Paul Birthe K, Groot Jeroen Cj, Maass Brigitte L, Notenbaert An Mo, Herrero Mario, Tittonell Pablo A
Tropical Forages Program, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Nairobi, Kenya.
Department of Farming Systems Ecology, Wageningen University and Research (WUR), Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Outlook Agric. 2020 Mar;49(1):13-20. doi: 10.1177/0030727020906170. Epub 2020 Feb 26.
Dairy development provides substantial potential economic opportunities for smallholder farmers in East Africa, but productivity is constrained by the scarcity of quantity and quality feed. Ruminant livestock production is also associated with negative environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, air pollution, high water consumption, land-use change, and loss of biodiversity. Improved livestock feeding and forages have been highlighted as key entry point to sustainable intensification, increasing food security, and decreasing environmental trade-offs including GHG emission intensities. In this perspective article, we argue that farming systems approaches are essential to understand the multiple roles and impacts of forages in smallholder livelihoods. First, we outline the unique position of forages in crop-livestock systems and systemic obstacles to adoption that call for multidisciplinary thinking. Second, we discuss the importance of matching forage technologies with agroecological and socioeconomic contexts and niches, and systems agronomy that is required. Third, we demonstrate the usefulness of farming systems modeling to estimate multidimensional impacts of forages and for reducing agro-environmental trade-offs. We conclude that improved forages in East Africa are at a crossroads: if adopted by farmers at scale, they can be a cornerstone of pathways toward sustainable livestock systems in East Africa.
乳制品发展为东非的小农户提供了巨大的潜在经济机会，但生产力受到饲料数量和质量稀缺的限制。反刍家畜生产还会带来负面环境影响，包括温室气体排放、空气污染、高耗水量、土地利用变化以及生物多样性丧失。改善家畜饲养和饲料被视为实现可持续集约化、增强粮食安全以及减少包括温室气体排放强度在内的环境权衡的关键切入点。在这篇观点文章中，我们认为农业系统方法对于理解饲料在小农户生计中的多重作用和影响至关重要。首先，我们概述了饲料在农牧系统中的独特地位以及采用过程中需要多学科思考的系统性障碍。其次，我们讨论了使饲料技术与农业生态和社会经济背景及生态位相匹配的重要性，以及所需的系统农艺学。第三，我们展示了农业系统建模在评估饲料的多维度影响以及减少农业环境权衡方面的作用。我们得出结论，东非改良饲料正处于十字路口：如果被农民大规模采用，它们可以成为东非可持续家畜系统发展道路的基石。
