Ismail, Dahlan

Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository

UPM Research Report 1998: Volume 2DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE LlVESTOCK-CROP INTEGRATION PRODUCTION SYSTEMSI.DahlanFaculty of Veterinary MedicineUniversiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor,MalaysiaKeywords: integrated, livestock, crops, feedstuff,sustainability.IntroductionRecently, Malaysia spent more than RM 10 billion for im-porting food items mostly from animals and feed grains ori-gins. Malaysia has sufficient resources for the production offood items derived from plantation sector, agricultural by-products and agro-based industries. These resources can beintegrated to develop a sustainable livestock-crop productionsystems. Efficient and sustainable production systems mustbe developed through utilisation of available and regeneratedresources locally. Regenerated resources such as agricultureproducts, forestry and livestock can be produced optimallythrough integrated production systems. Studies on cattle,sheep and goat integration under oil palm and rubber planta-tions have shown remarkable results (Chen and Dahlan,1996. Wattanachant et al. 1997). Other species of livestocksuch deer and poultry should be introduced to plantation area(Dahlan, 1996) . These integrated production systems shouldbe improved and sustained for more efficient agriculture es-pecially food production systems. The livestock-crop inte-grated production system (LICRO) is believed not only to bethe most efficient agricultural production system but also thefuture direction for the livestock production in Malaysia. Theobjectives of this research were to develop sustainable live-stock production system through optimising the use of suit-able livestock species, land and manpower and developmentof environmental friendly eco-systems for livestock-cropsproduction and agro-tourism.Materials and MethodsSystems approach used in this research project was multi-disciplinary, input-output relationship and dynamic situationin the complex systems. The main resources and/or compo-nents such as plantation crops. agricultural land usage, man-power utilisation, feed resources and livestock species wereintegrated into new production systems named "LICRO" andwere evaluated synergistically. The techniques employed inLICRO systems were in situ experimentation. livestock man-agement strategies. feed resources evaluation, multi-levelvalidations, modelling and simulation. information network.products processing and marketing strategies. Main experi-mentations were evaluation of livestock-crops managementstrategies. feed resources evaluation and processing, andsuitability of livestock species (cattle, sheep, goat. buffalo,deer. poultry species and wildlife). Research in developmentof technology in livestock products processing. agricultureby-products feed processing were conducted. Marketing andsocio-economic studies were included in the evaluation ofthe production system.92Results and DiscussionResults showed that cattle-oil palm integration is a successfulprogramme. Cattle especially beef cattle will be the mainlivestock project proposed for the country. Integration ofcattle with oil palm plantations should be introduced in ma-tured plantations. This production system will contribute sig-nificant return to investment to the livestock and plantationsectors (Dahlan, 1996). Suitable types or breeds of cattleneed to be identified and introduced to oil palm plantations.Other species of livestock showing promising results whenintegrated with oil palm plantations are deer (Dahlan, 1998)and buffalo (Dahlan and Shamsul, 1997). Deer can be, inte-grated with higher stocking rate than cattle. The rusa deer(Cervus timorensis) can be stocked about 8 to 10 heads/ha inmature oil palm plantations. Buffalo is very suitable fordraught in power oil palm plantations especially for carryingoil palm fresh fruit bunch, with optimal load around 1,560 kgfor 600 kg buffalo (Dahlan and Shamsul, 1997). Integrationof wildlife herbivores, such as deer (Cervus timoreensis, C.unicolor and Axis axis), kijang (Muntiacus muntjak),mousedeer (Tragulus javanicus), porcupine (Hystrix brachy-ura) and avian species (jungle fowl and pheasant) with aca-cia plantation (Acacia mangium) under agroforestry systemscreates suitable and sustainable "Bio-park" environment andconservation of fauna and flora (Dahlan, 1998). Oil palmfrond (OPF) was found to be the most suitable forage sourcefor the LICRO systems (Dahlan, 1996). OPF is abundantlyavailable and its quality is sufficient for fibre feed supple-mentation in LICRO systems (Dahlan, 1996). OPF can beused as fresh chopped materials, silage and pelleted com-pound feed (Dahlan, 1996).ConclusionsLICRO system is the most sustainable production system forruminants and perhaps some wildlife species such as deer.mousedeer and jungle fowl in the country. The resultsshowed that the plantation sector and farmers have acceptedthe concept of LICRO systems and is being adopted in mostof oil palm plantation in Malaysia. Beef cattle is the mostsuitable ruminant to be integrated with oil palm plantations.Deer is also suitable new livestock species to be farmed inthis country through adopting LICRO system. BIO-park isan additional contribution of LICRO systems towards rec-reation and environmental conservation. Oil palm frond(OPF) is the main fibre feed source for supplementary feed inthe LICRO systems.ReferencesChen, CP. and Dahlan, I. 1996. Tree spacing and livestock produc-tion. In. The I st. Inti. Symposium on Integration of livestock tooil palm production. MSAP-FAO Pub!. Pg. 3549.Dahlan, I. 1996. Oil palm by-products: Its utilization and contribu-tion to livestock industry. Proc. PORIM International Palm OilCongr. Planery paper. p. 269-274.Dahlan, I. 1998. Management and feeding of mousedeer (Tragulusspp.) in captivity and bio-parks. Proc. Symposium series 2, the8th• World Conference on Animal Production, Seoul, Korea. p.476-484.Dahlan,l. and Shamsul, B.M.T. 1997. Buffalo draught power for oilpalm plantations. Buffalo Bulletin. 16 (3): 64- 67.Wattanachant, C., Dahlan, I. and Rajion, M.A.I997. Sheep-oil palmintegration: body composition of Dorset x Malin sheep. Mal. J.Anim. Se. 3(2): 22-27.Supported by IRPA Grant 01-02-04-0161

Development of sustainable livestock-crop integration production systems

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Development of sustainable livestock-crop integration production systems

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