scholarly journals Reconnecting Grazing Livestock to Crop Landscapes: Reversing Specialization Trends to Restore Landscape Multifunctionality

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo César de Faccio Carvalho ◽  
Pedro Arthur de Albuquerque Nunes ◽  
Arthur Pontes-Prates ◽  
Leonardo Silvestri Szymczak ◽  
William de Souza Filho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Livestock Systems ◽  
Grazing Livestock ◽  
Crop And Livestock Production

Closely integrated crop and livestock production systems used to be the rule in agriculture before the industrial revolution. However, agricultural landscapes have undergone a massive intensification process in recent decades. This trajectory has led to uniform landscapes of specialized cropping systems or consolidated zones of intensive livestock production. Loss of diversity is at the core of increasing side effects on the environment from agriculture. The unintended consequences of specialization demand the reconciliation of food production with environmental quality. We argue that the reconnection of grazing livestock to specialized crop landscapes can restore decoupled biogeochemical cycles and reintroduce the necessary complexity to restore ecosystem functioning. Besides, the reconnection of crops and livestock promotes several ecosystem services underlying multifunctionality. We focus on the capacity of integrated crop-livestock systems to create biophysical and socioeconomic resilience that cope with weather and market oscillations. We present examples of redesigned landscapes that leverage grazing animals to optimize food production per unit of land while mitigating the externalities of specialized agriculture. We also debate mindset barriers to the shift of current specialization trends toward the design of multifunctional landscapes.

Tropical and subtropical forage germplasm conservation and science on their deathbed! 1. A journey to crisis

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte L Maass ◽  
Bruce C Pengelly
Keyword(s):  
Production Systems ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Germplasm Conservation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
Livestock Systems ◽  
Consultative Group

While interest in the potential of tropical and subtropical forage (TSTF) germplasm for improved livestock production commenced earlier, it was not until the 1950s and 1960s that plant collecting and research on diversity and utilization of grasses and legumes reached significant global momentum. The subsequent engagement in pasture and forage research by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centres, such as the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA; 1974–1995)/International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI; since 1995) from the 1970s onwards, built on the advances made by national centres in Australia, the United States of America, Kenya and elsewhere. By 1990–2000, TSTFs were recognized for contributing to a range of commercial and smallholder livestock production systems in Latin America, Australia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa. However, their use, the value of further research and the need to maintain the very large and diverse collections held in international and national genebanks were challenged by this time because of perceived environmental risks, questions about whether or not past achievements could be bettered and the high costs of maintaining genebanks. Since then, the decline in investment and the quality of conservation and curation has been a relatively rapid process and reached the crisis point of today in just 20–25 years. This article traces 70 years of expansion and then decline of plant collecting, conservation, research and commercialization of TSTFs as a new commodity and examines the reasons for the sharp changes that have taken place. In a second article (this issue), the argument is made for swift and drastic action to prevent critical germplasm from being lost, to enable genebanks to play their crucial and unique role in underpinning improving production and productivity in livestock systems and to provide key germplasm tools to achieve environmental benefits.

Role of Local Knowledge in Mixed Livestock Production Systems

2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Komwihangilo ◽  
Faustin P. Lekule ◽  
George C. Kajembe ◽  
Poul H. Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Livestock Feeds ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Crop And Livestock Production

Local knowledge is an important asset for smallholder farmers who operate differently in diverse crop and livestock production systems in the tropics. Various methods are needed for its acquisition, analysis, storage and communication. While local knowledge of livestock feeds and other resources is abundant, amalgamation of the positive aspects of this knowledge system with that emanating from contemporary scientific approaches is critical yet limited. The merger is desirable so as to achieve improved productivity and sustainability of mixed livestock production systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Integrating crop and livestock production in Inland Northwest farming systems

1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 121-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda H. Hardesty ◽  
James A. Tiedeman
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Domestic Demand ◽  
Forage Crops ◽  
Inland Northwest ◽  
Production Cycles ◽  
Crop And Livestock Production

AbstractThe demand for more ecologically and economically sustainable agriculture arises because we currently integrate products economically in a fashion that distorts ecologica I relationships. Earfy farms were ecologically integrated through feeding of forage crops and crop residues to livestock, with livestock contributing draft power and manure for crops. Today we have almost entirely uncoupled plant and animal production, eliminating the contribution that each can make to the productivity of the other. Barriers to integrating farming systems include the large volume of information needed for sophisticated production systems and the lack of infrastructure. Also, many chemicals used on crops have not been evaluated for their safety in food animals. Winter feeding and calving may conflict with crop production cycles; balancing year-round forage supplies is another obstacle. Opportunities include using the Conservation Reserve Program to shift land to livestock production. Domestic demand for meat is changing, and range livestock production is seen by some people as more humane than confinement. Animals fed less grain may be more acceptable in some markets. As agriculture responds to changes in society, ecologica I integration may become more compatible with economic integration.

An exploratory tool for analysis of forage and livestock production options

2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 788 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. D. Millar ◽  
R. E. Jones ◽  
D. L. Michalk ◽  
S. Brady
Keyword(s):  
Water Use ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Forage Production ◽  
Farm Model ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Gross Margins ◽  
On Farm ◽  
Livestock Systems

The Grain & Graze Whole-Farm Model was developed as a simple modelling tool to identify better strategies to improve the income of farmers and overcome grassland degradation. Using information on farm structure, crop and forage production systems, livestock production systems and variable costs involved in all enterprises, maximum whole-farm gross margins are obtained for an optimum or a prescribed mix of enterprises. The incorporation of production systems for different rainfall scenarios enables climatic risks and water use efficiencies of different enterprises to be investigated. Model simulations demonstrated the potential improvements that could be achieved in dollar water use efficiency ($WUE), by changes in management and/or changes in enterprise. The design of the model makes it a valuable tool for evaluating new systems, as it easy to develop new crop, pasture and livestock systems. Innovative farming systems such as pasture cropping and alley farming are included in the model.

scholarly journals Management and labour in an integrated crop-livestock-forestry system in Roraima, Brazilian Amazonia

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 25005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amaury Burlamaqui Bendahan ◽  
René Poccard-Chapuis ◽  
Roberto Dantas de Medeiros ◽  
Newton de Lucena Costa ◽  
Jean-François Tourrand
Keyword(s):  
Production Systems ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Exclusive Production ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Rural Workers ◽  
Complicating Factors ◽  
Government Data ◽  
Cattle Farms ◽  
Livestock Systems

Livestock production systems in the Amazon have caused substantial environmental damage. With the pressure to improve and increase production on limited lands, and the new ways of evaluating systems, farmers are looking for alternatives to livestock production. The scientific community began to promote incorporating trees as a component of livestock systems, as an alternative to livestock specialization. However, these systems were not adopted as expected. One of the hypotheses is that this alternative requires a complicated management. In this context, the objective of this study was to describe the implications for the management of cattle farms and the work necessary to include an integrated crop-livestock-forestry system (CLFIS) in cattle farms in Roraima State. To address this objective, we used secondary government data, interviews, and farm monitoring. The results showed that, regardless of the scale of production, more components in the CLFIS result in more activity differentiation, more diversification of knowledge and work, and a more complicated management. In conclusion, the adoption of a CLFIS to replace the exclusive production of livestock results in losing the flexibility and characteristics of livestock production in Amazonia. The increase in the average age and the low level of schooling of farmers and rural workers are factors that make it difficult for them to internalize, understand and adopt CLFIS. Labour and management are complicating factors contributing to the low level of CLFIS adoption by Roraima State farmers.

scholarly journals The political economy of unsustainable lock-ins in North American commodity agriculture: a path forward – Response to Struckman

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 107-111
Author(s):  
Silvia Secchi
Keyword(s):  
Production Systems ◽  
Waste Product ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Social Costs ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
Fertilizer Use ◽  
Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizer ◽  
Crop And Livestock Production

In this commentary, I argue that in North America, the overuse of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is due to institutional and technological lock-ins, which are the result of historical policies with deep roots in an agricultural system focused on increasing production of commodities with disregard for their full social costs. Further, excessive fertilizer use is integral to production systems that have disconnected crop and livestock production to the extent that manure is a waste product, which further creates environmental problems. In order to address the environmental and social problems associated with industrial agriculture, it will be necessary to bring market prices closer to true social costs, thereby eliminating overproduction of commodity grains and oilseeds, and to promote more diverse agricultural landscapes.

scholarly journals Tapping Into the Environmental Co-benefits of Improved Tropical Forages for an Agroecological Transformation of Livestock Production Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
An M. O. Notenbaert ◽  
Sabine Douxchamps ◽  
Daniel M. Villegas ◽  
Jacobo Arango ◽  
Birthe K. Paul ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Global South ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
System Transformation ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Livestock Systems

Livestock are critical for incomes, livelihoods, nutrition and ecosystems management throughout the global South. Livestock production and the consumption of livestock-based foods such as meat, cheese, and milk is, however, under global scrutiny for its contribution to global warming, deforestation, biodiversity loss, water use, pollution, and land/soil degradation. This paper argues that, although the environmental footprint of livestock production presents a real threat to planetary sustainability, also in the global south, this is highly contextual. Under certain context-specific management regimes livestock can deliver multiple benefits for people and planet. We provide evidence that a move toward sustainable intensification of livestock production is possible and could mitigate negative environmental impacts and even provide critical ecosystem services, such as improved soil health, carbon sequestration, and enhanced biodiversity on farms. The use of cultivated forages, many improved through selection or breeding and including grasses, legumes and trees, in integrated crop-tree-livestock systems is proposed as a stepping stone toward agroecological transformation. We introduce cultivated forages, explain their multi-functionality and provide an overview of where and to what extent the forages have been applied and how this has benefited people and the planet alike. We then examine their potential to contribute to the 13 principles of agroecology and find that integrating cultivated forages in mixed crop-tree-livestock systems follows a wide range of agroecological principles and increases the sustainability of livestock production across the globe. More research is, however, needed at the food system scale to fully understand the role of forages in the sociological and process aspects of agroecology. We make the case for further genetic improvement of cultivated forages and strong multi-disciplinary systems research to strengthen our understanding of the multidimensional impacts of forages and for managing agro-environmental trade-offs. We finish with a call for action, for the agroecological and livestock research and development communities to improve communication and join hands for a sustainable agri-food system transformation.

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