Nutritional status and smallholder farmer characteristic of Bali cattle-oil palm integration system in the rural dryland area of Bangka Island, Indonesia

Abstract

Livestock-oil palm plantations integration system is intended to improve farming efficiency, where agriculture not only plays a role as the primary producer of food but also as a producer of feed, fertilizer, energy, and other bioproducts, leading to a sustainable agricultural system. Smallholder farmers in Indonesia integrated Bali cattle and oil palm with extensive, semiintensive, and intensive management systems. This study evaluated the integrated system of oil palm and Bali cattle under different management systems regarding the characteristics of smallholder farmers, nutritional status, and weight gain of Bali cattle on smallholder farms. The study was conducted in the Regency of Central Bangka, Bangka Islands, Indonesia. The study included 108 Bali cattle grouped as calves, young, and adults. The observed variables included smallholder farmer characteristics, feed nutrients, feed nutrient consumption (Dry Matter (DM), protein, Ca, and P), feed digestibility, and body weight gain. A Randomized Block Design and analysis of variance for the obtained data were used in this experiment. Smallholder farmers implementing the integration of livestock-oil palm in Central Bangka Regency were dominated by inexperienced novice farmers. The majority of the farmer choose semi-intensive rearing management as this system produces compost as a by-product. The semi-intensive system also provides better feed quality for Bali cattle. Therefore, DM consumption in the semi-intensive system was higher than in other systems, especially in young bulls, heifers, and male and female calves (P<0.05). Thus, Bali cattle in the semi-intensive system had higher average daily gain than those in the intensive or extensive system. Therefore, it can be concluded that the semi-intensive management system is the best model in the Bali cattle-oil palm integration system in the rural dryland area, in accordance with nutritional status and the characteristics of smallholder farmers in Indonesia