During the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme Livestock Policy Group Meeting on 1 December 2009, Olaf Erenstein (CIMMYT) presented the results of work in India.
View his presentation:
December 3, 2009
Conservation agriculture, livestock and livelihood strategies in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia
Posted by brugerard under Conservation Agriculture, LPG | Tags: CIMMYT, ILRI, India, LPG2009, South Asia, tradeoffs |Leave a Comment
December 2, 2009
Improving the value of maize as a livestock feed in East Africa
Posted by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) under Animal Feeding, Crop Residues, Crop-Livestock, LPG | Tags: CIMMYT, East Africa, LPG2009, Maize, tradeoffs |Leave a Comment
On 1 December 2009, Dennis Friesen (CIMMYT) presented CIMMYT work on maize as a livestock feed to the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme Livestock Policy Group Meeting.
The starting point of the research was the recognition that maize stover (residues) is important as livestock feed in Eastern Africa, however, stover traits are not an important priority in maize breeding. The project sought to:
- understand the influence of livestock related factors on farmers choice of maize cultivars.
- identify superior dual-purpose maize cultivars from existing maize germplasm for diverse agro-ecological zones.
- define opportunities and strategies for further genetic enhancement towards dual-purpose maize.
- develop new tools for quick and economical on-field assessments of stover fodder value in crop improvement work.
- propose additional selection criteria for variety releasing agents that take into consideration stover quality
As conclusions, he presented 4 ‘principles’:
- Current release criteria with focus on grain remain important
- Stover traits are additional criteria not substituting criteria
- Go for win-win situations
- Facilitate optimization of whole plant utilization (also beyond fodder)
See his presentation:
December 1, 2009
From ‘no-win’ to ‘win-win’ – managing the tradeoffs between forages as feeds or for soil improvement
Posted by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) under Animal Feeding, Crop Residues, Crop-Livestock, LPG | Tags: Central America, CIAT, LPG2009, tradeoffs |Leave a Comment
Speaking at the December 2009 SLP meeting in Addis Ababa, Michael Peters (CIAT), introduced a project in Nicaragua to study tradeoffs between using specific forage plants either as feeds for animals or for soil improvement and soil fertility maintenance.
The project explores three issues: feed for cows, soil fertility, and longer term sustainability. The aim of the research is for the farmer to go from a “no-win to a win-win situation.”
Peters emphasizes that the farmers themselves are aware of the tradeoffs and will sometimes aim for a production effect (for cattle), and at other times for an environmental effect (on their soils).
One interesting dimension is that “we as researchers have to caution sometimes the farmers not to be too enthusiastic” about the new technology they co-created…
See the presentation:
December 1, 2009
Tradeoffs between uses of crop residues a focus for SLP policy discussions
Posted by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) under Crop Residues, Crop-Livestock, LPG, Meetings, News | Tags: LPG2009, tradeoffs |Leave a Comment
Bruno Gerard, Coordinator of the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme (SLP) introduces the SLP and a major topic of discussion at the December 2009 meeting of its Livestock Programme Group: Researching tradeoffs between the uses of residues for livestock and for soil improvement.
The meeting is “very much on pressure on biomass use in systems.” It looks especially at tradeoffs in the use of crop residues – they can be used to feed livestock, or to sustain soils and prevent erosion. It concerns choices in investment between the immediate return of using residues to feed livestock and longer term sustainability returns.
November 26, 2009
Open door session of the LPG meeting 1st Dec 09
Posted by brugerard under Crop Residues, Crop-Livestock, LPG, Meetings, News | Tags: LPG, LPG2009, tradeoffs |[2] Comments
Venue: ILRI-Addis Info Center
| 11:00 | Improving Water Productivity of Crop-Livestock Systems of Sub-Saharan Africa [presentation] | T. Amede |
| 11:30 | Improving the value of maize as livestock feed to enhance the livelihoods of maize-livestock farmers in East Africa [presentation] | D. Friesen |
| 12:00 | Lessons learnt from feed innovation approaches. Experiences from IFAD/FAP and DFID/FIP projects [presentation] | A.Duncan and R. Puskur |
| 12:30 | Realizing the benefits of cover crop legumes in smallholder crop-livestock systems of the hillsides of Central America: Trade-off analysis of using legumes for soil enhancing or as animal feed resource [presentation] |
M. Peters |
| 13:00 | Lunch | |
| 14:00 | Conservation agriculture, livestock and livelihood strategies in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia: Synergies and tradeoffs [presentation] | O. Erenstein |
| 14:30 | Balancing Livestock Needs and Soil Conservation: Assessment of Opportunities in Intensifying Cereal-Legume-Livestock Systems in West Africa [presentation] | T. Abdoulaye |
| 15:00 | Modeling approaches to address crop-residue tradeoffs in mixed crop-livestock systems [presentation] | M. van Wijk, M. Rufino and L. Claessens |
| 15:30 | Coffee Break | |
| 16:00 | Harmonization of the regional case studies and research plans, gaps and needs for enlarging partnerships and synergies | O. Erenstein, S. Homann, T. Abdoulaye, T. Amede, B. Gérard |
| 16:45 | Discussions | |
| 17:30 | End of Day 1 |
November 25, 2009
Heated debate on conservation agriculture
Posted by brugerard under Conservation Agriculture, NewsLeave a Comment
Peter Hobbs has consolidated the responses to Giller et al. paper that took place on the FAO Conservation Agriculture Community of Practice forum, and has placed the Blog at: http://conservationag.wordpress.com/ken-gillers-paper-on-conservation-agriculture/
Giller et al. review article ‘Conservation agriculture and smallholder farming in Africa: The heretics’ view’ published in 2009 in Field Crops Research is certainly worth reading
November 25, 2009
Meeting to finalize HH and village surveys on CR tradeoff
Posted by brugerard under NewsLeave a Comment
The lead principal investigators (Sabine Homann ICRISAT, Tahirou Abdoulaye from IITA, Olaf Erenstein from CIMMYT and Talihun Amede from ILRI/IWMI) of the SLP project ‘Optimizing livelihood and environmental benefits from crop residues in smallholder crop-livestock systems in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia: regional case studies’ are meetingin Addis on 2-3 December to finalize the village and household survey design and interact with Lieven Claessens (CIP) and Mark van Wijk (Wageningen University) to discuss the modeling component of the project. All will attend the first day of the LPG meeting on 1 December as resource persons.
November 25, 2009
Livestock Programme Group Meeting in Addis 1-2 December
Posted by brugerard under LPG, Meetings, News | Tags: LPG2009, tradeoffs |Leave a Comment
The steering committee of the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme, called the Livestock Programme Group, will hold its annual meeting in Addis Ababa on 1 and 2 December. See the Program for 1 December.
November 24, 2009
Welcome to SLP
Posted by brugerard under News | Tags: Communication, News, SLP, Website |Leave a Comment
SLP is starting to migrate its website to WordPress to gain in dynamics. SLP old site will be accessible during the transition period at www.vslp.org
Systemwide Livestock Programme 