Interpretive Summary: Harnessing African forage biodiversity through a hub-and-spoke model for sustainable livestock transformation

By: Tersur Theophilus Akpensuen, Joshua Taiwo Amodu, Roger Joshua Tanko, Peter Aniwe Dele, Leilson Rocha Bezerra, Alexandre Fernandes Perazzo

Implications

• Native forage biodiversity could strengthen sustainable livestock systems by improving nutrition, productivity, soil health, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions under climate variability.
• Diversified grass–legume–fodder tree systems boost resilience, stabilise feed supply, and enhance milk and meat production across different agro-ecological zones.
• Scalable innovation models (e.g., hub-and-spoke approaches) could translate research into practice through continuous collaboration between farmers, researchers, and extension services.
• Key barriers such as weak seed systems, limited extension support, and lack of climate finance must be addressed, alongside integrating forage strategies into national policies to unlock their full potential.

Introduction

Livestock are crucial lifelines for millions of African farmers and pastoralists, providing food, income, manure, draft power and cultural value (Ibeagha-Awemu et al., 2026). In many communities, cattle, sheep and goats act as a “last-resort insurance” in drought years (Younas and Yaqoob, 2005; Kanwal et al., 2020). However, African livestock systems face mounting pressures. Demand for meat and milk is surging with urban population growth (Latino et al., 2020) even as grasslands degrade, and climates become more erratic. Feed shortages during prolonged dry seasons and nutrient-poor grasses limit animal productivity (Lamega et al., 2021; Balehegn et al., 2022; Cooke et al., 2025). These challenges call for innovative solutions grounded in Africa’s own natural resources. One promising avenue is to harness native African forage biodiversity (grasses, legumes, and fodder trees adapted to local conditions) to improve feed quality, soil fertility and climate resilience. Many perennial grasses have unique plant morpho-ecological attributes for land restoration (Mganga et al., 2021). Despite their central role, African livestock systems are constrained by chronic feed shortages, land degradation, and increasing climate variability, which together limit productivity and resilience. The question is how to effectively scale up the use of these superior forages across the continent. Therefore, optimizing grass-based restoration outcomes requires the targeted selection of grass species according to their species-specific functional traits.

Read the full article in Animal Frontiers.