# Advancements in Sustainable Livestock Feed: Harnessing Drought-Tolerant Crops

## TL;DR

This paper reviews drought-tolerant crops as sustainable livestock feed alternatives in arid regions, highlighting their benefits and challenges.

## Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive review of factors affecting the quality and adoption of drought-tolerant crops as livestock feed.

## Key findings

- Cultivar selection, harvest timing, and processing methods are critical for maximizing nutritional and economic benefits of drought-tolerant crops.
- Sorghum, millet, and cacti are viable alternatives if key challenges are addressed.
- Policy interventions and public-private partnerships are recommended to promote adoption of drought-tolerant feed sources.

## Abstract

Feed shortages in arid and semi-arid regions severely threaten sustainable animal production, as conventional feed crops are highly vulnerable to drought. Current research is increasingly exploring drought-tolerant crops as viable alternative feed sources to ensure supply sustainability, yet a comprehensive review detailing the factors affecting their optimal quality and adoption is lacking. Addressing this gap, this review critically discusses preharvest, postharvest, and processing factors affecting the quality of drought-tolerant animal feed sources, alongside evaluating the current state, limitations, and economic potential of these crops. This review establishes that cultivar selection, optimal harvest time, and processing methods such as drying, ensiling, and grinding are critical to maximizing the nutritional and economic benefits of drought-tolerant crops. A transition to alternative crops, including sorghum, millet, and cacti, is identified as a viable economic strategy provided certain key highlighted challenges are effectively addressed. Finally, the review recommends implementing supportive policy interventions, fostering public–private partnerships, and enhancing research capacity to accelerate the adoption of drought-tolerant feed sources, thereby promoting climate-smart animal production.

Livestock feed shortage is a serious global problem, worsened by climate-change-induced droughts that continue to disrupt its production, consequently threatening food and nutrition security. Drought poses a significant threat to conventionally farmed feed crops, such as maize and soybeans, reducing their availability and negatively impacting the livestock industry. These crops cannot withstand intense drought, creating a need for alternative feed sources with good nutritional value, positive health benefits and livestock performance, as well as cost-reduction potential for farmers. Research continues to explore drought-tolerant crops such as sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), millet (Pennisetum glaucum and Eleusine coracana), cassava (Manihot esculenta), false banana (Ensete ventricosum), and cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) for use as traditional feed substitutes or in hybrid feedstock production to enhance food security, support farmers, and conserve the environment. Unlike the conventional feed crops, these underutilized crops are tolerant under arid conditions, use less water, and possess higher nutritional value, making them important for climate change adaptation and sustainable agricultural systems. Despite the growing recognition of drought-tolerant crops in livestock feed systems, a comprehensive review discussing the advancements and potential of these types of crops as livestock feed is lacking in the literature. Therefore, this review discusses the critical role of selected key drought-tolerant crops as alternative livestock feed, covering the drivers for their use, utilization and processing studies, quality determinants, associated challenges, and sustainable innovation strategies to inform policy making.