 Okay, I think we'll start and hopefully people will come in as we as we go along. So, welcome everybody my name is Michael Victor I'm the head of knowledge management and communications at Ilri at the international livestock research, you know and on behalf of Ilri and venture 37 I'd like to welcome you to the third and final of the year that we're going to have and it's care about climate you know animal nutrition can make the difference. And this is the third in the series this year we had the first one that focused really on livestock and nutrition and livestock role as in food security and resting malnutrition. And then the second one was on the critical crossroads of animal human environmental health and how do we scale up one health livestock and nutrition so we've had to and this one kind of really focuses on the hidden benefits of animal nutrition and how that relates to climate change So, the objective of this of this session is to demonstrate how investing in sustainable livestock development you mainly through animal nutrition and feeds and forages can help build farmer resilience and adaptation to climate shocks and stressors, while at the same time, leading to the co benefits of greenhouse gas admission mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. And here we're going to be highlighting some work from the, from the livestock. We have a CGR research program on livestock, as well as a joint venture between Ilri and venture 37 in East Africa, and really looking at the impact of alliances and how that really creates the sustainable impact that we're looking at so it's not just research or development but research developments in the private sector and how they're working together. So we're going to have a quick introduction from die Harvey and then we'll be having our lightning talks and then some discussion. Maddie, could you go to the tech tips really quickly. Great. And I think everyone knows this after almost two years of zoom meetings but please you know change your name put your, your name and your, you know, your affiliation where you are into your, into your name there. So please make sure that you, you know, introduce yourself into the chat, we will be using chat so make sure that you put any comments or questions into the chat if you have a question to the speakers you can put that into the chat and then I'll answer you when they're not speaking, or we can discuss that during the panel discussion. And remember this session is being recorded. We won't be having any open mic so you don't have to worry about that but just know that it will be recorded and it will be put up on into the public, and that we will be doing live tweeting, and you're welcome to treat about the about the session as well. So with that, I would like to hand it over to die. Who is the technical director for land to lakes and venture 37, and he joined the venture 37 and 2004 and is based in Zambia and really works across the board from development research and with a growing focus on private sector involvement in the dairy industry. So over to you die. Thank you very much and thank you all for attending today. Delighted to be here from, from a dodgy dodgy line in gigali in Rwanda so that's where I'm visiting at the moment, could I have the next slide please. What I'm going to be looking at is at a very high level giving a bit of an overview of some of the activities and some of the challenges that have been faced around climate and climate change, highlighting the impact that this has had on having on on on people and then also looking at communities. And what are some of the solutions that we're going to be able to possibly look at going forward. Sorry, my, my line is getting a bit bad so I'm going to turn the video off if you don't mind. So, at the moment as we know, we're all well aware that over 75% of production across East Africa is from small holder farmers, and these small holder farmers are particularly vulnerable to climate change. So we'll have a look at that and then spoke to speak a little bit about that. We're feeling that the optimization of animal nutrition is, is, is one of the key interventions that that can go for that can go forward that can help help us to alleviate and mitigate some of the, some of the effects of climate change by helping to improve productivity, and also to, to alleviate some of the potential losses in income, and also, and improve the resiliency of our farmers on the demand end which I think is critical is absolutely important and really, really critical is that we're seeing an increased demand and animal source foods as we go forward. This increased demand and animal source food is growing year on year. Animal source foods in our less developed countries in the world is absolutely essential for the reduction of green reduction of child malnutrition and child stunting. This is really, really important. As we go forward, increasingly important is not only the importance of any solution must be inclusive on working not only with, not only working with the producers, also consumers, but how do private sector research institutes and governments look at at some of these solutions to be able to produce food sustainably across the world. Next slide please. So, there's been a lot of discussion over the last few years we've had cop we've had lots of chat lots of discussions around how climate changes is affecting farmers affecting agriculture and affecting primary production. What is highlighted we're well aware the variability in climate is not only a challenge a physical challenge, as we can see from this awful slide here that we can see of massive amounts of land being flooded through cyclone die. And the cyclone die in Mozambique which is a recent and massive example, but we're also looking at the variability of, of, of the climate which is both drought, and also drought, and also, and also floods, storms, and increasingly different unseen challenges which is variability in in the pricing of inputs, and also variability. When it comes to the pricing of outputs as well. All of these are factors which are affecting farmers and are definitely affecting the resiliency of the farmers. On the micro level. This is affecting our productivity of our stock through heat stress reduction of, of fertility of our animals. And also, what is, how does this affect the disease burden and the disease challenge next slide, next slide please. So here we're having a look and having a look to see this, this data from FAO, and also from the Paris Paris agreement is showing us that agriculture is one of the largest emitters we're well aware of this. We're well aware that agriculture that livestock is about 14% of the greenhouse gases. Now what what that that acknowledged and, as we can see different countries have different have different percentages of how much of how much is being affected by the by, and is the contribution for greenhouse gases. And what we're suggesting or saying is that animal nutrition and optimization of the of the diet of animals through improved balancing of the diet and also improved feed quality can actually help to reduce the emissions, the intensity of emissions and also as a way of looking at improving the resiliency of the farming system. Next slide please. On on on this slide here we just highlighting very much and will you will be hearing from the other speakers later on today in the flash talk, a much more detailed one on one items of what's going on. And what's happening across different different sectors in different areas, and we'd really encourage you to to dig in and to give give a give a bit of discussions. We've identified with Ilry and with the other Alliance partners that really the fastest way to improve productivity is looking at how can we improve animal nutrition and get that. And get that productivity up as as quickly as possible, focusing on on nutrient dense forages, which are being produced locally for local cows moving local cows and local ruminants moving them in the direction as as little as possible. So we're not affecting the climate anymore by having to move large quantities of food around. In addition to this is being able to look at the farming system itself and how do we look and improve the post harvest losses and the storage to look at adaptability of the farmers and improve their resiliency. Next slide please. One of the potential solutions is something that Ilry, Lando Lakes, Corteva and forage genetics international had looked at setting up is a an alliance. This is an alliance model which is looking at both private sector. This is looking at a research institute like Ilry, and then an NGO, an implementing partner like venture 37 at looking at a, at the, at the forage value chain from end to end. There are other alliance partners that are crowded in here, looking at this alliance model as a potential solution to being able to scale out with the, with an off take market there as well looking to scale out to improve the animal nutrition, and as a result to improve the productivity and improve the resiliency of the, of the, of the households going forward. This alliance model will, will have a couple of speakers who will get into a little bit more detail about this. This alliance model has been running now for approximately two years. It will be running now in, in, in, in Kenya, and we'll be digging into a little bit more detail of exactly how that works. But this is a potential opportunity and a potential model for improving that quality of the forage at the household level. Preliminary results from the alliance, it's a, it's a very small pilot model, but they're about 300, 3,500 farmers who've been trained and our early signs from the improved productivity is over 24% of productivity and with a reduction in the, in the methane intensity of the estimated reduction of methane intensity of just under 20%. And the CO2 as well, you can see there are similar reduction on that side, these are these are estimated figures by quite working this out but this is gives you some idea of, of the opportunity when you're looking at balancing a diet and optimizing, optimizing a diet with with this is being focused really on dairy cattle but this is something that could also be, could happen across, across the region across the area. We feel that this is a, is a potentially innovative and quite a, quite a cost effective way of getting sustainable change in our, in our agricultural systems and in particular in the production of animal source foods which we know is so important for our, for our target populations and especially targeting that, that that child malnutrition and the first 1000 days of life. Thank you very much for that. And I will hand over back to Michael to go through our flash talks which I'm looking very much looking forward to. And thanks, I thinks that we have three today after dice presentation we have three really interesting presentations first from Anne and then to from the the Lions to look at different angles of that. So I'd like to welcome and I think you're going to be speaking directly and yes. Are you there in. So I'd like to, to welcome and who is the thematic leader for tropical forages in Africa for the Lions of biodiversity international and Seattle of the CGI are and also worked on the CGI research program for livestock as well. So over to you and good morning or good afternoon everybody. Today I will be talking about improved forages. Improved forages will thereby be framed as one means of managing the sustainability of the livestock sector, which is indeed a big issue and something that needs to be managed. Allow me to immediately zoom into the green house gas emissions on this slide. And now how do we deal with trying to reduce the green house gas emissions. I think we're all very well aware about people advocating for reducing numbers. And we also do the solutions for increasing the efficiency of livestock production. So obviously, or I think at least that they should need not be one or the other but that we need to work on both pathways. The second big environmental issue associated with livestock production is the land use to give you a little bit of a picture. Forages can be far found on about 159 million hectares, which is almost as much as rice. And the big issue is now that the use of land for feed production actually comes with a big opportunity cost. That same land could also be used for plant based food production for carbon storage for biodiversity conservation. And it is therefore really important that we start thinking carefully about where do we produce the feed. So therefore the mention of spatial targeting there. At the same time, if we use the land for feed production, we better do it in an efficient or productive way as possible. We do have to do this without compromising the positive contributions of the issue. The issue really becomes how to optimize the environmental footprint. And as if all of that was not complex enough. We also have to deal with the impact of climate change on livestock, which can be direct impact by heat stress or indirect impact. Potentially the biggest indirect impact is mediated through the impact on feeds and forages. The impact of climate change on feeds and forages will be felt in terms of quantity, quality as well as composition. The graph on the right is just to illustrate how important grasses are in feed baskets across different systems and different species. And the maps on the bottom show how suitability of two grasses, nepia grass and brachiaria grass is likely to change as a result of changing climate. So that is where we now propose improved forages and their integration in livestock production systems as a through triple wind or through climate smart intervention. So at the bottom you see a typical situation in a small holder farming system where during the dry season there is reduced feed availability, which results in very low productivity. In some cases to mortality. So by integrating improved forages in your systems, you can actually increase the year round availability of food quantity of feed quantity. And also that feed is of high quality. And if you choose your forage species carefully, you can also make sure that they are adapted to the climate. And that is a very good way of increasing livestock productivity. Also, because as you can see on the right hand side there, the better you feed your cows than this methane you produce per kilogram of milk, you can also reduce the greenhouse gas emission intensity. And at the same time, by choosing a high productive forages, you can improve your land productivity. Often also they are well adapted to marginal lands of soil for low soil fertility or adapted or or. Pollern to, for example, floods. So this slide I think summarizes all that in a very beautiful way. On the left hand side, you can see a picture of an integrated crop livestock farm, where a variety of tropical forages are mixed into the cropping system, they can be on their own pieces of land, but often they can also be integrated in intercropping arrangements or rotations, or on soil water conservation structures, such as terraces or you often see grass strips. Now these can be fed through the animals through grazing or through cotton carry systems, and the manure that the animals produce can then be fed back into the forage production, and like that you have a nicely integrated system. On the right hand side, you see, again, a summary of the benefits that this provides in terms of environment, we can expect an improved soil quality. And of course we also can feed climate benefits, as I said, through reduced greenhouse gas emission intensities, but it can also go through the pathway of increased soil organic carbon and carbon sequestration. We can also expect reduced water use and positive impact from biodiversity through less pressure on land, but also sometimes through restoration of degraded land. And then of course at the bottom, the very important livelihood gains in the form of healthier and more productive animals, which produce more milk, which can translate into better food and nutrition security or more income or in a more diversified income and through the manure, you can also expect some improved crop yields or through reduction in erosion. So, although improved forages really do provide a pathway for sustainable intensification of livestock production, we do see more potential. Having said that, we do also at the same time observe rapidly increasing demand. One of our private sector partners for example reported a 13 fold increase in feed sales next year. So what does that mean in terms of next steps? So I think, first of all, we have to continue creating awareness of improved forages, be it through more traditional extension ways or through digitally enabled tools. And very importantly, we have to continue working on functional feed supply systems as that is, that continues to be one of the important bottlenecks for farmers to actually access affordable good quality seeds of the forage varieties. They would like to implement in their farms. So we need to streamline registration and certification processes and work with the private sector to improve distribution and commercialization of the seeds. On top of that, we have to also continue on our bidding pipeline. As I said, there are always emerging challenges. We've talked about climate change, increased extreme events such as droughts and also increased pests and disease pressure. So we need to make sure that there is access to well adopted varieties for our farmers. And as I was also already mentioned, I think we have to start thinking more and more about specially targeted forage production. So how can we produce forages that are suitable for specific niches in landscapes or in farms. And of course, we also have to work on enabling policy environment. Thank you. That was all from me today. Thank you very much. Excellent. Thanks, and that was great. And it really does show the kind of triple wins that you're getting from improved feeds and forages, particularly around the environmental benefits and the co benefit to that mitigation. And working at the livelihood gains and the productivity gains. That's really great. And I think your conclusions really feed into what we'll hear now from the Kenya nourishing prosperity alliance work that they're doing on some aspects of this for some aspects of this. So I'd like to introduce Rene Chimtai, who is in an agronomy and forage technical expert in working for the Kenya nourishing prosperity alliance. And she'll be talking on the impact of farmers and their environment from the use of improved forages. So over to you, Rene. Thank you. Hi everyone, Rene Chimtai here. I'm going to talk about the Cane Pea project impact on the farmers and the environment from the use of the improved forages. Just to talk a little bit on what the project does. We are actually training farmers, smallholder farmers targeting mainly women to improve or increase the usage of improved forages to increase their milk production. And on this we have 16 sites that you're working on. And we work with these farmers at the site and together with other farmers that train on these sites on matters to do with soil health, right from soil testing, land preparation, planting, management, harvesting. For the harvesting and conservation, we do the test of feeding and then later on balance the ration and feed the animal. Thank you. Next slide please. On then how forage affects the climate, you'll find that as a cow is fed on good quality forage and enough of it, you'll find that the cow will eventually improve in production and also these end up lowering the intensity of the methane gas emission. But the question is why are the smallholders still not there in terms of the good quality forage and availability. There are many reasons but I'll focus on main major two. First, you'll find that their farmers will only use what is available. So, for example, currently locally farmers can easily access let's say the low quality hay and maybe a little bit of napier grass and that really limits them because they're not able to access the good improved forages. Also, there's a problem in supply of inputs, the seeds, as I said, and also maybe the fertilizer equipment, for example, such as the forage harvesters, a farmer who decides to plant maize ends up not having the good forage investor that will produce a good quality forage. Another problem or another challenge that you get is this very little knowledge and information that these farmers have and right from the agronomy to the feeding of the cow, farmers, most of them don't know that you're supposed to test your soil and if that is it, they also don't know the right type of fertilizer to use for a particular crop or when you're establishing a particular forage. Knowledge on the available quality forages or the improved forages, most of it is very little or even not available. And some farmers, when it comes to knowledge like even establishing some of these forages, especially the forage like Lusanne, stage of harvesting such kind of forages and even being able to balance the rations and feed the dill cow, it's still a really big issue with the farmers. Next slide please. Okay, something else we've also seen on the brown, from the project there's a really good decrease in the cost of production. You'll find from what the project is doing right from soil testing to being able to harvest the feed, test and balance and feed the cow. There are good deals important from the variety of forages that you're planting and from this, a farmer is able to produce a particular kind of forage at a very low cost maybe for a cage. This really helps to curb problems, for example, buying low quality hay at, let's say around 12 shillings, 20 shillings per kilo right now, and compared to producing let's say for example kilo of sorghum forage sorghum forage maize at around 23 shillings per kilo, which is quality. And something else you find that even through the process that we have, a farmer is able to know what crop, what forage is doing well in the environment, and being able to focus on that, and also be able to produce as much as it's done. At a very low cost. I can use a good example of let's say the maize silage, the locally available maize silage market goes at 12 bomb, and if you add transport maybe to the farm level, that will cost around 15 bomb. And from the sites, when a farmer gets to plant at their own sites, a cage of maize silage will go between two and five shillings, Kenyan shillings, sorry. Next slide please. There's improved milk production being recorded on the farm. From the forages that are being produced in the project, we are able to do testing to be able to know the nutrient content in terms of protein energy, using the locally available testing facilities, such as the cup nuts and also injury. We are able to do some feeding trials with the fields that we've established, and this is done by two using two to three cows, depending on the availability of the forage on each particular site. And we are able to feed these cows and monitor them in a period of two weeks, and how we do it, we actually use what a farmer has together with what has been established in the project to balance the feed and this is done by the help of ruminate tool, especially for the emerging farmers, and also the injury feed tool for the smallholder farmers. And these has really been able to help us do that. And from the data you're able to see how the production is coming out along, and also still from the data. If you compare the current rations before the new ration improved one, you will be able to see also the methane gas emission. With improved production you see the intensity of methane gas emission going down also. Next slide please. It's also exciting and very encouraging how farmers also get engaged in several activities that we do on the ground. If you compare now for example from the baseline when we began the average production per cow per day and currently now that feed is available in plenty and in good quality, you find that there's good increased production at the farm and the farmers are happy This you get from the feedback from farmer, I'll quote one of the farmer from whatever she was able to share that since we came on the ground, we really came at the right time when she was almost giving up, and we were able to work with him with her And currently he sees his production going up and he has begun and he wants to go through and get his target, her target of 200 kgs to begin with that is milk production, which is good. And one also farmer gave a good feedback on the improvement on the milk quality that since he began using the sun to feed his cattle. His Hawaii who is who runs a coffee shop, the customers were really giving good feedback that the white coffee is has good taste, and you also, he has been also having quality issues in terms of density with the cooperative society where he sells his milk. And that has really also stopped from the use of when he began to use these forages, and then also milk consumption has also gone up. Some communities that we deal with they really value consuming milk but since milk at the initial stages was very little, you find it's not enough for the for the family and currently they have at least enough and then even can get more to sell. And over time of period, we expect the improvement of the body condition of the animals. That means more animal showing heat science, having cows per year. That means more cows and this firm is able even to get more income by selling excess cows on the farm. Thank you. Excellent. Thanks for any. So now we'd like to go over to the private sector and we have a great presentation to compliment Renny's looking at private sector investment so I'd like to hand it over to Humphrey Kiroi, who is the country lead for Kenya and the Great Lakes region for Kotova Agri Science and part of this alliance as well. So over to you, Humphrey. Thank you, Michael. Today, I will take you through some investment opportunities that are available within the forage space in the country. But to begin with, just to introduce Kotova is an agri business company that is involved in the sale of farm inputs, including forages. Next slide. So this slide I just want to share with you the overall daily landscape in Kenya is what I'm calling an investor's dashboard. Any person wanting to invest in the daily sector in Kenya gets excited when he looks at statistics and data like this. One of the things that I wanted to highlight is that what makes this sector very attractive to private sector investors. Firstly, is the size of the opportunity. Studies estimate between 1.6 up to $2 billion industry in terms of the milk industry. In Kenya, it contributes to about 6% of the GDP. So it's an emerging sizeable. I should also say is one of the most organized sectors in Kenya. The other drivers for growth includes the increasing population driving the consumption of milk. Some studies done by USAID in some of their initiatives here in Kenya estimate that by 2050 the demand of milk will be around 12 billion liters. As we speak now we are almost like in net deficit state whereas the demand is about 7 billion supply is just about 5 billion liters per annum. The other bit is what data shows, simulated data shows that the per capita consumption of milk in Kenya is one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. There is estimation that by 2050 the consumption will double from around 110 to 220 liters per person per year. So all these basically signals telling any investor that this is a sector that will continue to thrive. That said, increased milk production obviously comes with an increasing demand to feed the animals. And as we speak now the cost of production of milk above 65 to 70% is attributed to animal feeds. So there is also an increasing demand for feed. And obviously within the Eastern African community and Central Africa with all these trading blocks, there's an increased opportunity for exports. Separately on the right side of the screen is just an illustration of the daily value chain diagram. And as you can see there are many opportunities for any investor that is coming into the segment. There are opportunities ranging from production where you can set up a dairy farm all the way to marketing and distribution. There is a growing demand for value added milk products, yogurt and other byproducts of milk. Kenya has always had an appetite for asking investors to come in and supply dairy equipment. And after including the maintenance of some of those equipments. But what is interesting for a company like Coteva is our contribution as a research and development company. What is our contribution for example in the feed space. So we see significant opportunities and as my previous speaker mentioned. There is an increasing demand for alternative forages and folder that can supplement the commercial concentrates that are quite pricey and driving the increased cost of feeding. I should also mention that the other opportunities that I imagine, and you're seeing them currently in Kenya on training extension and consultancy services, both for commercial enterprises but also smallholders. That's why our contribution to the Kenya now rushing prosperity comes in 1.8 million smallholder farmers are involved in milk production in Kenya. And there's some significant knowledge gaps as the previous speaker has mentioned so we already seeing companies like perfometer, which is a very consulting company coming in to be able to provide professional consulting services end to end. Next slide. So what are some of the challenges that smallholder farmers are facing today. One of it is increased cost of commercial concentrates and that is heavily illustrated on the chart on my right hand side of the screen. This is a very recent study conducted by an Egerton University to the male Institute and Kenya they're bored. They found that in the, you know farming system zero grazing, at least it confirms at least 62% of the total production of milk direct costs goes into feed. And it starts to reduce as you go into other grazing systems like semi zero grazing and open. Kenya being a largely zero grazing country is served for the northern part where there's a lot of hardening for martial milk production continues to be costly because of the high cost of concentrates. With the weather challenges and variety of weather that comes in, it's very difficult to maintain a stable year round production access to animal feed, and most of the forages. So farmers actually will struggle a lot during episodes of drought to access film. And as the previous speaker mentioned also there is increasing demand for customized tonics ratios for farms. And that is driving farmers to start to think about supplementing commercial concentrates with other foreigners. We are seeing an emerging trade of food safety and a better demand not only for quantity but quality with challenges of aflatoxin and other micro toxins in milk. It actually calls for very good quality animal feed to make sure that the food safety standards are adhered so that continues to be a pain point for farmers. But also there's climate change there's need for resilient forages and fodder so we're starting to see trends in Kenya where we are seeing palmillets and sodom silent being produced by farms. For any investor like Coteva we are looking at, for example, input cells, accessing quality planting material and seeds, especially in the forage space is one of the areas that we are including in our business plants and we are already starting to invest in Kenya. There's also growing demand for inoculants especially for farmers that are actually doing a corn silage and in siling. And also we are seeing some new business models emerging where silage entrepreneurs are coming in to guarantee full year production so they are contracting small scale farmers and dairy enterprises to ensure that they are able to avail them good quality forages. Other opportunities include bailing services and also mechanization services as the previous speaker mentioned. We are currently struggling with the challenges of having good quality machinery for example for silage harvesting. We have opportunities for companies like John Deere to invest in this space and many other companies that are involved in that. Some pictures they are showing some of the practices in Kenya people trying to do some in siling and also a growing demand for wrapped silage. Next slide. So as I was looking at the Kenyan landscape I was trying to look at what are some of the challenges and opportunities that emerge and trying to tie that to aspects of climate change. So one of it is the use of adaptive technologies so whereas most of these will revolve around research and development into you know forages and for that law for example within emissions. That is an opportunity for companies that sell input like ourselves to consider but there's also an opportunity for example for practices that are integrating soil management fatality management. We are starting to see some forages that are very nitrogen efficient for example Coteva sells some corn silages that have better efficient use of nitrogen in the soil. And also for animal breeders I'm sure a good size of the families are involved in this these need also to focus on improved both indigenous and exotic breeds that reduce emissions. The other area to think about is efficient. Could we please please try to finish up okay. Yes, so as I wrap up which is this is the last slide is the other opportunities within the irrigation space where we can introduce some mass solar powered irrigation system and other value addition opportunities. So, next slide. Thank you for your attention. Great. Thank you so much. I'm free. That's great. Can we please have maybe put all the speakers on. That would be great. We have about 10 minutes for questions now. Maddie could you maybe just put everybody's camera on if every if all the speakers can put their camera on that would be great. I had a lot of questions and I see a great new, a great session that we can do next year, really looking at greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation efforts maybe something around that and even the genetics on on the genetics of breeding and how that greenhouse gas emissions. So, I think this, there's been a lot of questions a lot of chat in the in a lot of discussion in the chat. So, we'd like to continue that. But we'll try to ask some questions that came up in the chat and that weren't weren't answered to the different speakers. I could start with and and looking at this, you know, greenhouse gas emissions and how we're estimating those. And did you have some comments or thoughts on that and could you could explain how, how we estimate greenhouse gas emissions and how you're doing that. I'm not super familiar with the project that was where this question was directed to but in general. There are a few places in the world where they actually do actual measurements of green house gas emissions the month in Girola but early one we do so much alliance in in Colombia, but that is very expensive and you cannot really get really data that that covers white area so general practice is to actually estimate it based on activity data so how many animals how much do they eat what is the quality of the feed and then use standard equations to estimate what this means in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and the quality of the feed is a big factor in those calculations. Okay, did you have anything you wanted to add on to that. Yeah, just just re re emphasizing the quality of the feed. So that's the, the size, the, the chop length of the feed and then the nutrient density within that feed. So, in, in simplistic terms, the better the quality of the food the less energy that's required for that animal to to to just it and to to ruminate it. That's one of the most in in very simple layman terms. That's, that's one of the areas which is which is so important, and that optimization of the diet. Again, making sure that the animal has got the optimum diet is really important. Great. And again with this mitigation issue we as and mentioned about Masa gear and their work in in Columbia. I think this is something that will bring up next year as well and maybe have a special talk to really look at mitigation efforts, and some of the science behind using some of the work that Masa gear and others are doing so we'll keep that in mind. So, Renny, I just wanted to talk to you a bit about we had a question from, you know, from some of the some from some of the participants about, you know what are the strategies to get farmers to adopt climate resilient technologies. But they might want to prefer growing another crop that they can have more returns and use, you know, we use feed, use residues to feed their animals which increase GHG. So, is there anything here about how you get farmers to adopt a bit more. And also how do you get bring gender into this equation how do you get women more involved. What are the incentives for them. Okay, I'll start with the first question. Most of the time when doing the trainings we really try as much as possible to bring in the economies issues. For example, you have to go through together with the farmer, if we select a particular for it that is doing well. We start the yields, the costing right from soil testing until this crop was able to be conserved and ready for feeding, and also look at the returns after feeding. What are the expected returns from the cows, the milk produced from the cow vis-a-vis maybe the other crops that a farmer is intending to grow, especially depending on the particular area where we are. Like, if maybe an area is a tick growing zone, or maybe they grow maize, maybe for consumption, compared to growing maize for feeding cows as fodder or forage. That's what we use and I think it has really worked well. Going to the next question. So, we bring in the involvement of women. You find dairy, especially for the small-scale holders here in Kenya, mostly the activities, main activities are left for women. They're the ones who do the feeding, they're the ones who are doing the milking, they're the ones taking the milk to the market. And if mostly currently when we invite farmers for trainings, we really put emphasis, like we would love to have women, women, women, and really try and explain on the ground why have the women. And though you'll find most men, the land belong to the men and everything, but we try and explain how, because if these women are supported and given support from the men, they also may be given incentive maybe from the milk they sell. At the end of the day, they get motivated to even feed these cows more, and the whole family, at the end of the day, I think it's a win-win situation for everybody. That's what we're using currently. Thanks, Rene. Just really quickly, just one more question to you, because it just came up, you know, and what standards are being used in regards to nutrient-propile of the feed? And how, well, how do you measure forage quality and what standards are being used with regard to the nutrient-profile of feed? Could you answer that one quickly? Sorry, just repeat it again. It's more on kind of forage quality. Yes. And how do you measure forage quality and what standards are being used with regard to nutrient-profile of the feed? Okay, the feeds that we established were able to use the crop nut slum to be able to test in terms of nutrient quality, in terms of, especially, we can do with protein quantity, the energy quantity. And when we use the tools to balance, the tool is able to help us, like, before we are able to enter in, maybe, how many cows, maybe the number of cage, maybe, for example, of macylid that account needs. We really need to take into account the weight of the cow. We also need to take into account at what stage of production this cow is at, maybe also the age of the cow. This really helps, and all this information is captured in the tool that helps us to balance the feed. And apart from that, the feed also take into account the cost of producing a cage of each fodder of the forage that we're using. Excellent. Thank you, Remy. So with that, maybe to move over to Humphrey really quickly. The question that came from the chat is, someone was interested in the economics of silage, entrepeneurs, and have you collected any numbers? It seems like it would be very bulky or heavy product to transport. Any thoughts on this? Yes, so the model that we have leverages from Pakistan, who have been very successful in dealing with smaller farmers. So one of the easiest ways to work with hubs and spokes or a commercial farmer or lease, for example, are very cooperative, which has so many small scale farmers, and producing at scale reduces the cost per unit. And therefore, once the cost per unit is reduced, transportation is not a big challenge. For example, in Kenya, we have seen bailed consignment being transported from the Rift Valley to the central part, and the landing cost is fairly reasonable. Excellent. Just kind of thinking about some of the work that you've been doing in Corteva's kind of portfolio in East Africa. How do you see, you know, the work that you're doing in Kenya, applying to any other, you know, other countries in the region, anything that you could kind of adapt to other countries in the region and any lessons that you have? There is some of the regulatory barriers around the registration of forages. That's a big, big challenge. And we've had to engage KEFIS, which is the Kenya plant health spectrum regulations here, to guide them in terms of protocols that are used for registration of either for our forages. And I'll give an example of KON. They didn't have a protocol. We had to leverage some of the protocols from other countries, test for at least two years. And as we speak now, I think we have the first registration protocol for consignment. So that potentially can be an opportunity for other countries. Secondly is the business models, working around small scale farmers that have very limited land. The economics of producing in very little land consistently is a challenge. So working with commercial enterprises that are able to produce these at scale and selling at an affordable price to farmers makes sense rather than just farmers trying to produce in their own small ways. So those are maybe two quick lessons, Michael. Great. That's excellent. And they're, you know, Alan Duncan is mentioning something in the chat. He'd like to get those case studies from you. So you could either send that to us and we'll send it on to him. But, you know, again, good exchange here and a lot of it's good to see a lot of this exchange happening. We're running out of time, but I'd like to ask and this is such an interesting area. And if others have any comments to I'd be happy to hear from them if they want to jump in. But you know this is such an interesting area and forages feeds and forages I mean have been worked on for 2030 years and they seem to be coming to the four. But what's the tipping point you know how do we how do we get policy development and what are some of the policy and institutional incentives that can really have this scale up we've heard about the promise of you know feeds and forages for years and years. How do we really support that through policies and institutions. Any thoughts. Well, I think Humphrey already pointed to an important one so it is a streamlining of registration and certification and, and making sure there is access to good fees for planting material. And I think also there is probably really space for a closer interaction between the policy and the researcher so that there is, there is true evidence based investment because in the end it boils down to investment and it can be as we as I said somewhere in the in the end the forage demand is driven by more vibrant livestock demand is the daily market for it has to make economic sense for the farmers so I think that is what is driving it currently definitely in Kenya so there needs to be investment in terms of access to market access to finances and then of course also really. I still believe that forages is quite knowledge intensive so there is also a continued need to to provide knowledge to gather compile knowledge, investing in, in, in extension, and make sure that farmers are well equipped, not only financially but also in terms of knowledge of these, these technologies. Okay, great. Thank you very much. I think with that unfortunately we're going to have to end this was a great conversation there was a lot of interesting discussions in the chat as well. But I'd like to hand it off to Dr sabonsi moya who's the deputy director general for research and development at Ilri, particularly for livestock genetics and feeds and forages here so bunny will close us off. Please over to you bunny. Thank you so much Michael and good afternoon, good morning, everyone from wherever you're connecting from. I'm aware that we are on the hour, but I really would like to give special thanks to you all for participating today. And special thanks to our panelists, you could see from the, you know, engagement in the chat that this is an interesting topic. So we thank you all for your contributions and presentation today. In the last one hour we were reminded about the impact of climate change to agriculture, and that animal nutrition can make a difference, and that it is a key factor in improving productivity. We also had about examples from the field, and how we working closely with many partners in the dairy sector in East Africa, which was the focus. And I just wish to highlight why list we are on the hour just a few points that we could take home. This webinar highlighted the partnership that Ilri and Land Olex venture 37 together with partners in East Africa has been working on the now reaching prosperity alliance. So this was useful to you all as it demonstrated that the solutions must be inclusive. We work with all inclusive partners from producers, private sector research institutions, governments and funders. The second point I wanted to bring is that access to nutrient dense climate adaptive forages enables a lower cost of production, it increases resilience of producers and also increases the quantity and quality of livestock derived foods. Improve forages also offer opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, while boosting nutrition security and livelihoods of the communities in a changing climate. I also want to highlight lastly that environmental sustainable and also profitable livestock farming is a powerful option for helping a significant portion of the world's most vulnerable communities. Find a way to better help and a better life. Coming from the research organization, I will not close by, I would like to introduce to you my singular center, my singular is this Swahili word for environment. This is a unique state of the art facility here in Ilri based in Nairobi, Kenya. The center together with many other partners undertakes research on measurement of the impact of livestock on the environment, including for direct measurement of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock. This is key in order to deliver improved agricultural pathways that reduce environmental footprint of small holder systems. Please visit our website to hear more or know more about a Masingira center. As we close today, I wish to take this opportunity to thank venture 37 and all other partners who have worked with us in this field. We want to especially express our appreciation to our funders who have supported this work, and special thanks to the organizers from the ill reside led by Michael Victor who is here, and also from the venture 37 team led by Madi and die having and again, then great thanks to you all. I hope that this was a beneficial time for you. We've already picked up ideas for our next webinar. So see you then. So thanks and over to you Michael. Thank you. Thank you buddy and again, this was a really interesting one I love seeing a lot of the conversations going on. And I'd like to thank Madi Madi from venture 37 as well for really driving a lot of this forward over the last eight months it's been a great partnership and we are looking forward to continuing it as well. Yeah, just really quickly two minutes if you are one minute if you have any ideas or good suggestions for webinars next year for this, you know, venture 37 and ill read kind of webinar series focused on you know the benefits of livestock to development and really looking at it from the on the ground perspective just put them in the chat right now spend 20 seconds and any topics issues that you think we should tackle. It would be great to get your inputs in and we'll probably send out a evaluation as well so we can get some inputs from there but any any comments or thoughts you have do please put in the chat, and we'll take them up in the new year. So with that, I would like to thank everybody for joining. And, and again, we hope to see all of you in the new year when we have new topics and new issues to tackle. Thank you very much.