Scientists and other experts gathered in KwaZulu-Natal last week to present their latest research findings related to the status and protection of Southern Africa’s vitally important grasslands and rangelands, as well the sustainable management and utilisation thereof. Outcomes were varied, interesting and often helpful for farmers.
By Lloyd Phillips, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
Both good and bad news emerged from the more than 80 presentations made at the Grassland Society of Southern Africa’s 60th Annual Congress held from 21 to 25 July in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal. Academics, scientists, consultant experts, conservationists and farmers were among the regional and international presenters and attendees.
A common theme among the presentations were the threats that climate change and poor management pose to Southern Africa’s rangelands and the countless people and ecosystems that directly and indirectly depend on them. However, numerous potential and even confirmed solutions to such threats were also presented.
Ian Scoones is a professor of resource politics and environmental change at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. In his keynote address to the congress, he said extensive livestock producers and pastoralists around the world are unjustly targeted by the anti-livestock production lobby and its typically emotive, and not scientific, narratives. Unfortunately, such narratives that portray extensive livestock production as unviable, environmentally destructive, damaging to the climate and the root of conflicts, capture society’s attention far more than the truthful science does.
“Narratives define policy pathways. When not supported by actual conditions on the ground, they can result in major injustices. A new narrative based on pastoralists’ own knowledge and practice that is centred on variability, uncertainty, adaptability and flexibility, is suggested.
“This can inform a very different approach to livestock development and policy.”
Facts To Counter Fallacies
Regenerative grazing is an important example of a factually accurate narrative of how extensive livestock farmers understand the value of sustainable practices that, in turn, keep their production and livelihoods sustainable into the future. This, and other rangeland management and utilisation strategies, experience the variability and uncertainty highlighted by Scoones and, therefore, require adaptability and flexibility.
Richard Fynn is a professor of rangeland ecology at the Okavango Research Institute in Botswana. He proposed that, although well-intended, the increasingly widely used practice of high-density and ultra-high density grazing where vegetation is non-selectively grazed intensely, but briefly, only once before being given a long rest period, is incorrect.
He instead suggests that, subject to appropriate management, vegetation should be non-selectively grazed multiple times in a single growing season before being given at least a full year to recover before being grazed again. Where applicable, the strategic use of fire can complement this strategy for improving the diversity, quality, biomass and resilience of grazing, and for improving the productivity of animals that consume it.
“Under non-selective grazing, palatable perennial grasses become very competitive when both they and their unpalatable neighbours are repeatedly regrazed. The mechanisms underlying these effects of regrazing on competitive interactions appear to be related to effects on root growth.”
More insights from the congress
Other interesting presentations at the congress included an assessment of the beneficial nutritional value of leaves of the Searsia genus of shrubby trees, especially as livestock feed during dry seasons; the devastating impacts of climate change-related droughts on communal livestock owners, and potential mitigating strategies therefore; recommendations for red clover (Trifolium pratense) types best suited for South Africa’s multispecies pastures; and the findings of how a multi-species cover crop responds to different grazing strategies within a conservation agriculture system.
Keep an eye on www.africanfarming.com for comprehensive reports based on these different topics.
