Beef consumption in Indonesia is rising, in part due to the adoption of more western-style diets. The demand for beef cattle has thus been increasing strongly in Indonesia. This provides a potential opportunity for smallholder farmers who are the main producers of Bali cattle in Indonesia to improve their economic welfare. However, figures indicate that Bali cattle numbers have actually been declining across most regions of Indonesia over the past decade, leading to a supply deficit that is largely being serviced by imports of beef and live cattle from Australia. There is an opportunity to develop and implement strategies at the smallholder level to increase the number and quality of Bali cattle.
Earlier ACIAR research built an integrated crop-livestock systems model, based on conditions in eastern Indonesia, and also developed improved herd management practices. This project sought to apply the earlier technologies to help increase production, focusing on three factors: forage supply and quality; effective herd management; and a better understanding of the trade-offs necessary to increase production.
The major objective was to develop, test and apply tools, information and knowledge-sharing techniques appropriate for use at both farmer and extension levels, in order to evaluate the impacts of management interventions into tropical rainfed crop-livestock systems. A second objective was to communicate the outputs of the project to smallholder farmers in the immediate vicinity of the case study sites and more broadly across eastern Indonesia, but also to other providers of research and extension services.
The research team first undertook desktop studies to develop and test crop-forage-livestock options in partnership with groups of local farmers in a range of case study settings (Sulawesi, Lombok, Sumbawa). This was done to identify `best-bet' options to profitably increase livestock production on smallholder farms. The team then initiated on-farm trials of the identified best-bet options over a range of regional sites to test their technical efficacy under realistic field conditions
The impact of the trials was monitored in terms of improving household welfare, conserving the natural resource base and the extent of their social acceptance within existing smallholder practices. The team refined the existing simulation models to more closely mimic growth and yield performance of rainfed crops, multi-purpose fodder trees, forages and livestock production, and the consequences for household welfare for a wide range of smallholder settings in eastern Indonesia.
The on-farm trial sites became ongoing extension platforms, and along with conventional extension methods for farmer demonstrations they raised awareness and promoted acceptance of the farming systems approach to management and displayed the risks and benefits of the best-bet options identified in partnership with the collaborating farmers.
The team also promoted the expansion of local capacity to undertake farming systems research and extension activities by supporting the establishment of the 'Centre for Simulation and Modelling in Agricultural Systems' within the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at Hassanuddin University.
This project explored the merits of an approach for improving livestock production that combines the principles and tools of farming systems analysis and farmer participation. The process began with an extensive benchmarking process to understand and quantify how the current system functions and the constraints to livestock production. Potential strategies for addressing these constraints were identified and their economic, social and environmental viability assessed using a customised whole farm model. These simulated results were then 'workshopped' with farmers to come up with a shortlist of feasible, best-bet strategies for subsequent on-farm trialling. The on-farm trials thus became an important extension platform for subsequent extension and communication to other farmers within and beyond the target village.
This project identified a range of factors constraining livestock production in the smallholder farming systems of eastern Indonesia including: availability and quality of forages, especially during the dry season; poor knowledge and/or capacity to implement optimum feed management practices; limited supplies of readily accessible stock water; bull availability; inadequate cattle housing; labour availability; extended and sub-optimal breeding cycles; diseases; marketing constraints and limited access of smallholders to the formal credit sector for acquiring cattle and livestock handling materials. Most of the technologies needed to address these constraints have already been developed in Indonesia or elsewhere, but have yet to be adopted by local farmers.
The feedback from farmers and the results from monitoring the on-farm trials indicate that the participatory, farming systems approach was successful. There is a range of evidence to support this including: quantifiable gains in forage and livestock production, labour savings and gains in household income; the intention of most farmers to continue successful strategies; and evidence of significant adoption/adaption of the livestock improvement technologies by other (non-project) farmers.
The pathways to adoption of livestock improvement strategies varied with the region and the technology concerned. Strategies requiring more skill and knowledge to implement, and for which the implications are more complex and less predictable (e.g. changing feed availability or breeding cycle) required greater input from the project team and benefited most from the modelling analysis.
At two of the focus sites, the involvement of village 'champions' was imperative in fostering uptake. Typically, an incremental approach was taken to the rollout of best-bet strategies. The initial focus was to address forage supply and quality constraints through modest plantings of selected forages. The confidence and trust arising from successful adoption of these comparatively simple technologies was then used as an entry point for more complex animal management strategies which require long-term planning and investment.
The Integrated Analysis Tool (IAT) was found to be exceptionally useful in a number of ways:
as a communication tool to inform/underpin the dialogue between the project team and the farmers
enabling rapid analysis of the financial, resource and production impacts of livestock improvement strategies and their sensitivity to key climate, soil, management and farm design variables
screening out less desirable strategies and identifying a shortlist of best-bet options for subsequent on-farm testing, thus ensuring a more efficient and targeted use of limited project resources
providing a degree of confidence to both project staff and farmers that the strategies to be tested on-farm are likely to have a beneficial effect
providing for some farmers the motivation to consider the potential impacts of proposed livestock improvement strategies.
The apparent success of the approaches developed and tested in this project provides support for wider adoption in other regions of Indonesia.
Links:
[1] http://www.aciar.gov.au/country/Indonesia
[2] http://www.aciar.gov.au/programarea/Livestock Production Systems