For further information contact: Michael Peters

[The Challenge] [Research Strategy] [Research Activities]
[Targeted Areas] [Beneficiaries]

The Challenge

The Tropical Forages Project (TFP) at CIAT aims to contribute to the improved welfare of small livestock farmers by increasing ruminant production while conserving and enhancing the natural resource base. This goal is to be accomplished by identifying superior gene pools of tropical grasses and legumes, both herbaceous and woody. These pools would be found by characterizing the genetic diversity of plant attributes that contribute to livestock and agricultural production and to the protection of subhumid and humid environments.

Research Strategy

To accomplish its goal and the main objective, the Forage Project relies on CIAT's forage germplasm collection [housed in the Genetic Resources Unit (GRU)], which, with more than 20,000 accessions, is the largest forage germplasm collection in the CGIAR and on collaborative research with a range of public and private sector partnerships. From past multilocational evaluation through networking (RIEPT), a number of key genera of grasses (Brachiaria, Paspalum, Panicum) and legumes (Arachis, Stylosanthes, Desmodium, Cratylia) with high potential for animal feed and natural resource conservation have been identified. Within the key species in these genera, elite germplasm accessions are identified and characterized in the target area to develop cultivars with high feed quality and broad adaptation to biotic and abiotic stress factors. The improved genotypes are tested with partners in production systems using farmer participatory methods and NARS and private seed companies in the region release those selected cultivars.

It follows, that our main strategy is to exploit genetic diversity from collections of natural germplasm of selected key forage species based on strict prioritization of potential impact. Artificial hybridization to create novel genetic combinations is used in cases where clear constraints have been identified and where evaluation of large germplasm collections has failed to identify the required character combinations (e.g. spittlebug resistance and edaphic adaptation in Brachiaria or anthracnose resistance and seed yield in Stylosanthes).

Research Activities

To implement the R&D strategy a multidisciplinary team together with partners carries out the following main activities:

1. Define quality and antiquality factors in grasses and legumes to develop better screening procedures and identify nutritional synergism among species.
2. Define mechanisms of adaptation of grasses and legumes to low fertility soils and drought to develop better screening protocols, e.g., for resistance to spittlebug and tolerance to edaphic and climatic constraints.
3. Improve grasses and legumes with well-defined constraints of economical importance through selection in core collections and through artificial hybridization.
4. Evaluate selected grasses and legumes for multipurpose use in smallholder livestock/ cropping systems.
5. Link forage and socio economic databases to GIS to facilitate targeting of germplasm to different agro-ecosystems.
6. Create partnerships with other CIAT Projects and with NARS, NGO's, and private sector organizations to deliver superior grasses and legumes to farmers.
   

Targeted Areas

Tropical grasses and legumes being developed at CIAT are targeted to three main agroecological zones in the tropics: savannas, forest margins, and hillsides. These agroecosystems are characterized by low fertility soils and variable rainfall, ranging from sub-humid (600-1500 mm/year rainfall and 4-8 months dry season) to humid (2,000 to 4,500 mm/year rainfall and limited or no dry season stress) areas.

Savannas

Traditional land use in some savannas regions of Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil is characterized by extensive cow-calf operations with low management input and almost no purchased inputs, with corresponding low productivity. However, the area planted to improved grass pasture has expanded but the proportion of degraded pastures has also increased alarmingly. Intensive tillage for annual crop production has also resulted in soil degradation leading to severe compaction in the profile and increased runoff and erosion.

Forest Margins

Variable topography and drainage and high weed potential generally characterize the forest margins in Central America, the Amazon, Africa, and SE Asia. Many regions are far removed from markets and suffer from lack of infrastructure. Land is used predominantly for subsistence agriculture following slash and burn of the forest by smallholders and for dual-purpose cattle in cut and carry systems or in grass-based pastures in different stages of degradation.

Hillsides

Many soils that support crop and livestock systems managed by smallholders in subhumid areas of Central America, the Andean zone, Africa, and SE Asia are in different stages of degradation, which leads to deforestation. In addition, farmers in these regions have shortage of labor to collect feed from forests or wastelands and as a consequence livestock intensification is severely limited.

Common Constraint

It follows, that a common constraint across the three agroecosystems being targeted by CIAT's Forage Team is low quantity and quality of forage biomass available to feed livestock in pasture or cut and carry systems and as a result animal production is low and environmental degradation is high. Thus improved forage options can improve livelihoods of smallholders while contributing to reduce deforestation and restore degraded lands in the tropics.

Beneficiaries

Large, medium, and small livestock producers are capturing the benefits of the improved grasses and legumes being developed by CIAT. Increasing incomes and urbanization in developing countries is creating a higher demand for livestock products (meat, eggs, and dairy products) than staple crops. Because the poor derive a greater proportion of their income from livestock than do the wealthy, and because of the huge expected growth in demand for livestock products, the livestock revolution could become a key means of alleviating poverty in the next 20 years. To make this a reality, livestock production in developing countries will need to double by 2020 and to meet this goal improved forage-based feeding systems need to be developed and adopted by farmers.