Tropical
Forages for More Intensive Livestock Production: An Introduction
 Livestock
are vitally important for many of Asia's poorest rural communities.
Small- and medium-sized animals in particular provide significant
sources of food and cash. Medium-sized and large animals also
form a central part of the social safety net, since they can
be sold to meet major household needs or in case other components
of the farming system fail.
As farmers expand livestock production, they quickly discover
the limits of naturally occurring forages and recognize the
need for better feed resources. As a first step toward meeting
this need, CIAT staff evaluated a wide range of tropical grasses
and legumes for diverse agroecosystems and uses. They selected
about 40 broadly adapted forages from an original collection
that included 400 accessions of numerous species.
Using participatory methods with farmer groups, CIAT scientists
began identifying multiple uses for forages in upland farming
systems and developing practices for improved forage management.
Through strong partnerships with national institutions and
ambitious training programs, national teams have been formed
that are skilled in participatory methods and in exchanging
information about their experiences in forage technology development.
Thousands of farm families in six countries have adopted
new forages and management systems, and the number is increasing
rapidly each year. According to a recent study, new forage
technologies have significantly boosted livestock production
and incomes, and reduced labor inputs, since farmers, especially
women and children, spend less time tending to animals and
collecting native vegetation for feed.
CIAT's collaborative work on tropical forages in Asia is
funded by the Australian Agency for International Development
(AusAID)
and the Asian Development Bank (ADB),
with supporting research funded by the Australian Centre for
International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
Livelihood
and Livestock Systems Project (LLSP)
 Building
on the results of the Forages for Smallholders Project (1995-2002)
the LLSP has brought research of forage systems from the laboratory
to the farmers' field. Farmers in Indonesia, southern China,
Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam have
helped selecting improved forage species from more than 500
accessions; they are now cultivating more than 40 different
improved legume and grass varieties in their farms. They are
growing forages in many innovative ways including intensively
managed cut and carry plots, contour barriers, pastures, and
cover crops. Thanks to participatory research approach right
from the start, farmers have been able to adapt forage systems
according to their own needs, resulting in sustainable improvement
of their farming system. Some methods that have proved useful
are participatory diagnosis and planning, collegial testing
of species, participatory monitoring and evaluation, and facilitated
farmer cross visits. Each country has one or more focus sites.
The
Problem
 Farmers
in the upland sytems of Southeast Asia are among the poorest
of the population, and are often marginalised. Livestock is
an important source of livelihood, but poor feed quality and
dry season feed shortages are a serious limitation for livestock
production. Farmers have to spend many hours a day to collect
fodder from natural vegetation.
Some
Research Highlights
LLSP
is funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB)
from 2003-2005 and coordinated by CIAT. It is implemented
through national partners in Cambodia, southern China, Indonesia,
Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
The LLSP is also coordinating the Southeast Asia Feed Resources
Research and Development Network (SEAFRAD), which facilitates
exchange of information among people and institutions with
a common interest: research and development related to animal
feed resources in Southeast Asia. One of the products of the
network is a biannual newsletter, first published in October
1995. Editorship of the newsletter rotates, adding a new local
flavour each year. Issues so far have been edited and produced
by the Philippines, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and
Thailand.
CIAT
Contacts
Werner
Stür
Forage
Agronomist and Project Coordinator
22 Seventh Avenue
Windsor QLD 4030
Australia
Tel: +61 (7) 3315 6311
Fax: +61 (7) 3357 5711
E-mail: w.stur@cgiar.org
Jindra Samson
Environmental Economist
c/o IRRI, Domestic Airport Office
P.O Box 7777, Metro Manila
Philippines
Tel: +63 (2) 845 0563, 812 7686 ext. 2712
Fax: +63 (2) 891 1292, 845 0606
Email: j.samson@cgiar.org
Francisco
Gabunada Jr.
CIAT Regional Research Fellow
Farm and Resource Management Institute
Leyte State University
Visca, Baybay, Leyte
6521-A
Philippines
E-mail: f.gabunada@cgiar.org
Phonepaseuth Phengsavanh
CIAT Regional Research Fellow
P.O. Box 6766
Vientiane, Lao PDR
Phone: +856 (21) 222796 / 7
E-mail: p.phengsavanh@cgiar.org
National
Partner Organisations
Chinese
Academy of Tropical and Agricultural Sciences (CATAS)
Contact: Yi Kexian
Tropical Forages Division
Tropical Field Crops and Animal Husbandry Institute
571737 Danzhou, Hainan
P.R. China
Fax: +86 (890) 330-0157/0440
E-mail: yikexian@21cn.com
Department
of Livestock Development (Thailand)
Contact: Chaisang Phaikaew
Division of Animal Nutrition
Phya Thai Road
Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Phone: +66 (2) 251 1941
Fax: +66 (2) 250 1314
E-mail: fspthai@ksc.th.com
Dinas
Peternakan (Indonesia)
Contact: Ibrahim and Yakob Pangendongan
Jalan Bhayangkara No. 54,
Samarinda, East Kalimantan 75121
Indonesia
Phone: +62 (541) 743921/741642
E-mail: ibrahimfsp@smd.mega.net.id
National
Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (LAO PDR)
Contact: Bounthavone Kounnavongsa
PO Box 811
Vientiane
LAO PDR
Phone: +856 (21) 222 796 / 7
Fax: +856 (21) 222 797
E-mail: p.phengsavanh@cgiar.org
National
Animal Health and Production Investigation Centre (Cambodia)
Contact:
Sorn San
Department of Animal Health and Production
Monivong Blvd. N. 74, Sangkat Wat Phnom
Khan Doun Penh
Cambodia
Phone: +855 (12) 939629
E-mail: san@forum.org.kh
National
Institute of Animal Husbandry (Vietnam)
Contact: Le Hoa Binh
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
Thuy Phoung, Tu Liem
Hanoi, Vietnam
Phone: +84 (4) 8385 022
Fax: +84 (4) 838 9775
E-mail: fspvietnam@hn.vnn.vn
PCARRD
(Philippines)
Contact: Ed Magboo
Livestock Research Division
4030 Los Baños, Laguna, The Philippines
Phone: +63 (49) 536-0020
E-mail: ecmagboo@pcarrd.dost.gov.ph
Forages
and Livestock Systems Project (FLSP)
Livestock
Production in Northern Laos
 Shifting
cultivation is the dominant agricultural system of northern
Laos. In recent times it has become a risky and time-consuming
activity, prompting farmers to opt for diversifying rather
than intensifying their livelihood systems. Increasingly they
are relying on livestock (poultry, pigs, goats, cattle and
buffalo) to ensure their livelihood security. Livestock (i)
provide a high return per unit of labour input (ii) can be
sold at any time when farmers need cash in a market with reliable
demand and prices (iii) provide manure to sustain yields of
rice paddies and homegardens (iv) provide draft power and
(vi) are often the only opportunity for smallholder farmers
to accumulate capital.
Farmers usually identify livestock ownership as the primary
indicator of wealth and factors that effect livestock production
as primary causes of poverty. In a recent evaluation in eighteen
upland communities, most farmers rated disease and feed shortages
as the major constraints in their livestock systems.
The Project's Goals
The FLSP was designed to improve livelihoods in the northern
uplands of Laos by:
- Improving productivity of small and large animal systems.
- Increasing labour efficiency and reducing workloads in
livestock production.
- Enhancing sustainable cropping systems through improvements
in soil fertility management and reductions in soil erosion.
By 2005, the project was working with over 1300 farmers in
more than 100 villages in each of four northern districts.
Some Project Highlights
 When
the project was completed in June 2005, 900 farmers (65% of
the farmers working with the project) were benefiting from
significant impacts and 790 said they were achieving at least
one significant livelihood impact. More than 150 farmers reported
they had been able to reduce or stop shifting cultivation
as a direct result of intensifying their livestock production.
More than 200 farmers reported that intensifying their livestock
production systems has allowed their children to attend school.
More than 670 farmers said that labour savings have allowed
them to start other livelihood activities
The FLSP was seen as a "proof of delivery" project
that could take promising research results and demonstrate
the delivery of significant livelihood impacts on a moderately
large scale. The next challenges are (i) to use these successes
to support geographic expansion of the impacts and (ii) to
foster the emergence of smallholder livestock enterprises.
For farmers in northern Laos to develop these kinds of impacts
required significant systems change. To bring about these
systems changes is not a trivial matter and required the development
of extension approaches that would help farmers make these
systems changes of their own accord, driven by the demonstrated
potential for significant livelihood impacts.
The project has had a significant impact on the goals and
plans of the Lao government. It has demonstrated that market
oriented livestock production can be a practical alternative
to shifting cultivation and provide a means for farmers to
work their way out of poverty. This work is continuing beyond
the completion of the FLSP as the Lao government, with support
from ADB, is planning to invest US$10 million in a new project
to "improve the income and livelihood of about 20,000
farming families by introducing animal health and productivity
enhancement technologies, improving marketing opportunities
and the regulatory environment, and encouraging the development
of private livestock service providers". CIAT and the
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) jointly
managed the design of this project. It will build strongly
on the experiences, technologies, methodologies and lessons
learned in the FLSP.
Key lessons from the FLSP are:
- Market-oriented livestock production systems are a proven
option for poverty alleviation and reduction of shifting
cultivation in the uplands of the Lao PDR
- Technology 'entry points', providing quick solutions to
simple immediate problems, are a powerful (often essential)
tool in extension, especially in complex upland systems.
They build confidence among farmers and encourage them into
further innovation.
- The impact-yielding livestock systems developed by farmers
usually resulted not from resolving immediate problems but
from changing their livestock management to take advantage
of new opportunities.
- Few of the impact-yielding systems can be 'photocopied'
from one place to another. New farmers will always need
to adapt the systems to their own realities
- A managed feed resource is the key mechanism enabling
livestock systems change in the uplands. Relatively small
areas of forages can give relatively large impacts
- There is little likelihood of "magic bullet"
solutions to the problems of animal disease in smallholder
livestock systems in the uplands of the Lao PDR. Integrated
solutions involving better feeding and management combined
with strategic use of veterinary medicines are likely to
be far more effective, achievable and sustainable
- There are simple ways of helping district staff develop
a vision for how extension processes can work and then acquire
the technical skills and extension tools that allow them
to put this vision into practice within the context of smallholder
livestock systems.
The project completion report is available from CIAT on
request.
CIAT
Contacts
Werner Stür
Forage Agronomist
P.O. Box 783
Vientiane
Lao PDR
Phone: + 856 (21) 222796 / 7
E-mail: w.stur@cgiar.org
National Partner Organisations
National Agriculture and Forestry Research
Institute (NAFRI),
Lao PDR
Contact: Viengsavanh Phimphachanhvongsod
P.O. Box 811
Vientiane, Lao PDR
Phone: +856 (21) 222796
Fax: +856 (21) 222797
E-mail: vieng63@laotel.com
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