4.2.2 A survey of adoption of improved forages in Southeast Asia

Contributors: Werner Stür (CIAT), Phonepaseuth Phengsavanh (CIAT / NAFRI), Francisco Gabunada
(CIAT/Leyte State University), Peter Horne (previously CIAT), Truong Tan Khanh (Tay Nguyen
University), Viengsavanh Phimphachanhvongsod (NAFRI), John Connell (CIAT), and Federico Holmann
(CIAT/ILRI).

Rationale

The main forage species used were the grasses
Panicum maximum ‘Simuang’, Brachiaria
humidicola ‘Tully’ and ‘Yanero’, Brachiaria
hybrid ‘Mulato’, Brachiaria brizantha
‘Marandu’, Paspalum atratum ‘Terenos’,
Setaria sphacelata ‘Lampung’ and Pennisetum
hybrid ‘King grass’ and the legume Stylosanthes
guianensis ‘Stylo184’. The reason farmers first
grew grasses was that these have a much higher
yield than legumes and quantity of feed (rather
than quality) was the primary concern of
farmers. The average area of planted forages on
farms increased to about 2,500 m2 with many
farms having areas of 2,000 – 3,000 m2
(Figure 48).
Farmers, almost exclusively, managed planted
forages as cut-and-carry feed. Less than 5% of
households at pilot sites reported that they
occasionally graze their animals on planted
forages. This is a significant departure from the
perception commonly held in both the research
and development community that forages should
be used as grazed pastures. Farmers planted and
managed forages like food crops, looking after
each plant carefully. At several sites (e.g.
Daklak, Vietnam), some households irrigated
forages in the dry season. Another indicator of
the intensity of forage production was the use of
manure and fertilizer applied to forage areas. The
vast majority of farmers (>90%) apply manure
and/or fertilizer to their forages to ensure high
productivity; only at sites with very extensive
production systems (e.g. Malitbog, Philippines
and Savannakhet, Lao PDR) was the use of
manure for forages not yet adopted extensively.
Farmers use planted forages for many purposes
(Figure 49). Almost all farmers used forages for
cow-calf production with most using planted
forages as a supplementary feed throughout the
year or for providing feed when cows were kept


near the village for some weeks after giving birth.
At some sites, farmers fed planted forages to
draught cattle when they were used for ploughing
or during period of flooding (e.g. Cambodia)
when access to other feeds was difficult. Since
2002, a very exiting development has been the
emergence of fattening systems for cattle. At
first farmers in Daklak, Vietnam started to buy
older thin cattle, to which they then fed planted
forages for 2-3 months before selling them to
traders for slaughter. This fattening/finishing of
cattle before slaughter proofed to be a very
profitable activity and many farmers, at other
pilot sites where this idea was introduced, have





also started to fatten cattle (Figure 49). In
fattening systems, farmers used 100% planted
forages rather than to use planted forages as a
supplementary feed; this required approximately
800m2 per animal. The main grasses used in
these systems were Panicum maximum
‘Simuang’, Pennisetum purpureum ‘Napier’ and
Brachiaria hybrid ‘Mulato’. In these situations,
farmers manage planted grasses very intensively
with high rates of manure and fertilizer, and
supplementary irrigation if available. Some
farmers were using supplementary concentrate
feed to achieve higher daily weight gains and
there is an opportunity to introduce legumes as a
source of cheap, farm-grown protein.