Research Results - (PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

ment required a changed attitude on the part of
the research personnel and their understanding
of farmers welfare objectives as well as their
available resources. Information was obtained
monthly on animal selling age, body weight
when sold, the price, and marketing channels.
Generally, farmers did not sell their
animals at the optimum age but later, usually to
take advantage of the higher selling price during
the Islamic holiday season. Marketing was done
either directly or through a village middleman
with only a third sold directly by the farmers.
Reasons for this was time lost to other production
activities.
The objectives of a village small ruminant
production scheme were to introduce
selected farmers to productions with different
levels of returns, to obtain monthly income, and
to use breeding, management, health, feeding,
and marketing procedures for a complete
commercial operation. The objective was also to
test intensive production schemes in terms of
profitability, feasibility, and social acceptability,
The ultimate goal is to provide technology
packages based on proven production practices.
Research Results
Objectives
The economics subprogram of the SR-
CRSP has focused on the constraints to increased
productivity and production on the
smallholder sheep and goat farmers in Indonesia,
particularly in West Java and North
Sumatra. The need to work together with these
resource-poor farmers has been recognized due
to the potential contribution that they can have
toward increasing the animal protein supply in
Indonesia. These smallholder farmers can also
concurrently make a contribution to agricultural
development and improvements in farm family
welfare by raising sheep and goats. An on-farm
research (OFAR) model was selected very early
in the implementation phase of the SR-CRSP to
place strong emphasis on a farmer-oriented
approach. The basis of the OFAR approach has
144
been through farmer participation and collaboration
in the research process by talking with the
farmers about their needs, problems, and reactions
to suggested animal husbandry technologies.
This collaborative approach has remained
the focal point for the ongoing SR-CRSP
economics subprogram's on-farm, technologytesting
trials. These activities have focused on
the technical and socioeconomic feasibility of
fhe suggested production technologies and
marketing strategies discussed with the
smallholder farmers through the Outreach Pilot
Project (OPP). The OPP has evolved over the
past two and a half years to include a continuous
exchange of information between the small
ruminant farmers and the researchers, who are
viewed as partners in the research process.
There has been an emphasis on using the farmers'
participation and adoption of the suggested
technologies as a means to monitor and evaluate
the production technologies and marketing
strategies discussed and to determine areas
where more research efforts were still required.
Through the OPP's monthly on-farm visits by
the researchers and the bimonthly discussion
sessions, problem identification and assessment
become a continual process.
Project Progress and Achievements
The acceptance of the animal production
technologies and marketing strategies, presented
to the OPP farmers for testing, were
monitored monthly by the various discipline
scientists involved in the on-farm technology
testing program (nutrition, breeding, economics,
health, and management). This approach differs
markedly from the earlier years of the OPP
where the researchers took a more formal
consultative approach wherein they made most
of the decisions based on their own research
priorities. More recently, the OPP research
approach has emphasized more farmer participation,
shifting toward a more collaborative
mode of on-farm research. This change in
approach came about from the perception that
an inadequate amount of information, concerning
the farmers' production constraints and the