Farmers’ perception on use of forages in Bavi District

Dinh Van Binh, Ngo Tien Dzung and Nguyen Thi Mui

Area: 421 km2 (80% of sloping land)

Agriculture land: 14,900 ha (planting crops: 12,100 ha)

Unused land : 8,000 ha

Population: 233,000 inhabitants (32 villages)

Animal population (heads):

Pigs 82,543

Buffaloes 11,200

Cattle 16,860

Goats 1,037

Poultry 271,000

Capital income: 70 USD/year

Introduction

Diagram of transferring technologies to farmers

GRRCResearch

On-farmOn-station

Demonstrations

Farmers in BaviFarmers in provinces

Technologies transfer

How to transfer technologies to the farmers ?

Establishing the demonstrations at the Research Centre and in farm households around  the Research Centre.

Organizing visits, seminar workshops on research and extension of new technologies

Making video-films illustrating new technologies of dairy goat production, crop planting, installation of biodigesters in sustainable farming system.

Selection of places and farmers to apply the new technologies, cooperation with the Women’s Union and Extension Divisions in the management of the location.

Training courses for extensionists and farmers on new technologies before transferring them to farmers.

Support for farmers with improved animal breeds and planting materials of promising varieties for increasing feed resources for animals

Helping farmers to solve problems or finding the market for consumption of their products

Edible biomass yield from forage species (tonnes/ha/year)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Biomass Dry matter Crude protein

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Flemingia macrophylla 60.7 13.4 2.24Trichanthera gigantea 62.7 8.1 1.33Leucaena hybrid KX2 54.8 13.7 2.84L. leucocephalla K636 39.7 9.9 2.1L. Pallinda K748 45.2 11.6 2.5Mulberry (Morus alba) 23.0 3.9 0.67Bananas (pure stand) 90.7 13.4 -Trichanthera gigantea in association with banana

82.4 10.6 -P.Pupurceum 45-110P.M. likoni 29-85B. ruziziensis 40-85M. esculanta Root 10-26

Leaves 1.2-5.1

Comparison of economic efficiency between two farming system (mean for household, million VND)__________________________________________________________Production Traditional system New system

--------------------------- -------------------------------

Income Profit % Income Profit %

___________________________________________________________

Pig 3.3 0.5 15 3.3 0.8 30

Local cow 2.6 1.2 86 2.8 1.5 115

Local goat 1.8 0.6 50 2.4 1.2 100

Fish pond (m2) 0.25 0.15 150 6.0 4.2 242

Cassava (m2) 0.4 0.21 110 0.57 0.42 283

Sugar cane (m2) 1.6 1.1 220

Garden (m2) 0.45 0.23 104 0.78 0.54 257

Biogas 0.73 0.55 305

Total 8.7 2.84 41 18.2 10.2 129

Income of farmers (VND/month/person)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Farmers No of goats Traditional New system------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 16 250,000 388,0002 32 350,000 505,0003 20 292,000 391,0004 13 408,000 491,0005 17 156,000 187,0006 5 214,000 249,0007 6 189,000 293,0008 10 160,000 204,0009 19 160,000 215,00010 25 273,000 473,00011 14 297,000 382,00012 17 189,000 215,000Average 16 245,583 332,750

Conclusions Research activities and transfer technologies have been

carrying since 1991 up to now to farmers, which show potential value of multi-purpose crops and forages which can be used for animal feeding and improving the soil fertility

The productivity of animals has increased when using protein-rich foliages with diets based onagricultural by-products

Increase the economic efficiency of livestock production using the new cultivated forages and processing techniques based on feed resources in suitable farming system of the farm

Increasing the number of farmers applying the new technologies, the number of participating farmers as the demonstrations increased yearly from 5 (1991) to 35 (1997) to 320 (2000)