Crop Tree-Livestock integration in CA systems

1. Crop-tree-livestock integration
in CA systems
By
Peter Kuria
Presented at
The KAPSLMP – CASP ToT training
held at KALRO Naivasha on 12th Sept, 2014

2. Climate change strikes at the core of FOOD
SECURITY
.
Climate change
=
Less food
Less water for
food & livestock
production
Land degradation
Higher
Disease and
Pest
Outbreaks
Less livestock fodder
and yield
03/03/2016

3. Other opportunities ….
 Diversification to livestock and other income
generating activities
 Agroforestry / Homestead fruit production/
small-scale plantations
 increased household income
 alternative food supply
 fuel wood and construction material supply
 increased soil fertility
03/03/2016

4. Successful integration of crop and livestock
enterprises results to many synergies
 enterprise diversification. An equal amount of profits
from diversification enterprises (piggery, poultry,
dairy, Multi Purpose Trees) as the grains by
Brazilians!
 recycling of nutrients,
 soil enhancing rotation crops,
 power and transportation, and
 biological "savings accounts'' for farmers.
Fluctuations in meat and poultry market prices are
much smaller than grains
03/03/2016

5. Is livestock the weakest link in the
CA chain?
 Failure to consider livestock as part of the CA
system creates an immediate conflict
 Excessive residue consumption by livestock
kept by farmers.
 Excessive residue consumption by livestock
owned by pastoralists
03/03/2016

6. The low hanging fruits – when
converting to CA
 animal traction is essential for CA farm operations
– knife rolling, ripping and direct seeding and
transportation.
 domestic animals are required for productive and
reproductive purposes (milk, meat, hides, lobola).
 livestock can utilise crop by-products: e.g. second
grade maize or pulses (pigeon peas, cowpeas,
mucuna) for poultry and piggery feeds
03/03/2016

7. Low hanging fruits cont …
 Crop rotations can include targeted crops
for fodder or oil seeds cake.
 Sunflower, Simsim or Canola for oil
(nutritious food) and seed cake (livestock
feed)
 Terracing and contour bunds help stabilise
and increase crop production. The bonus is
also very beneficial.
03/03/2016

8. Brachiaria undersown in maize
03/03/2016

9. Stabilised contour bunds.
1. Napier grass (fodder)
2. Fertiliser shrubs (Sesbania s; Calliandra; ) for fodder;
fuel wood
3. Fruit trees -
03/03/2016

10. 03/03/2016

11. Role of animals in the farm
 converters of primary agricultural products
into value added products. Butter, cheese,
sausage, “Kentucky” fried chicken,
specialised meat cuts
 resulting to higher benefits for the farmers and
rural entrepreneurs
 more so in Africa where farms tend to be
more specialised either for crops or for
livestock
03/03/2016

12. 03/03/2016

13. Work animals
 Work animals (oxen, donkeys, horses,
mules, camels and water buffaloes) are
highly valuable in pulling farm implements.
 Pulling equipment is hard work. Animals
need to be strong and healthy.
 Process and reserve supplementary feeds
and treat them well to build up their
strength.
 Prevent animals from eating crops and
residues when working by putting muzzles.
03/03/2016

14. Positive effect of minimum -tillage on
animal working conditions
 a reduced energetic requirement in about
80 percent compared to conventional
tillage
 seeding is the most power-consuming
operation under Ca and it requires only
60% of ploughing power
03/03/2016

15. Some problems can arise when using animal
traction for no-tillage
 need to retrain the work animals
 CA equipment uses a long yoke: some 60 cm plus twice the
width of the distance between the planting rows.
 Both animals and operators need to get used to the new
equipment (subsoilers, rippers, planters, sprayers and knife
rollers).
 impeded direct seeding- due to too much or
unmanaged soil cover
 difficulties to conduct the animals against the
erect plants
 difficulty for the animal and the operator to
see the furrows opened by the seeder or
overlapping borders when spraying
03/03/2016

16. Crops and livestock compete for the
same resources
 CA requires a critical level of crop residues and
cover crops to maintain or enhance soil
chemical, physical and biological properties
 The same residues are used to feed livestock
 The removal of crop residues for or by
livestock, either through grazing or cut and
carry, is a common practice
 Residue removal by animals is usually
excessive, leaving insufficient vegetation for
soil conservation purposes.
03/03/2016

17. DAIRY GOATS
 How minimum tillage/soil movement?
 Controlled grazing to reduce compaction
 Supplementary cut and carry
 How permanent soil cover
 Controlled grazing, purposeful fodder
shrub production
03/03/2016

18. Dairy goats cont … What feeds?
 Planted grasses: Elephant grass, Brachiaria, Setaria,
Rhodes grass, Paspulum, etc.
 Forage legumes: Lablab, green leaf desmodium,
Vicia vilosa (vetch),
 Crop residues: sweet potato vines, maize stover,
cassava peels and leaves, banana leaves and
peels,
 Agro-industrial by-products: seed cakes of
cotton, sunflower, canola; cereal milling by-
products, molasses,
 Conserved forages: hay, silage, leaf meal,
 Exotic fodder trees: Calliandra, Leucaena,
Gliricidia sepium, Sesbania sesban,
03/03/2016

19. Dairy goats cont …
 Which crop rotations/associations?
 Maize/Desmodium/Napier  Cassava/Dolichos
lablab or Desmodium  Maize/Pigeon
peas/pumpkins 
 Wheat  Potatoes  Vetch/Black oat  Oil seeds
(Canola!!)  Wheat
 Opportunities with CA links?
 Cover crops provide excellent fodder
 Multi purpose trees on wind-breaks and contour
bunds provide fodder, fuel, soil nutrients
 Processed oil seeds generate cake for
concentrates blending
03/03/2016

20. 03/03/2016
OTHER OPPORTUNITIES = SMALL
LIVESTOCK
ARE THESE OPPORTUNITIES TO TAKE
• Bee Keeping
• Rabbit Keeping
• Poultry rearing
• Fish Farming

21. Consider Agroforestry
 Fertiliser trees
(Faidherbia albida, )
 Multi-purpose trees
for fruits, fuel wood,
building materials
 Live fences
 Wind breakers
03/03/2016

22. Integrating of AF and CA
Analysis of the farming system
 Identify entry points for AF
 Identify the appropriate species
 Integrating of AF and CA and get germplasm
(invasive plants)
 Training of farmers and extension – knowledge
intensive
03/03/2016

23. CA and AF - mimic the natural
ecosystems
 Advantages
 systems more tolerant to climatic fluctuations
 more and diverse products
 carbon sequestration
 nutrient cycling from deeper layers
03/03/2016

24. CA and AF
03/03/2016
Soil fertility management – biomass
transfer, improved fallows, intercropping,
relay cropping
• Sesbania sesban,
• S. macrantha,
• Gliricidia sepium,
• Leucaena spp,
• Tephrosia spp,
• Tithonia diversifolia

25. CA and AF
03/03/2016
Fodder production – legume shrubs,
intercropped with food and feed cereals
Some species:
• Acacia angustissima,
• Leucaena spp,
• Calliandra spp,
• Gliricidia sepium

26. CA and AF
 Fuel – rotational woodlots, by-products from
soil fertility and fodder systems
03/03/2016

27. Agroforestry
03/03/2016

28. 03/03/2016
Fahiderbia albida and maize in sub-Saharan Africa

29. Faidherbia Fertilizer Trees at 100 trees per ha
03/03/2016

30. 03/03/2016

31. Faidherbia Fertilizer Trees at 100 trees per ha
03/03/2016

32. 03/03/2016
Conservation Agriculture with Trees in
Zambia
Maize yield -zero fertiliser
2008 2009 2010
----- Tons/ha -------
With Faidherbia 4.1 5.1 5.6
Without Faidherbia 1.3 2.6 2.6________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Number of trials 15 40 40

33. 03/03/2016
CA and AF
Faidherbia albida is commonly found in cereal crop
systems in Ethiopia

34. 03/03/2016
CA and AF
High-density Faidherbia millet systems in southern
Zinder, Niger, 2006.

35. Evergreen Agriculture
Time for us to take collective action03/03/2016

36. 03/03/2016
Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration

37. 03/03/2016
Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration

38. 03/03/2016
Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration

39. Tobacco no-till – South Brazil (SC State)

41. 03/03/2016
Concluding remarks
If solutions depend on resources of which we do not have
enough, then they are not real solutions
1. Making agricultural inputs more accessible to smallholders may be a
necessary – in some cases – but not sufficient condition to close yield
gaps;
2. Agricultural inputs do not work on degraded soils; soil rehabilitation is a
prerequisite for any form of agricultural intensification;
3. Replacing the natural vegetation of tropical landscapes with annual crops
and frequent tillage disrupts their basic ecological infrastructure and leads
to degradation and/or inefficient capture and use of energy, water and
nutrients;
4. Smallholder farmers do not reason in terms of crops or cropping systems,
they make decisions that concern their whole livelihood system;

42. 03/03/2016
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

43. to a greater adoption of CA/No-till
Know how is still the most important limitation
03/03/2016

44. THANK YOU
03/03/2016
Africa needs a uniquely African
green revolution (Kofi Annan)