The availability of improved forage is fundamental to increase Ethiopia's livestock productivity and meet the public meat and milk consumption, experts said.

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Forage Gene Bank on Wednesday marked its 40th anniversary and International Day for Biodiversity with the presence of senior officials and researchers at the premises of ILRI Addis Ababa Campus.

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Feed and Forage Development Interim Gene bank Manager Alemayehu Teressa (PhD) told The Ethiopian Herald that the availability of improved forage is fundamental to generate more from the livestock sector.

As to him, there are three major factors that contribute to improve the livestock productivity; having the best livestock breed itself, ensuring the health of the livestock, and finally availing improved feed to the livestock is important.

ILRI has been conserving, distributing, and conducting successive researches on forage aspiring to diversify the country's feed resources and help the livestock productivity at the household farmer's level, he added.

"However, still there are limitations to fully satisfy the need of the country's livestock population regarding of supplying variety and enough feed. Thus, further efforts and collaborations among pertinent organizations needed to solve the current livestock productivity challenges."

Moreover, with over 18,000 accessions, the ILRI Gene bank conserves more than 1,800 forage species in the past 40 years.

Envisaging the impact of climate change, population growth, change in land use, among others, ILRI Gene Bank started to manage and conserve the country's forage resources before 40 years, he noted.

On his part, Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fishery Development Advisor to the State Minister Yohannes Girma said that Ethiopia is ready to commercialize livestock feed through designing a national forage strategy.

The supply of improved forage will have significant contributions to enhance the livestock sector, he said.

Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute Forest and Range Land Plants Biodiversity and Research Lead Executive Abera Seyoum said that the institute is working on conserving, collecting, and distributing the country's biodiversity resources including forage.