Improving the supply of forage and staple food of smallholder farmers in therural marginal dry land of East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

Abstract

Cattle and corn are important for small farmers in west Timor. However, owing to the lack of proper technologies, marginal lands and erratic rainfalls, productivity of both are low. To improve the productivity, a conservation agriculture approach was demonstrated during 2017-2019 at Camplong II village, on a marginal land with shallow top soil, rocky formation, with existing corn production of <1 ton/ha. The technology package in 2019, includes: (i) hedges of Leucaena leucocephala (planted at 2 m within the row and 4 m between the rows), (ii) Deep planting hole (40 cm x 40 cm x 40 cm) filled with mixtures of soil and cattle manure, (iii) planting of grass within the rows of Leucaena, (iv) cover crop legumes: cow pea, Clitoria ternatea, and Mucuna holtonii while using corn stover and cattle refusals as mulches. Forage was obtained from Leucaena and the grass, while herbaceous legumes were left uncut. The results include: (i) year round supply of high quality forage, (ii) improved the daily weight gain of fattening cattle (0.2 to 0.3 - 0.6 kg/head/day), (iii) reduced calves mortality down to 0%, (iv) and increased corn yield to 5 ton/ha and a second crop harvest as green corn.