LivestockPlus: The sustainable intensification of forage-based agricultural systems to improve livelihoods and ecosystem services in the tropics

As global demand for livestock products (such as meat, milk, and eggs) is expected to double by 2050, necessary increases to future production must be reconciled with negative environmental impacts that livestock cause. This paper describes the LivestockPlus concept and demonstrates how the sowing of improved forages can lead to the sustainable intensification of mixed crop–forage–livestock–tree systems in the tropics by producing multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits. Sustainable intensification not only improves the productivity of tropical forage-based systems but also reduces the ecological footprint of livestock production and generates a diversity of ecosystem services (ES), such as improved soil quality and reduced erosion, sedimentation, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Integrating improved grass and legume forages into mixed production systems (crop–livestock, tree–livestock, crop–tree–livestock) can restore degraded lands and enhance system resilience to drought and waterlogging associated with climate change. When properly managed tropical forages accumulate large amounts of carbon in soil, fix atmospheric nitrogen (legumes), inhibit nitrification in soil and reduce nitrous oxide emissions (grasses), and reduce GHG emissions per unit livestock product. The LivestockPlus concept is defined as the sustainable intensification of forage-based systems, which is based on three interrelated intensification processes: genetic intensification – the development and use of superior grass and legume cultivars for increased livestock productivity; ecological intensification – the development and application of improved farm and natural resource management practices; and socio-economic intensification – the improvement of local and national institutions and policies, which enable refinements of technologies and support their enduring use. Increases in livestock productivity will require coordinated efforts to develop supportive government, non-government organization, and private sector policies that foster investments and fair market compensation for both the products and ES provided. Effective research-for-development efforts that promote agricultural and environmental benefits of forage-based systems can contribute towards implemention of LivestockPlus across a variety of geographic, political, and socio-economic contexts

Non-rice crops in rice-based farming systems in mainland Southeast Asia

In the five countries of Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) that are the focus of this review, there is no questioning the importance of rice within the landscape, in the farming systems, in the diet, and even in cultural terms. Currently, an area of about 32 million ha is cultivated to rice each year (FAOSTAT, 2014), although with multiple rice cropping – with an annual rice cropping intensity ranging from about 1.8 in Vietnam to not much over 1.1 in Laos – the actual area that is planted to rice at some time in any one year is about 22 million ha. The importance of rice cultivation is very clear when these figures are compared to the total and arable land areas of these countries. Of the total land area of about 190 million ha in the five countries, about 19%, or 36 million ha, is regarded as arable. Thus about 60% of the land categorized as arable is planted to rice at some time in any year. While this emphasizes the importance of rice farming, it does not mean that non-rice crops, whether annual or perennial, are not important to the multitude of farming households or to the overall economies of the region. The cultivation of non-rice crops is affected by the available natural resources, particularly climate and soils, by changing market demands, by labour- and capital-availability, by the specific interests of farmers, and, as is critical to this review, by changes in the area and methods of rice production. Examples of all of these factors affecting non-rice crops in cropping systems will be outlined in this chapter

Latin American wasp spearheads ‘sting‘ operations in Africa and Asia = Avispa Latinoamericana comanda ‘operaciones encubiertas en África y Asia

The tiny parasitic wasp, Anagyrus lopezi, is a small but striking example of how CIAT's Latin American research has helped to provide eco-efficient solutions to agricultural problems across the tropics. Discovered by a team of CIAT and IITA scientists in Paraguay in 1980, A. lopezi has proved to be a formidable natural enemy of the cassava mealybug - a pest that causes cassava crops to shrivel. The female wasps home-in on mealybugs, injecting them with their eggs. As the larvae grow they eat the hosts from the inside out. By releasing A. lopezi in affected sites, farmers can control mealybug infestations without pesticides. Anagyrus lopezi poses no threat to humans, animals, or other insects. In mid-2010, thousands of the wasps were deployed by the Thai Department of Agriculture (DoA) to combat mealybug outbreaks in the country, where cassava is a vital smallholder crop. They imported A. lopezi from colonies kept at IITA in Benin. CIAT provided initial diagnosis of the mealybug outbreaks, and together with IITA, shared expertise on mass rearing. The DoA, together with the Thai Tapioca Development Institute (TTDI), then reared the wasp

Spatial identification by satellite imagery of the crop–fallow rotation cycle in northern Laos

In the mountainous regions of northern Laos, shifting cultivation, or slash-and-burn agriculture, is widely practiced. However, the crop–fallow rotation cycle is becoming shorter owing to forest conservation policies and population pressure, causing loss of productivity that deleteriously affects farmers’ livelihoods in the region. To investigate regional land use conditions, we have developed a method of identifying the crop–fallow rotation cycle from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper+ (ETM+) data. We assessed the impact of the identified cycle on plant production measured by Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The study site was an area in Luang Prabang Province. Using eight TM and ETM+ images acquired annually from 1995 to 2003, except for 1998, when cloud-free data were not collected, we classified land use in each year as crop or fallow by the presence of vegetation in the late dry season. Conformity with fallow age determined by field investigation was 69.1%. The cultivation frequency from 1995 to 2002 showed that 77,000 ha (17.3% of the study site) had not been used for cropping during the period, but 41,000 ha (9.2%) had been used every year. Of the study site, 129,000 ha (29.1%) was cultivated one or two times, 83,000 ha (18.7%) was three or four times, and 54,000 ha (12.2%) was five or six times. The NDVI of crops in November did not provide sufficient evidence to prove the assumption that a longer fallow period would result in better crop yields. Instead, the regeneration of fallow vegetation was evidenced by the higher NDVI values after longer fallow. More than 8 years would be needed to reach the same NDVI as forest. From the produced maps indicating fallow age and cultivation frequency, we found that areas with high potential for regeneration decreased as cultivation frequency increased. Areas near rivers were intensively used, and fallow length was accordingly short. Low-potential areas were found in the western basin of the Mekong River. This spatial information can be used to detect areas where biomass productivity is at high risk of deteriorating

Effect of organic and inorganic phosphate fertilizers and their combination on maize yield and phosphorus availability in a yellow earth in Myanmar

Phosphorus (P) deficiency is a major constraint for crop production in many parts of the world including Myanmar and field research into management of P fertilizers and P responsiveness of crops on infertile soils has been limited. The purpose of this study is to determine maize yield response to different forms of P fertilizers on an acidic (pH 4.9) P deficient (Olsen-P 8 mg kg-1) Yellow Earth (Acrisol) in Southern Shan State, Myanmar and to establish relationships between soil Olsen-P test values (0.5 M sodium bicarbonate extracted P) and maize yield. Field experiments were conducted during two cropping seasons. There were 15 treatments in total: P was applied at seven rates of a soluble P fertilizer as Triple superphosphate (TSP) (0–120 kg P ha-1) to establish a P response curve; one rate of a partially soluble P fertilizer (Chinese partially acidulated phosphate rock, CPAPR) and two organic P fertilizers (farmyard manure (FYM) and Tithonia diversifolia) at 20 kg P ha-1; combination of TSP and CPAPR at 20 kg P ha-1 with FYM and Tithonia at 20 kg P ha-1; an additional treatment (TSP 20 kg P ha-1 plus 2.5 t ha-1 dolomite) for assessing the liming effect of a local dolomite. In Year 1, applications of TSP at 40–60 kg P ha-1 produced near maximum grain yields, whereas in Year 2 this could be achieved with a reapplication of 20–30 kg P ha-1 on top of the residual value of the Year 1 application. In both years, CPAPR, TSP and Tithonia at 20 kg P ha-1 significantly increased maize grain yield, but FYM failed to increase grain yield. In Year 1, CPAPR and TSP effects on grain yield were higher than that of Tithonia but inYear 2 the effects were same for all these three treatments. In both years the combination of FYM (20 kg P ha-1) with TSP (20 kg P ha-1) produced significantly higher grain yield than TSP at 20 kg P ha-1whereas 40 kg P ha-1 ofTSP application did not significantly increase grain yield over the TSP application at 20 kg P ha-1. Similar results were obtained when half the P applied as CPAPR was substituted with P from Tithonia and FMP during the first year. The combined data from the two years experiment suggests that 90%ofmaximummaize grain yields can be obtained by raising the Olsen-P to 30–35 mg P ha-1 soil at the silking stage of growth. Olsen-P for the treatments at silking in Year 1 was: Control\FYM, Tithonia\TSP, CPAPR and in Year 2 was: Control\FYM\Tithonia\TSP, CPAPR. The results showed that for a long-term approach, repeated annual applications of Tithonia can be considered as a potential P source for improving soil P status in P deficient Yellow Earths