1:

Integrated termite management(Uganda’s Cattle corridor)

Before(nil)

After 1 year(3000 kg/ha)

Example 2:

Use crop residues & increase CWP

> ”free water”

> Use dual purpose crops

> LWP CWP∝

Example 3:

Strategic drinking water management

Land Water Human health Animal health Landscapes

Summary

The Nile Basin loses about one trillion m3 of rainfall as non-productive ET in six production systems.

Capturing this water as “T” increases basin WP and diverts demands on blue water.

Better feed, water, land, landscape, and animal management are also needed.

Requires mix of technical, socio-economic, financial and institutional interventions.

Shift thinking from kg/m3 to kg/$ (Demand management)

 Ameseghinallehu Yekin yelley Thank you