Feed+assessment

An assessment of feed requirements, feeding practices, constraints and opportunities using the ILRI & CIAT-developed Feed Assessment Tool ([|FEAST]).

FEAST writeshop in Arusha, Tanzania, 26-28 March 2013
Synthesis reports have been produced per district and region during a writeshop in Arusha from earlier FEAST applications for feed assessments in a total of 8 selected villages in Morogoro and Tanga Regions of Tanzania (see below). The reports are available under Outputs and reports.

==Feed assessments using FEAST in villages of Sult block (Almoral district) and Bageshwar block (Bageshwar district) in Uttarakhand, India, February 2013 == 24 settlements have been selected within the village clusters identified for the feed and dairy innovation platforms for feed assessment with FEAST based on settlements identified during the household census. The PRA section of the tool has been conducted in these villages during 15/02/2013 to 28/02/2013 by partner field staff.  In order to also select settlements from outside the IP clusters, a settlement census is collecting important characteristics on a settlement level. Subsequently, 24 additional settlements will be selected for the application of FEAST. Within each of the initially selected 12 settlements 3 livestock-keeping households have been randomly selected (after stratification into terciles by land size). The household section of FEAST will be conducted with these households during March 2013.

Feed assessments using FEAST in villages of Morogoro and Tanga Regions, Tanzania, February 2013
Feed assessments have been carried out in a total of 8 selected villages in Morogoro and Tanga Regions of Tanzania during February and March 2013 by applying the full FEAST method, including both the PRA and the individual interviews, as the tool. A total of 8 FEAST reports are being currently prepared that will be synthesized in a single report with conclusions for further actions in the villages. The synthesis report will be produced during a writeshop in Arusha end of March 2013. After solving some hiccups with the Excel template, village draft reports were produced. These were then combined into district reports, available under Outputs and reports.

FEAST training workshop in Dar es Salaam, and Morogoro and Tanga Regions, Tanzania, 19-26 January 2013
A train-the-trainers FEAST workshop has been held in Tanzania in mid January 2013 to familiarize project collaborators and future innovation platform members with this tool for its later use in the eight villages selected for potential feed interventions. The training has been led by Ben Lukuyu. In each region, Morogoro and Tanga, a number of researchers and village representatives for the future feed innovation platforms have been trained. Participants of the Tanga FEAST training, January 2013.

FEAST training workshop in Almora and Rural Uttarakhand, India, 30 November to 3 December 2012
The FEAST workshop was held from 30th November 2012 to December 3rd 2012 in Almora and Rural Uttarakhand state. The training was held on the tools and compiling FEAST reports followed by a field exercise on 30 November 2012 in Janotipalri and Bolnanahar villages in Bageshur district. Participants had practical training on data entry into the FEAST Excel tool. The training also dwelt on interpreting results and identifying gaps and areas that might warrant intervention and could form discussion topics during the village platforms. They shared experiences on the FEAST tool amongst themselves that generated useful discussions ad feedback that will be helpful in improving the tool. The FEAST training workshop was attend by Nils Teufel, Thanammal Ravichandran (ILRI), Jagat Rawat, Shankar Devtalla (INHERE), Ramesh Joshi, Jegthesh Chandraprakash, Neema Ajya (Chirag).

Feed assessment and dairy value chain assessment on Pemba Island, Tanzania, 7-14 July 2012
The Tanzania team tested the FEAST tool for feed assessment on Pemba Island during 7-14 July 2012. Generally, the tool appeared to be very useful to get a comprehensive picture rapidly, but we also found a number of issues that require adjustment for the tool to be useful more widely. Overall, two FEAST sessions were conducted in Kisiwani village, Wete district and at Chake Chake town, Chake Chake district. In addition, a light dairy value chain assessment was performed in Chake Chake with a group each of trader/vendors and input/service suppliers using tools made available by Derek Baker/ILRI. The report of the findings is available under Outputs and reports.

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