Presentation by Michael Peters for the CIAT KSW 2009

1. A trusted hat
and
two new shoes:
Forages for Eco-efficiency
by
The Trusted (?) Heads

2. Forage germplasm developed through
collection, selection and breeding
Forages as high value products Forages integrated into
developed to capture differentiated smallholder crop-livestock
traditional and emerging markets for systems: Realizing
smallholders livelihood and environmental
benefits

3. Available expertise: Leader in international
tropical forage research
Werner Stur Asia
Central America and
Rein Van Der Hoek Caribbean
Brigitte L. Maass Eastern/Southern Africa
Michael Peters Germplasm
John W. Miles Plant Genetics
Siriwan D. Martens Animal Nutrition
Idupulapati Rao (50%) Plant Physiology
Federico Holmann (50%) Livestock Economics
Elizabeth Alvarez (33%) Plant Pathology
Manabu Ishitani (20%) Molecular Biology
Cesar Cardona (Adviser) Entomology
30 National Staff
Rainer Schultze-Kraft (Adviser) Genetic Resources

4. Matrix Regions
Forages integrated into
Outputs/ Forage germplasm Forages as high crop-livestock systems
Regions developed value products
Livelihood Environment
South America
Central America
and Caribbean
Southeast Asia
Eastern and
Southern Africa
= Potential

5. Forage germplasm developed through
collection, selection and breeding
Forage germplasm

6. Intrapopulation recurrent selection based on a high capacity, reliable
bioassay, has resulted in large gains in genetic resistance to spittlebug
nymphs in a synthetic Brachiaria breeding population
1998
Resistant Intermediate Susceptible
2006
Resistant Intermediate Susceptible
Forage germplasm

7. Evolution of a quick, high capacity screening technique to
assess tolerance to adult spittlebug damage
Single insect confined on a
single leaf
Several insects on small plant
Tolerance to adult feeding
expressed
Mass screening
Forage germplasm

8. Refining a reliable bioassay to assess genetic resistance
to Rhizoctonia foliar blight in Brachiaria
Resistant Intermediate Susceptible
Forage germplasm

9. Resistance of Brachiaria to combined and individual
abiotic stress factors
Resistance to drought and aluminum Resistance to aluminum
Ap. parent Apomictic hybrids
B. decumbens
BR05NO/0334 BR05NO/0537
CIAT 606
Root elongation with
0 and 200µM
AlCl36H2O
B. dec B. ruz cv. Toledo
Al Drought + Al
Forage germplasm

10. Tolerance of Brachiaria to waterlogging
BR06/0584 BR05/01609
Tolerant hybrids
CIAT 6133 CIAT 26110
Checks
Genotypic differences in tolerance to
waterlogging for 21 days BR02/0465 MX02/02775
Sensitive hybrids
Forage germplasm

11. Total seed sales (tons) per year for the Brachiaria hybrids
Mulato and Mulato II
821 tons
(approx. 136.900 ha)
tons
Forage germplasm

12. Evaluation of Canavalia Dry matter
IVDMD CP
Accession CIAT (t/ha)
(%) (%)
Season
Dry Wet
C. brasiliensis 905 3.0 2.2 70 25
C. brasiliensis 7648 2.8 3.3 67 23
C. sp. 21012 2.8 2.5 65 24
C. brasiliensis 20303 2.3 3.2 64 24
C. brasiliensis 17009 2.3 2.6 68 26
Mean 2.6 2.8 67 24
• Wide adaptation to climate and soils
• Soil cover ≥ 85% after 3 months
• Dry season tolerance opens a significant
time window for soil improvement without
affecting grain production
• High potential as green manure and dry
season feed resource
Forage germplasm

13. Forages as high value products developed
to capture differentiated traditional and
emerging markets for smallholders
Forages as high value products

14. Forage conservation in Honduras
Cost-benefit analysis: Cowpea hay versus commercial concentrate
Cost Cost/kg milk Profit
Milk production
Feed/cow (income-cost) /kg
(kg)
US$ US$ US$
Concentrate 1.76 12.8 0.14 0.15
Cowpea hay 1.42 12.7 0.11 0.18
Cost concentrate: 0.27 US$/kg; cowpea hay: 0.05 US$/kg
Forages as high value products

15. Forage conservation in Honduras
• Increase of farms with silo 2005 to 2006  33 to 67 farms (203%)
• Increase of silage produced 2005 to 2006  1650 to 3785 tons (222%)
• Increase of smallholders using silages
• Silage use in Yorito (26%), Yoro (10%), Sulaco (20%), Victoria (20%)
Forages as high value products

16. Improving silage quality for pigs
pH development in Canavalia brasiliensis
medium inoculated with different Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB)
• Pre-condition: optimized
isolates during 2 days of incubation
ensiling technique, e.g. 5.2
P. acidilactici
compaction, wrapping 5.0
Tiii 15
Tiii 5.2
S 94.1
•
Ti 5
4.8
Additional energy sources Tiv 4.8
Tiv 17.6
4.6 Tvi 21.3
improve silage S 15.5
S 66.7
4.4
pH
•
4.2
Inoculants such as selected
4.0
lactic acid bacteria improve
fermentation and reduce anti- 3.8
nutritive compounds 10 20 30 40 50
Hours
Forages as high value products

17. Legume supplementation of village pigs in Laos
Assess the potential of forage legumes as a
supplement to traditional pig diets
• Feeding trials
• Farmer evaluations
• Village learning activities
Impact of Stylosanthes guianensis CIAT 184
supplementation for local Lao pigs fattened in pens
• Women save at least 1 hour per day
▪ Previously they had to search for naturally
occurring green feeds for pigs in forests
and fallow fields
• Pigs grow twice as fast
▪ Daily average growth rates increased from
100 to 200 g per day
Forages as high value products

18. Scaling out village pig work
through a Learning Alliance Reaching more villages
1400 NGO
Number of households
1200 District extension
1000
800
600
400
200
0
2005 2006 2007 2008
Year
Reaching more families
Vientiane
Project sites
NGO sites
Forages as high value products

19. Feeding fish with improved grasses
A success story in Tuyen
Farmers who adopted improved Quang, Vietnam
grasses were able to harvest 63%
more fish by weight as well as to
obtain 10.7% higher price per kilo
of fish because they received a
“premium” due to the sale of
heavier, larger fish
Forage adopters earned 2.3 times
more income per pond and the
return to family labor was five
times greater compared to
farmers who produced fish in the
traditional way
Forages as high value products

20. Forages integrated into smallholder
crop-livestock systems: Realizing
livelihood and environmental
benefits
Forages integrated into smallholder systems

21. Realizing the benefits of Canavalia brasiliensis in smallholder production
system in CA hillsides
• Continuous staple crop (maize, beans) production
• Overall soil fertility decline, low crop and animal production (6 months dry season)
• Canavalia brasiliensis as green manure or as dry season feed focusing on (N) fluxes
• Farmers integrate Canavalia to substitute fertilizers, to increase dry season milk production and to
recuperate degraded soils
• Canavalia derives more than 50% of N from the atmosphere increasing N-balance
Feed biomass availability increased by a tonne per ha
7
6
5
kg/day/animal
4
3
2
1
0
Control Canavalia Control Canavalia Control Canavalia
Farm 1 Farm 2 Farm 3
Higher milk production of one kg/animal/day with no negative
effect on milk quality
Forages integrated into smallholder systems

22. The case of EMPRASEFOR, Honduras
• A group of farmers - with strategic help of
CIAT and local partners - runs a forage seed
production enterprise based on Brachiaria
brizantha CIAT 26110 “Toledo” during 8
years, with several tons of seed marketed
• Results have been variable due to unpredictable
climatic events in combination with low input use
• Concept has however shown strong resilience to
setbacks
• Farmers have started to diversify into related
activities like production of concentrates using
locally produced forages
• Approach is replicable with an investment of
around US $ 2.000
Forages integrated into smallholder systems

23. Adoption of alternative forages by households in Ea Kar, Daklak, Viet Nam, 2007
> 30% of
>20% of
households with
cattle grow forages
3000
Number of households
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Years
Forages integrated into smallholder systems

24. Reduced N2O emissions from Brachiaria humidicola
1200
1000
N2O (mg m-2y-1)
800
600
400
200
0
Bh 16888 Bh 679 Hybrid P.maximum Soybean Bare Soil
Mulato
Field validation of biological nitrification
inhibition from Brachiaria humidicola
Forages integrated into smallholder systems

25. SoFT– A tool for targeting forages
18000
16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Number of visits
Approx. 10,000 pages visited per
month since launch in 2005

26. Forages and Eco-efficiency
• Improved adaptation to abiotic stress factors
improves resource use efficiency
• Disease and pest tolerance/resistance
improves resource use efficiency
• CIAT’s forage work emphasizes adaptation to
marginal conditions providing higher value
options in stressed environments
• Forages improve soil fertility through effects
on soil structure, organic matter content and
nitrogen fixation, nutrient mining and reduce
erosion

27. Forages and Eco-efficiency cont.
• Forages can improve existing farming systems and
contribute to developing alternative land uses
• Integration of forages into cropping systems has benefits
on productivity and resilience of systems
• Forages improve resilience of vulnerable systems,
leading to healthier, higher quality products
• Multiple benefits but trade-offs (e.g. feed, green
manure, cover, wood …)
• Improved forages reduce global warming potential, by
improving carbon sequestration, reducing nitrous oxide
emissions and methane production per unit animal
product
• Improved forages could reduce negative effects of
livestock production by reversing land degradation

28. Forages as key components in CIAT’s strategy
for eco-efficiency
Forages integrated into crop-
Outputs/ Forage germplasm Forages as high livestock systems
CIAT Programs developed value products
Livelihood Environment
Agrosalud/Harvest Plus
GRU
Biotech
Beans
Cassava/Clayuca
High value Agroenterprises
CIAT-TSBF (ISFM/ SLM)
Decision and Policy Analysis
Gender Analysis/
Participatory Research
Amazon Initiative/Tropical
Fruits
= Potential

29. Outlook: What’s next
• Germplasm development is the basis for any work on/with
forages
• Consolidate/amplify research on high value options
• Increase research on forages in crop livestock systems for
improved livelihoods and the environment: Adaptation to
AND mitigation of climate change, trade-offs (economic,
environmental), restoring degraded lands, water (?),
environmental services (?),
• Planting material (seed and vegetative) supply in systems
• Strengthen work in Eastern and Southern Africa
• Capacity building and knowledge sharing remains a challenge
• Advocacy on importance of tropical forages for eco-efficient
systems

30. Gracias
Father`s day in Germany, May 21
Another use of pastures
Source: WWW.CartoonStock.com
Eales Stan