Review on utility of selected shrub-foliage - D6.1
Creators: name: Roessler, Regina
name: Graefe, Sophie
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Animal Feed
subject: nutritional analysis
subject: Animal health
subject: Ruminants

description: Ethnobotanical surveys and an extensive literature search were conducted to identify the most preferred and regionally important shrub foliage in Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Mali. Over 600 crop-livestock farmers in Koulikoro (Mali), Ouarkhokh (Senegal), as well as Saria and Yilou (Burkina Faso) were approached in personal interviews to assess their preferences for shrub foliage and their feeding practices. Based on the stated preferences, a list of relevant shrubs and trees for ruminant livestock feeding was established for each partner country. The literature review covered electronic catalogues and databases, search engines and relevant scientific journals. This resulted in the screening of 1465 publications, of which 894 were further processed and entered into Mendeley reference manager system. A total of 141 studies were classified as relevant and reviewed to establish the list of browse species. This resulted in a Microsoft Excel list of shrub and tree species with special importance for livestock feeding and animal health management. For each study, botanical details of the species, country, plant parts used, livestock species, and nutritional aspects were tabulated and analyzed.

According to agropastoralists in Koulikoro, the most preferred browse species of sheep are Pterocarpus lucens (47%), P. erinaceus (44%) and Ficus sycomorus (42%). Other important browse species are Khaya senegalensis and Entada africana (18% each). The most frequently cited browse species for sheep in Burkina Faso were Faidherbia albida (41%), Lannea microcarpa (35%), Vitellaria paradoxa (25%), Balanites aegyptiaca (23%) and Ficus sycomorus (20%). In Senegal, agropastoralists mentioned B. aegyptiaca, Acacia tortilis ssp. raddiana, A. digitata and Guiera senegalensis as most preferred trees and shrubs of sheep. Regarding the three SustainSAHEL target countries, Burkina Faso turned out to be the country most often covered in the publications of the literature review. The Sudano-Sahel region was with 48 publications more often studied than the Sahel region (34 publications). In total, 153 tree and shrub species were recorded, which belong to 37 botanical families. Leguminosae is the dominating family, representing 34.4% of the browse species. The most often studied species are Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Delile, Pterocarpus erinaceus Poir., Faidherbia albida (Delile) A.Chev. and Acacia senegal (L.) Willd. It was possible to allocate the tree and shrub species to six leaf phenology classes, which range from short deciduous to evergreen according to the lengths of the foliated period. Nearly all studied trees and shrubs (n=142; 92.8%) are used as livestock feed, whereas 57 species have also ethno-veterinary uses. The by far most important plant parts used in livestock feeding are leaves, followed by fruits and pods. For animal health care, the most often used plant parts are leaves, bark and roots. Preference studies indicated Afzelia africana Pers., Detarium microcarpum Guill & Perr., Ficus sur Forssk., F. albida, P. erinaceus, and Pterocarpus lucens Guill. & Perr. as the most highly valued browse species by farmers. Overall, the literature study pointed out knowledge gaps, particularly referring to nutritional characteristics of browse species, which offer a good starting point for further project activities.

Based on the comparison of the results of the ethnobotanical surveys on one hand and the literature study on the other hand, we identified six browse species that are of special interest for the goals of SustainSAHEL, because either (i) farmers in all countries highlighted their usefulness, or (ii) the literature review revealed substantial knowledge gaps. The respective species are: Bauhinia reticulata D.C., F. albida, Gueria senegalensis J.F.Gmel., Khaya senegalensis (Desv.) A.Juss., P. erinaceus, and P. lucens. These species will be assessed in more detail in subsequent experiments of WP6 (feeding trials, decomposition experiments). Since the decomposition experiment aims to include recalcitrant leaf material, Vitellaria paradoxa C.F.Gaertn. with its rather low feeding value will be also incorporated in this trial. By means of feedback workshops, results of Task 6.1 will be disseminated to stakeholders in the target regions during the next visit of UNI KASSEL members to the study sites. A meta-analysis will be conducted to publish the outcome of this literature review as a peer-reviewed publication in an international journal.