Poverty

Livestock within the integrated farming systems practised in the mid-hills of Nepal are frequently crucial to income generation. They may provide regular, small income from sales of milk, or larger amounts of income from meat sales of goats and buffalo. Livestock also provide an important means of investment and saving where transaction costs of using banks and money lenders are very high. Improving the feed of ruminants can lead to increased production, as experienced by some farmers in yield of milk obtained from buffalo regularly fed Pennisetum purpureum x P. americanum and Pennisetum pedicellatum ( NB 21 and Dinanath). Health of the animals can also be improved (through reducing deficits experienced during the dry season), reducing the risk involved in ruminant livestock raising, and increasing returns to labour investments.

Savings and credit activities encouraged and supported within the farmers groups have been important in facilitating further livestock purchases for some members and other investment initiatives, such as preserve manufacture and marketing.

Social and human development

In working predominantly with groups of women the project has assisted in increasing their own sense of worth and status in the community. This was clearly expressed by the young women's group in Tawari village when making plans for activities after completion of the research component of the project. They were all very keen on continuing to meet as a group, as well as to further develop fodder supplies and look to increase income through milk production. Keenness to continue activities was due to the positive response from families in bringing new fodder resources and ideas for increasing livestock production into the household. They were also motivated by the group providing an acceptable forum for meeting, socialising and exposure to new ideas via the local NGO facilitators.

Documents

	Final Technical Report
	Seasonal composition and quality of livestock diets on small-holder mixed farms in the mid-hills zone of Nepal
	Seasonal patterns of livestock feed collection and deficits for small-holder mixed farms in the mid-hills zone of Nepal
	Problems and challenges in the implementation of suggested improvements to fodder management strategies in the field through local farmers' groups
	Survival and growth of selected fodder species in Dhading, Kabhra and Sindhupalchok districts
	Proceedings of a National Workshop on Improved Strategies for identifying and addressing fodder deficits in the mid-hills of Nepal. September 5-6th 2000, Kathmandu, Nepal.
	An analysis of farmers' decision-making processes regarding fodder management strategies
	Livestock Production Systems and the Development of Fodder Resources for the Mid-hills of Nepal

Project activities may in time lead to greater access to income by women (objective clearly expressed by the more mature women's group in Chankhubesi) who kept crossbred cattle for milk sales and knew that their improved cows were not realising their potential due to fodder shortages. This group was also interested in goat sales (a large market was quite close by), but was finding suitable fodder very hard to access. The women's group in Ange led efforts to reduce grazing in the village in order to protect newly-cultivated fodder resources. Through expanding membership of the savings group to all households in the immediate community and concerted efforts by original members and NGO staff, opinion in the village was changed so as to support controlled grazing on cultivated fields. Fines were used at one stage to discourage those not adhering to the new rules and these were paid in most cases, with support from the village development committee Chairman and the wider community.

An increase in milk production in more remote areas will also lead to a greater amount being included within the family diet. This is important for family health, particularly weaning infants, as milk products are being fed particularly to infants and the elderly.

 Environmental sustainability and regeneration

The increased cultivation of fodders on-farm, together with an increase in stall feeding, tends to lead to fewer but more productive ruminant livestock being kept. Reduced livestock numbers will reduce pressure on environmental resources. It will also help to slow down the degradation of forest land through shrubs to pastures that occurs with open grazing at high stocking densities.

The project clearly identified the importance of off-farm sources of fodder to livestock diets, especially for those households with limited land holdings. Consequently, it is important to investigate and support ways of maintaining or increasing sustainable production of fodders from off-farm sources, particularly in the light of the widespread introduction of changing management practices through the CFM programme.