Harinder Makkar

• PhD
• International Consultant - Sustainable Bioeconomy at Univ. Hohenheim/Univ. Nanjing/Univ. Gansu/Univ. Ulanbator

Background Thousands of animals die in Ethiopia during droughts due to unavailability of feed. Large amounts of browses are available during droughts, which animals do not consume because of the presence of tannins. The hypothesis of the study was that the provision of small amounts of Browse-aid (polyethylene glycol-4000) to animals at farmers’ do...

In the face of animal feed insecurities, the present perspective focuses on Tunisia and explores the potential of locally available materials - such as, forages and by-products - to increase quality feed supply in the country. Forage production from a mix of forage species (triticale, oats, fenugreek, and vetch) in different proportions to pellet p...

Moringa oleifera, commonly known as horse radish tree or drumstick tree is a perennial multipurpose tropical tree. It can be used as medicine, cosmetic and functional food, among others. The benefits of using the leaves are ascribed to the presence of a number of antioxidants. Nowadays it is widely cultivated and naturalized in many countries. Simp...

Livestock production is critical for improved food and nutrition security, sustainability of ecosystems, and resilience. Zambia, like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, aspires to increase livestock’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product and generate economic opportunities. Global environmental change, however, and the potential of ruminan...

Role of cultivated forages in Sudan is discussed.

Locusts may cause massive destruction of crops and pastures and adversely affect livelihoods and food security of farmersand pastoralists. Like other insects, locusts and grasshoppers are rich in protein (50–65% in dry matter) and their essentialamino acid composition is good. In the diets of poultry, pigs and fish, replacement of up to 25% of the...

Locusts may cause massive destruction of crops and pastures and adversely affect livelihoods and food security of farmers and pastoralists. Like other insects, locusts and grasshoppers are rich in protein (50–65% in dry matter) and their essential amino acid composition is good. In the diets of poultry, pigs and fish, replacement of up to 25% of th...

The livestock sector in Ethiopia is characterized by low productivity due to inadequate supply of affordable high-quality animal feed year-round, with more acute gaps in the drought-prone regions of the country. This paper presents the economic benefits and insights into the role of cultivated forages, such as densification into pellets, in bridgin...

The article from Wang et al. claims, that “phorbol esters are absent in jatropha seed cake”, and draws a conclusion that “phorbol esters are not responsible for toxicity in conventional jatropha kernel cake”. In our opinion, such claims and the conclusions are not sufficiently substantiated by the results presented in the paper. We have analysed so...

Acacia saligna, a leguminous tree, has a high crude protein content, remains green all year and can be grown in deserts using only runoff water. However, dry matter intake (DMI) by sheep and goats of A. saligna is low, presumably due to its high tannin content. It has been suggested that DMI could be increased by such methods as wilting of the fora...

Livestock are a crucial source of food, employment, and income for much of East Africa’s rural population. The sector contributes substantially to export revenues, national GDPs, and thus the region’s broader socioeconomic development. Livestock production and related value chains, can be the foundation of resilience and sustainable development fo...

This paper reviewed the existing and potential blockchain applications of this technology, which are to trade the agricultural wastes including animal wastes, energy, and byproducts among the farmers and entrepreneurs to generate wealth; to manage the animal product supply chains such as dairy products, beef, and chicken to enhance their safety and...

The acute shortage of feedstuffs in Asian, Middle East and African countries has prompted Animal Nutritionists to explore new non-conventional feed resources that do not compete with human food. The most promising among these, available in plenty, are fruit and vegetable wastes (FVWs). Currently most FVWs are dumped in wastelands causing environmen...

Opinion paper: A regional feed action plan – one-of-a-kind example from East Africa - P. Opio, H. P. S. Makkar, M. Tibbo, S. Ahmed, A. Sebsibe, A. M. Osman, E. Olesambu, C. Ferrand, S. Munyua

Seasonal feed shortages and inefficient feed use by pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities are the major challenges affecting livestock productivity in East African countries. Studies have shown that the early actions provide high returns on investment. However, the early actions can only be taken with sound and timely information. A National...

Feed production is highly resource-demanding. Most developing countries have extreme shortages of feed resources. Additional feed required to satisfy the projected increased demand of animal products, if met through food grains, risk further exacerbate food insecurity in many countries. Livestock consume about 60 percent of the biomass used for foo...

Livestock sector is vital for food security in Africa as it provides a number of essential nutrients to millions of people. Recent repeated droughts, however, had devastating effects on pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods, mainly due to feed and water shortages. This short paper provides information on the availability of biomass for use as anim...

The global pork sector contributes to food security and supports livelihoods for millions of households but also causes nitrogen (N) pollution. Here we assess N flows, losses, and N use indicators for global pork supply chains, from “cradle-to-primary-processing-gate” and for three production systems: the backyard, intermediate and industrial syste...

Ergot and ergotism

Detoxified Jatropha kernel meal (DJKM) was created through heat and solvent extraction and replaced fish meal (FM) at 0% (Control), 50% (J50), or 62.5% (J62.5) in common carp Cyprinus carpio fingerling (initial mean weight ± SD; 22 ± 0.12 g) diets over 16 weeks. Growth performance and feeding efficiencies were similar (P > 0.05) among groups, but n...

Insects provide an alternative sustainable source of protein to the growing population, as well as to the animals in the low-income world. The depletion of resources linked with the increased demand for animal products due to growing population and fast-growing economies of the low-income countries make insects a sustainable alternative to fish and...

A bioassay study was conducted to investigate the effects of substituting casein with graded levels of detoxified Jatropha curcas seed cake protein isolates (JPI) as a protein source on the growth performance, feed efficiency ratio (FER) and its protein values using rats as an animal model. Thirty 21-day-old male Sprague–Dawley weaned rats were ran...

The study was conducted with the objectives to quantify year round availability of different vegetables waste (VW) in a wholesale market and to determine the inclusion level of a processed VW (VWP) in the diets of bulls. The daily VW biomass availability at Kawran bazaar, Dhaka, Bangladesh was quantified by weighing the vegetable supply and their w...

India is one of worst disaster prone countries of the world. Out of 36 states and union territories in the country, 25 of them are disaster prone. Disasters continue to occur without warning and are on an increase in their magnitude, complexity, frequency and economic impact. The natural calamities in the form of floods, tsunamis, famines, cyclones...

The present study was conducted with the objectives of determining the chemical composition and nutritional value of vegetable waste (VW) of households and marketplace for their suitability as ruminant feed. The crude protein, total digestible nutrients and extent of rumen degradability of dry matter (DM) of VW of households were 140.0 g kg⁻¹, 0.66...

In terms of livestock wealth, Ethiopia is endowed with largest domestic animal population in Africa, composed of diverse animal species and breeds. Animal production is key to economic development in Ethiopia. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the current status of the feed industry. Currently 32 private companies and 28 farmers’ unions a...

Jatropha seed cake (JSC) is an excellent source of protein but does contain some antinutritional factors (ANF) that can act as toxins and thus negatively affect the growth and health status of fish. While this can limit the use of JSC, detoxified Jatropha protein isolate (DJPI) may be a better option. An 8-week study was performed to evaluate dieta...

In countries across the Horn of Africa and in many other parts of the world, the lack of feed inflicts major adverse effects on livestock during times of drought. This has been identified as a major problem by development agencies, NGOs, researchers and extension workers alike, and one which must be addressed urgently. This article discusses and pr...

The food-feed competition is one of the complex challenges, and so are the ongoing climate change, land degradation and water shortage for realizing sustainable food production systems. By 2050 the global demand for animal products is projected to increase by 60% to 70%, and developing countries will have a lion’s share in this increase. Currently,...

The FAO-ICARDA International Technical Cooperation Network on Cactus (CactusNet) was established in 1993 to support the promotion of this underutilized crop. The first edition of this book, Agro-ecology, cultivation and uses of cactus pear, was published in 1995. During the last 20 years much knowledge on cactus pear has been generated, and this is...

The livestock sector is one of the fastest growing subsectors of the agricultural economy and, while it makes a major contribution to global food supply and economic development, it also consumes significant amounts of natural resources and alters the environment. In order to improve our understanding of the global environmental impact of livestock...

An agronomical trial was carried out to evaluate the biomass yield, chemical composition and In-sacco dry matter (DM) degradability of different harvesting height of Moringa under on station condition. Twenty eight (28) plots each of 1x1 sq meter area having seven (7) replications for each harvesting height were assigned in a Randomized Block Desig...

Appropriate feeding during the pregnancy and post-pregnancy period determines both the milk production in the ensuing lactation as well as the reproductive efficiency of the animal. During this period, 3 weeks before and 3 weeks after parturition are very important because dramatic physiological and metabolic adaptations take place during this phas...

Types of plant cultivars and seasons often affect production and productivity of fodder biomass and nutritional quality to animals. Selection of suitable cultivars and better understanding of year round biomass production are indispensable for improving quality feed supply to animals. Black Seed Moringa (BSM-L) and White Seed Moringa (WSM), the two...

Opinion paper: Food loss and waste to animal feed - Volume 11 Issue 7 - H. P. S. Makkar

Approximately one-third of the food produced is wasted, which has high environmental, economic and social costs. Besides, it adversely affects food security. A part of such losses and non-food parts of the agricultural products can be safely used as animal feed, without compromising animal product safety and animal and human welfare. FAO organised...

Feed production is highly resource-demanding. Most developing countries have extreme shortages of feed resources. Additional feed required to satisfy the projected increased demand of animal products, if met through food grains, risk further exacerbate food insecurity in many countries. Livestock consume about 60 percent of the biomass used for foo...

Increased future demand of animal products as well as competition between food, feed and fuel, require efficient utilization of feed resources to strengthen environmental, economic and social sustainability of livestock systems. The objective of this review is to summarize current knowledge on precision feeding (PF) and the relevance of PF approach...

One of the major bottlenecks in meeting the increasing demand for livestock products is in reconciling feed production, required in ever-increasing amounts, with good management of natural resources and protection of the environment. The process at all stages has a major impact on several factors including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, animal pro...

One of the major bottlenecks in meeting the increasing demand for livestock products is in reconciling feed production, required in ever-increasing amounts, with good management of natural resources and protection of the environment. The process at all stages has a major impact on several factors including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, animal pro...

Proficiency tests, with two feed samples each year, for various constituents (proximate, macro- and micro-minerals, feed additives and amino acids) were conducted in 2014 and 2015. A total of 40 and 50 European and 73 and 63 developing country feed analysis laboratories participated in the study in 2014 and 2015 respectively. The data obtained from...

Jatropha curcas seeds contain 250–300 g oil/kg, which can be converted to high quality biodiesel. The oil can be extracted using various methods, starting from either seeds or kernels (deshelled seeds), giving different products having potential for use as animal feed. The residues (seed cake, seed meal and kernel meal) obtained after extraction of...

The chemical composition, nutritional value and use of a number of vegetable wastes (VWs) and by-products such as baby corn, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, cucumber, jackfruit, peas, potato, sweet corn (SC), tomato, and radish leaves, among others in ruminant and monogastric diets, are presented in this publication. These products are rich in both p...

The chemical composition, nutritional value and use of a number of vegetable wastes (VWs) and by-products such as baby corn, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, cucumber, jackfruit, peas, potato, sweet corn (SC), tomato, and radish leaves, among others in ruminant and monogastric diets, are presented in this publication. These products are rich in both p...

Given the large increase in demand for animal products, sustainability challenges of animal production systems are becoming increasingly important. Animal feeding has a large influence on the sustainability performance of animal production systems and are therefore a suitable focus point in the challenge to improve sustainability. The Sustainable A...

• On supplementation of low quality roughages with nitrogen and minerals, high productivity gains are obtained as a result of rumen optimization. • Better understanding of the microbial diversity, interactions among microorganisms in the rumen, and interactions between rumen microorganisms and the host using nucleic acid-based technologies and DNA...

Insects have a long history as a part the diets of several ethnic groups in Kenya. Traditionally, the consumption of insects has mainly taken place in the western provinces of the country and has included primarily grasshoppers, termites, lake flies and crickets. While these species are harvested and prepared solely for human consumption, attentio...

Insects have a long history as a part the diets of several ethnic groups in Kenya. Traditionally, the consumption of insects has mainly taken place in the western provinces of the country and has included primarily grasshoppers, termites, lake flies and crickets. While these species are harvested and prepared solely for human consumption, attentio...

Insects have a long history as a part the diets of several ethnic groups in Kenya. Traditionally, the consumption of insects has mainly taken place in the western provinces of the country and has included primarily grasshoppers, termites, lake flies and crickets. While these species are harvested and prepared solely for human consumption, attentio...

Feed is the foundation of the livestock production, with feed costs generally accounting for up to 70% of the cost of production. Efficient use of available feed resources is a key to efficient animal production and food security. In order to better monitor and guide national and regional livestock sector development, it is essential to develop sys...

The concentrations of phenolics and other phytochemicals present in the peels, pulp/pomace and seeds of many fruits and vegetables namely citrus, apples, peaches, pears, banana, pomegranate, berries, mangoes, onions, potatoes, tomatoes and sugar beet are generally substantially higher than in their respective edible tissues, suggesting these wastes...

As a result of a growing population, national economies and urbanisation the consumption of animal products has risen sharply and will also rise substantially in the future, leading to a huge demand for animal feed. This paper illustrates that feed impacts almost all sectors and services of the livestock sector and its sustainability hinges on how...

In recent years, the concept of life cycle assessment (LCA) has proven to be useful because of its potential to assess the integral environmental impacts of agricultural products. Developing countries such as India are good candidates for LCA research because of the large contribution of smallholder dairy system to the production of agricultural pr...

Of the total greenhouse gas emission from the livestock sector, 45% relates to feed production and processing. Enteric methane (35%), land-use change (9%) and manure nitrous oxide and manure methane together (9.5%) are the other sources of greenhouse gas emissions, which to a large extent depend on feed types. Inefficient use of feeds reduces profi...

Smallholder dairying in India and other developing countries relies on low- and medium-productive animals, and the feeding is mainly based on crop residues and other agro-industrial by-products. The diets are generally nutritionally imbalanced, resulting in productive and reproductive inefficiencies. This also negatively affects the emission intens...

A field study on 7090 lactating cows and 4534 lactating buffaloes was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding a balanced ration on milk production, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and to develop models for predicting manure nitrogen excretion (NE). Data were collected from 529 villages, under ration balancing programme being implemented in diffe...

Livestock production, especially small livestock and dairy production, in peri-urban areas is a fast growing industry. This is due to the growing demand for animal products as urban populations increase and their diets shift to include increased consumption of animal products. On the other hand, urbanisation is also generating a rapid increase of o...

Increasing efficiency in livestock production and reducing the share of animal products in human consumption are two strategies to curb the adverse environmental impacts of the livestock sector. Here, we explore the room for sustainable livestock production by modelling the impacts and constraints of a third strategy in which livestock feed compone...

The increasing trend future consumption of animal products will give rise to a huge demand of animal feed. Meeting this demand will be a challenge, given the scarcity of natural resources such as land and water. Currently approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food is lost and wasted annually, and fruit and vegetables (FV) form a substantial part of t...

Seaweeds are macroalgae, which generally reside in the littoral zone and can be of many different shapes, sizes, colours and composition. They include brown algae (Phaeophyceae), red algae (Rhodophyceae) and green algae (Chlorophyceae). Seaweeds have a long history of use as livestock feed. They have a highly variable composition, depending on the...

This study aimed to investigate the effects of purified hydrolysable (chestnut and sumach) and condensed tannins (mimosa and quebracho) on methane production, rumen fermentation and microbial population structure. The tannins were extracted and purified from their original plant sources, and were characterized for their protein precipitation capaci...

This study aimed to investigate the effects of purified hydrolysable (chestnut and sumach) and condensed tannins (mimosa and quebracho) on methane production, rumen fermentation and microbial population structure. The tannins were extracted and purified from their original plant sources, and were characterized for their protein precipitation capaci...

Detoxified Jatropha protein isolate (DJPI), prepared from Jatropha seed cake was hydrolysed using Alcalase 2.4L FG. Both DJPI and hydrolysed DJPI (HDJPI) were evaluated as a fish meal (FM) replacement in common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) diets. The peptide concentration in HDJPI was determined using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time o...

The First Symposium on the Applied Techniques and Industry Economics in Chinese Beef Cattle Production. The Beef Cattle Research Center of China Agricultural University has organized the First Symposium on the Chinese National Beef Cattle Nutrition, Feeding and Industry Economics in June, 2015 in Beijing (http://www.bovine-online.org/). Experts fr...

The objectives of this experiment were (1) to observe the effects of purified tannins and polyethy-lene glycol (PEG) on in vitro rumen fermentation and methanogenesis, and (2) to assess the accuracy of volatile fatty acid (VFA) profiles in predicting methane emission. Hydrolysable and condensed tannins were extracted and purified from chestnut, sum...

Implications • Since the 1990s, the rising demand for fish products has been met by aquaculture rather than by capture fishery. • Fish meal is the main component of many fish diets due to its outstanding nutritional value. As this reliance on fish meal is under question for environmental, societal, and economic reasons, alternative feed sources are...

Animal feeding is the first step in the production of milk and affects the rest of the production chain. Information on feeding systems is necessary for estimating the environmental impact of the livestock sector; for developing diets and feeding strategies to reduce the carbon footprint and to optimize milk composition; for enhancing animal produc...

The Beef Cattle Research Center of China Agricultural University has organized the First Symposium on the Chinese National Beef Cattle Nutrition, Feeding and Industry Economics in June, 2015 in Beijing (http://www.bovine-online.org). Experts from the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Denmark, and FAO of the United Nations have been invited...

Report based on the collated results of a survey of stakeholder views

A 60-70% increase in consumption of animal products is expected by 2050. This increase in the consumption will demand enormous resources, the feed being the most challenging because of the limited availability of natural resources, ongoing climatic changes and food-feed-fuel competition. The costs of conventional feed resources such as soymeal and...

Animal feed and feeding is pivotal to livestock production. Animal productivity, health and welfare, product quality and safety, producers’ income, household security, but also land use and land use change, water pollution and greenhouse gas emission are affected to a great extent by diet selection and how a diet is fed to livestock. Also animal fe...

Phytate is the primary storage form of both phosphate and inositol in plant seeds. It forms complexes with dietary minerals, especially iron and zinc, and causes mineral-related deficiency in humans. It also negatively impacts protein and lipid utilisation. It is of major concern for individuals who depend mainly on plant derivative foods. Processi...