Research Results - (PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

viability of the suggested production technologies,
was being exchanged between the farmers
and scientists.
One of the overall results of this year's
en-farm research program, the final year of the
OPP, was that the researchers reinforced the
basic premise of OFAR research of the need to
create a collaborative environment that promotes
the exchange of ideas between researchers
and the small ruminant farmers. Moreover,
to establish this exchange environment requires
researcher training and a learning attitude by
the researchers toward the farmers regarding
their interest in changes and an understanding
and appreciation of both the farmers' family
welfare objectives and the socioeconomic constraints
on allocating family resources toward
small ruminant production.
The economic subgroup of the OPP
focused attention on four parameters in their
consideration of the farmers' decision-making
regarding the sale of their animals. Information
relating to the selling age, body weight at the
time of sale, selling price, and marketing channels
was gathered from the monthly farm
monitoring visits by using a checklist. A complete
summary of results is provided in "Outreach
Pilot Project On-farm Resaerch Activities
Annual Report for 1988-1989" (Ludgate and
Prijanti, 1990) with the following highlights
mentioned briefly.
Generally, the farmers did not sell their
animals at the optimum market age (12-18
months). Only 30% of the OPP farmers sold
their sheep and/or goats during this optimum
age. Almost 60% of the farmers sold their
animals after this period. The major reason for
this practice was to take advantage of the Islamic
holiday seasons where the selling price
increases significantly.
An analysis of the data relating animal
body weight and selling price indicates that
there is a relationship between animal body
weight and price level. This analysis suggests
that the older the animals, the greater the body
weight and the higher the selling price of the
animals. However, the efficiency of the input
and output of this marketing situation has to be
given further consideration.
The two marketing channels usually
used by the farmers to sell their animals are
either indirectly to the middlemen in their
villages or directly in the market. Only 33% of
the OPP farmers sold their small ruminants
directly in the market, with the remainder using
the village collectors. It was recognized that for
many farmers it was difficult to take time away
from their other agricultural production activities
to sell their animals in the market. This was
especially true with the additional risk of having
to return with unsold animals and pay an
additional transportation fee.
Village Small Ruminant Intensive Production
Scheme
Research findings produced by the SR­
CRSP-Balitnak joint activities from the different
disciplines are now available for dissemination
or on-farm testing. Application of these technologies
to rural farmers or other interested
producers is the most important task of technology
developers. One interesting area to be
explored in an interdisciplinary mode, given the
available research finding, is improving rural
family welfare through increasing the productivity
of farm output, such as small ruminants.
The success of this effort is highly dependent
upon the collaboration, participation, and
contribution of each discipline since the farmer
himself is a farm manager facing
multidisciplinary problems. Therefore, a good,
strong research framework is necessary for the
project to accomplish its objectives.
The principal objective of this project is
to demonstrate and at the same time to determine
whether it is possible to increase the
income of small ruminant farmers through
production testing schemes. In addition, we
want to determine how acceptable and extendable
these production practices are to other
farmers. The specific objectives of this research
include:
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