Offered Papers Theme A: Efficient Production from Grassland
Description
Cattle liveweight gain and milk yield can be depressed significantly on grass alone pastures that degrade over time on the margins of tropical forest. Use of legumes in pastures is an alternative to minimize declines in quality and quantity of forage biomass and thus increase livestock production. From 1987-90, forage researchers in CIAT collaborated with several institutions in the Piedmont region of the Amazon basin in Caqueta, Colombia on selection of forage germplasm adapted to acid soils and with potential to reclaim large areas of degraded pastures in cattle farms of the region. The most successful pasture was the legume/ grass association of Arachis pintoi grown with several Brachiaria species. However, livestock producers in the region were not adopting the Arachis technology mainly because of lack of promotion, little knowledge on benefits and high seed cost. Thus, an inter-institutional on-farm project involving public and private institutions was carried out to document the on-farm benefits of Arachis-based pastures, train personnel of different institutions on establishment and utilization of Arachis pastures using participatory methods and initiate and catalyse an active extension transfer mechanism of the Arachis technology in the region.
Included in
Agricultural Science Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Plant Pathology Commons, Soil Science Commons, Weed Science Commons
Arachis pintoi in the Humid Tropics of Colombia: A Forage Legume Success Story
Cattle liveweight gain and milk yield can be depressed significantly on grass alone pastures that degrade over time on the margins of tropical forest. Use of legumes in pastures is an alternative to minimize declines in quality and quantity of forage biomass and thus increase livestock production. From 1987-90, forage researchers in CIAT collaborated with several institutions in the Piedmont region of the Amazon basin in Caqueta, Colombia on selection of forage germplasm adapted to acid soils and with potential to reclaim large areas of degraded pastures in cattle farms of the region. The most successful pasture was the legume/ grass association of Arachis pintoi grown with several Brachiaria species. However, livestock producers in the region were not adopting the Arachis technology mainly because of lack of promotion, little knowledge on benefits and high seed cost. Thus, an inter-institutional on-farm project involving public and private institutions was carried out to document the on-farm benefits of Arachis-based pastures, train personnel of different institutions on establishment and utilization of Arachis pastures using participatory methods and initiate and catalyse an active extension transfer mechanism of the Arachis technology in the region.
