Developing agricultural solutions with smallholder farmers - How to get started with participatory approaches

Farm Management,

Development of Forage Components Through Farmer Participatory Research

This paper describes farmer participatory research activities aimed at developing appropriate forage technologies with smallholders in Southeast Asia. Farmers are actively involved from the early stages, working as equal partners with researchers. This has led to a better understanding of selected farming systems, identification of technologies that have potential for testing by farmers, and better understanding of the criteria farmers consider important for forages to be useful within those farming systems

Psyllid Resistance in the Leucaena Genus

Leucaena species varied from highly susceptible to highly resistant in their response to the psyllid insect (Heteropsylla cubana) at 2 sites, a high psyllid environment at Brisbane, Australia and a moderate psyllid environment at Los Baños, Philippines. L. leucocephala was the most susceptible species. There was considerable intraspecific variation in psyllid resistance within L. collinsii, L. diversifolia and L. pallida. Plant reponse to psyllid challenge between environments was highly correlated but not linear. The higher psyllid challenge environment at Brisbane permitted greater discrimination between species and fewer Leucaena species were ranked as psyllid resistant

Comparisons on the nutritive values of local and introduced forages and feed mixture for ruminant feed in central dry zone of Myanmar

This study aimed to compare nutritive values of local (Sorghum) and introduced (Mombasa) forages and their feed mixtures for ruminant feed in central dry zone of Myanmar. Sorghum based feed mixtures (FeedMix-1, 2 and 3) were the commonly used feed mixtures for cattle in dry zone of Myanmar and other feed mixtures (FeedMix-4, 5 and 6) were based on Mombasa. The lower CP and higher fibre contents (P<0.05) were observed in sorghum and its feed mixtures. The highest gas volumes (P<0.05) were observed in the FeedMix-4 and 6, and then the lowest gas volume (P<0.05) was observed in FeedMix-3. The gas production from quickly soluble fraction (a) of sorghum was significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of Mombasa, inversely the gas production from insoluble fraction (b) of sorghum was significantly lower (P<0.05) than that of Mombasa. Moreover, potential gas production (a+b), ME, OMD and SCFA of sorghum were also significantly lower (P<0.05) than those of Mombasa. The value of “a” was lowest (P<0.05) in FeedMix-1, whereas the highest value was found in FeedMix-6. The lowest values (P<0.05) of “b”, “a+b”, ME, OMD and SCFA were observed in FeedMix-3 and the highest values (P<0.05) of those parameters were found in FeedMix-4. Thus, the higher nutritive values observed in the introduced forage, Mombasa and its feed mixtures were indicating that Mombasa should be used instead of sorghum for the feed of cattle in dry zone of Myanmar.&nbsp

Developing Forage Technologies with Smallholder Farmers: How to Select the Best Varieties to Offer Farmers in Southeast Asia

Crop Production/Industries,