Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar

From 21% to 73% of the farmers grew lowland rice on plots from 0.6 ha to 3
ha in size. More than half the farmers had land under forest/fallow.
Habana was the most forested (11 ha/farm) (Table 2).
Animal health problems were ectoparasites such as ticks and “nuche”,
a skin burrowing maggot) and diseases such as mastitis and stomatitis.
Treatments consisted in farmers administering prophylactic drugs.
Weed control was the pasture management problem that demanded
most labor. Farmers in flatter areas suffered from soil compaction caused
by pasture trampling in the wet season. Although paddocks were regularly
rotated, some farmers rented additional pastureland during the rainy season
to decrease pasture degradation. Additional pastureland was seldom leased
during the dry season (Table 3).
Table 3. Frequent problems in the Alto Maya region of Peru and percentage
of farmers identifying these problems.
Problem
Livestock pests and diseases
Weeds
Compaction of pastures
Crop pests and diseases
Lack of land
Non-agricultural aspects/
others a
Nuevo
Cajamarca
94
44
22
56
23
78
111
Site
Soritor Habana Rioja
95
55
18
23
9
33
a. Low prices paid for products, land tenure, and poor water quality.
640
18
55
36
18
27
100
18
9
45
36
63
Farmers interviewed were consistent in terms of what they wanted to
achieve in the future. Around half wanted to increase their areas sown to
pastures, and an equal number of farmers wanted to increase and/or
improve their herds. Only a few mentioned plans to decrease herd size, but
planned to improve herd quality by introducing improved breeds and
selection. In Nuevo Cajamarca, 50% of farmers wanted to improve their
feeding/milking sheds. From 33% to 66% of farmers wanted to improve their
pastures by establishing B. brizantha and other new forage species,
including legumes (Table 4).