Planting from vegetative material - cgiar

Before you start . . .
Returning from grazing in communal
grassland in Sepaku, Indonesia. [JH]
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Forages - providing solutions for
smallholder farmers!
Smallholder farmers traditionally have fed their animals on
freely-available forage resources which have no value to
smallholders except as livestock feed. These include crop
residues and natural vegetation such as grasses, herbs and
tree leaves. As livestock numbers and cropping areas have
increased these once abundant feed resources have
become increasingly limited. Consequently, farmers have to
spend more time feeding their animals, either by grazing
them in distant areas or by cutting feed far from their
homes. Many farmers are facing the dilemma of whether to
reduce the number of animals they keep or to find new
feed resources. Supplementing traditional feed resources
with planted forages is a simple solution to this problem.
For most farmers planting forages is a new concept. It is
not like evaluating a new variety of rice. Most farmers in
Southeast Asia have never before considered planting feed
for their animals. When offered new forages, they will
commonly ask: ‘Will these forages grow well on my farm?’
and ‘Will my animals like these forages?’ To answer these
questions farmers usually start by planting forages in small
plots near their houses. Only when they are convinced of
the benefits of forages as livestock feed, will they look for