Improvement of Livestock Production in Crop-Animal Systems in ...

large areas of forests (3.4 million ha), and only produces 2.0% of national rice production (average yields2.1 t/ha). Rice is irrigated in the valleys, but upland rice is grown at higher elevations in shifting cultivationsystems. In the SR zone, rice yields average 2.6 t/ha and account for only 4.5% of national production. Othercrops of importance include rubber, fruit, tea and coffee. Cashew nut, black pepper, soyabean, peanut,mungbean, cowpea, banana, sugar-cane, cassava and sweet potato are also grown. Other crops such aspineapple and cassava are grown under rubber before the canopy closes. On the grey and red soils in LongAn and Dong Nai provinces, rainfed lowland rice is grown in rotation with peanut, or in association withmaize/mungbean/tobacco, maize/mungbean, or maize/soyabean/tobacco. Other cropping patterns includevegetables–peanut–rice, peanut–peanut–rice, vegetables–rice–rice, peanut–rice–rice and monoculture rice.The MD zone is the most important irrigated rice area in Vietnam. Some 42.7% of national rice productiontakes place in this zone and yields average 3.1 t/ha. Rice-based systems include fruit, pineapple, sugar-cane,jute, kenaf and cassava. Cropping patterns in rainfed areas include rice/sweet potato or maize, soyabean andmungbean.Farming systems in Vietnam are very diverse in terms of cropping patterns and use of animal species(Anon 1996c). Multiple-cropping systems are common, with annual food crops inter-cropped with sugar-caneand perennial tree species. In the peri-urban areas there is less variation, with non-ruminant systems andstall-fed dairy production based on Napier grass predominating. Manure from both ruminants andnon-ruminants is applied to crops and, in the case of the latter, to aquaculture systems.Notwithstanding potential pollution problems in peri-urban systems, the major environmental problemsare associated with shifting cultivation in the uplands. As in other countries in the region where the systemis practised, deforestation, the planting of crops on sloping land, and a shortening of the fallow period haveresulted in erosion and colonisation with I. cylindrica. The government has not had great success inconvincing the ethnic minorities of the need to develop sedentary farming systems. The IAS is conductingresearch on cover crops to reduce erosion in the uplands.Although plantation crops such as rubber, fruit and cashew nuts are increasing in importance, the extentof these perennial tree crop systems is unlikely to attain, in the foreseeable future, the level of significancethey have already achieved in the ASEAN sub-region. Accordingly, rice-based systems and other food cropshave priority in the country, and are the major systems in which crops and animals interact.Animal resourcesThe animal resources include both ruminants (buffaloes, cattle and goats) and non-ruminants (pigs, poultryand ducks). In 1994, there were 3.0 million buffaloes, 3.5 million cattle, 15.6 million pigs, 130 million poultry,and about 400,000 goats (Anon 1996b). Buffaloes are concentrated mainly in the northern mountains andcentral highland areas and are kept for meat and traction. Some 47% of the national cattle herd is found incentral Vietnam where animals are kept for meat and traction. Goats are raised for meat in the north and formilk in the south.The order of species priority is pigs and chicken, cattle, buffaloes, ducks and goats. The emphasis onnon-ruminants is consistent with expanding peri-urban production, as well as the fact that Vietnam isexploring the potential for export of non-ruminant meat to other countries in the region. Dairy production isalso expanding rapidly especially in the peri-urban areas of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. In 1993, forexample, 60% of the national dairy herd of about 8600 animals was found around Ho Chi Minh City, andthis has increased subsequently to about 17,000 head. This reflects the benefits associated with the increasedincome to farmers from dairy cattle production (IAS 1995).Animal production systemsRuminant production is undertaken on state-run farms, on medium-sized private commercial farms and onsmall farms in rural and peri-urban areas. In comparison, pigs and poultry are produced mainly in advancedintensive systems on the larger state farms with high capital inputs and the use of improved technologies.Exceptions to this are the intensive peri-urban systems around the main cities operated by small producers.