Jaɓnde: a multi-platform application for formulating feed rations for dairy cattle in Africa

Optimising dairy cattle feeding in Africa

In Africa, dairy production largely relies on pastoral and agropastoral systems that draw on a wide range of feed resources: natural pastures, crop residues, cultivated forages and concentrates.
Formulating appropriate rations is a major technical and economic challenge : feed is the largest cost item for farmers, and ration design depends in particular on :

• the seasonal and regional availability of feed resources
• tropical climatic conditions
• animal genotypes (zebu, taurine and crossbred animals)
• milk production targets
• farmers’ financial capacity

In this context, manually balancing individual rations, while keeping costs under control and without exceeding animals’ intake capacity, remains complex.
Jaɓnde was developed to address these challenges by providing a practical tool to support technical and economic advisory services, usable directly in the field.

The Jaɓnde solution: a digital tool for formulating rations adapted to African conditions

A decision-support tool for animal feeding advisory services

Jaɓnde enables users to formulate, assess and adjust individual feed rations for dairy females under two main feeding systems :

• Free grazing
• Cut-and-carry

The tool is based on an individual description of each animal (genotype, weight, physiological stage, milk production and mobility), combined with a selection of locally available feed resources on the farm and the milk production target set by the farmer for each cow (L/day/cow). It then calculates :

• the coverage of nutritional requirements for energy, protein and water
• ration cost and economic margin
• methane (CH₄) emissions associated with feeding

A robust tropical feed database

Jaɓnde includes a database of nearly 500 tropical feed resources, including :

• Rangelands
• Fodders
• Feed concentrates

This database makes it possible to tailor rations to African regional contexts, to the actual availability of resources on the farm and to climatic constraints.

Benefits for field stakeholders

For field stakeholders, Jaɓnde provides a set of practical functionalities to plan, adjust and optimise dairy cattle feeding on a day-to-day basis, in line with production targets and farm constraints.

With Jaɓnde, users can:

• Formulate balanced individual rations based on a milk production target
• Assess nutritional requirement coverage and intake capacity saturation
• Monitor feed quantities grazed or distributed feeds (kg as-fed)
• Calculate ration cost, margin over feed cost and CH₄ emissions
• Adjust rations depending on available resources and objectives

A tool designed for African realities

Jaɓnde was specifically designed to address the constraints of African dairy farming systems, taking into account genotype diversity, variability in feed resources and tropical climatic conditions.
This design allows the tool to be used operationally in a wide range of contexts, while ensuring the relevance of the feeding recommendations produced :

• Accounts for genotypes present in Africa (zebu, taurine, crossbred)
• Integrates grazing resources and local practices
• Considers temperature and its impact on nutritional requirements
• Allows manual ration balancing, essential for field advisory work
• Free Android mobile application usable offline
• Offline data collection suited to rural areas
• Web version available

Supporting the optimisation of dairy cattle feeding for multiple stakeholders

Jaɓnde enables livestock technicians and advisers to support farmers in formulating rations aligned with production targets, nutritionally balanced and economically affordable.
By providing objective technical and economic indicators adapted to tropical conditions and locally available feed resources, Jaɓnde is a decision-support tool that can be mobilised close to the field.

Upstream actors in value chains

For producer cooperatives and dairy farmer organisations, first milk buyers (collectors, processors), as well as development organisations employing livestock technicians and agricultural advisers, Jaɓnde provides technical and economic advisory support to help dairy cattle farmers formulate appropriate feed rations.

Livestock technicians and agricultural advisers

Jaɓnde provides livestock technicians and agricultural advisers with a practical decision-support tool that facilitates dialogue with dairy cattle farmers, enabling them to analyse, formulate and adjust individual rations based on animals’ actual needs and production targets.
By accounting for cattle genotypes, feeding systems (free grazing and cut-and-carry), availability of feed resources and climatic constraints, Jaɓnde supports technical recommendations adapted to local contexts and helps co-design rations with farmers using clear, evidence-based indicators.

In particular, the tool facilitates :

• planning feed inputs
• assessing nutritional requirement coverage
• controlling ration costs
• progressively adjusting feeding practices
• supporting trade-offs between technical performance and economic viability
• strengthening the relevance of personalised advisory services

Dairy cattle milk producer

Jaɓnde helps dairy farmers better understand and manage animal feeding, either through advisory support provided by a technician or adviser, or through direct autonomous use on a smartphone.
Recommendations generated with Jaɓnde aim to achieve realistic milk production targets while keeping feed costs under control and taking into account animal characteristics as well as feed resources that are actually available.

Using Jaɓnde promotes :

• a better match between animals’ needs and feed inputs
• reduced unnecessary costs
• improved margins linked to feeding
• more secure dairy production, especially during periods of severe feed constraints

Use and feedback: validating the tool under real conditions

The tool was tested on around one hundred pastoral and agropastoral farms, particularly in Senegal, Burkina Faso and Madagascar, through scientific collaboration projects such as Africa Milk (LeapAgri) and Initiative Agroecology (Alliance CIAT-Bioversity of CGIAR).

This work made it possible to :

• validate the robustness of the calculation models integrated into the tool
• adapt Jaɓnde to the diversity of African dairy farming contexts
• progressively enrich the tropical feed resource database
• confirm the tool’s value as a support for personalised technical and economic advisory services

In some contexts, particularly in Burkina Faso, simulations carried out with Jaɓnde showed :

• milk production targets were achieved in most cases
• feed costs were significantly reduced
• margins linked to feeding improved
• good agreement between planned and actual rations

These results confirm the relevance of Jaɓnde as a decision-support tool that complements field practices and expertise in animal feeding advisory processes.

Accessing the Jaɓnde tool

Jaɓnde is available free of charge as an Android mobile application, to facilitate direct use in the field.
The application can be downloaded at no cost from the Google Play Store and can be used offline, well suited to rural areas and locations with limited connectivity.
A web version of the tool is also available and can be used via an internet browser: https://jabnde.cirad.fr/
Making the application freely available aims to encourage adoption by field stakeholders while ensuring broad and equitable access to Jaɓnde’s core functionalities.

Training and support options

Beyond access to the tool, Jaɓnde can be mobilised within support and capacity-building initiatives, depending on needs and intervention contexts.
These initiatives may be set within a specific framework, depending on expressed needs, planned training activities and how expertise is mobilised.

They may include:

• hands-on support for getting started with the tool
• training sessions on interpreting results
• adaptations or customisation of the tool, where relevant, to meet specific needs