A Partic ipatory Simulation to Fac ilitate Farmers’ Adoption of Livestock Feeding Systems Based on Conservation Agriculture in the Uplands of Northern Vietnam

A Partic ipatory Simulation to Fac ilitate Farmers’ Adoption of Livestock Feeding Systems Based on Conservation Agriculture in the Uplands of Northern Vietnam

A Pa rtic ip a tory Sim ula tion to Fa c ilita te Fa rm ers’ Ad op tion of

Livestoc k Feed ing System s Ba sed on Conserva tion Ag ric ulture in the Up la nd s of Northern Vietna m

Ced ric Martin1,2, Jean-Christop he Castella2,3, H oang Lan Anh2, Yann Egu ienta1,2,4 and Tran Trong H ieu2

1

Centre d e Coop e´ration Internationale en Recherche Agronomiqu e p ou r le De´velopp em ent (CIRAD), Av Agropolis, 34398 Montpellier Ced ex 5, France;2Mou ntain Agrarian Systems Program m e, Vietnam Agricultural Science Institute (VASI), Thanh Tri, H anoi, Vietnam;3Institut d e Recherche p ou r le De´velopp em ent (IRD), 213 rue Lafayette, 75480 Paris Ced ex 10, France, and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), DAPO 7777, Metro Manila, Philip pines; 4 Centre N ational d ’Etud es Agronomiques d es Re´gions Chau d es (CN EARC), 1101 Av Agropolis, BP 5098, 34033 Montpellier Ced ex 1, France

In th e m ou n tain areas of n orth ern Vietn am , exten sive

h u sband ry of large-ru m in ants is lim ited b y th e lack of

n atu ral forage Sin ce 2000, th e M ou ntain Agrarian

System Program h as b een con cern ed w ith this issu e

and h as evaluated tech n ical altern atives aimed at su

s-tain ab le in tegration of crop-livestock system s O n e

altern ative con sists of feed ing system s for

large-ru m in an ts b ased on crop p ing systems w ith p lan t cover.

D iffu sion of in formation abou t the n ew system is su p

-p orted b y a set of in teractive com m u n ication tools for

u se b etw een farmers an d research ers A p articip atory

sim u lation m eth od w as d eveloped that com bin es a com

-p artm ental m od el of th e village territory w ith five tech n

i-cal inn ovation s Farmers sim ulate th e ad op tion of th e

in n ovations th ey ch oose am on g food-forage cropp in g

system s in rotation or in association , and u rea-treated

straw Th ey evaluate th e q uan tity of forage th at can b e

grown for th eir h erd u sin g th e chosen set of tech n iq u es.

Sim ulations revealed farmers’ con strain ts and

objec-tives in adop tin g su stain ab le crop p in g systems on th e

h illsid es w h ile m ain tain in g a small an im al h u sban d ry

system Th e resu lts ob tain ed b y each farmer p rovid e a

u sefu l b asis for d iscu ssion abou t th e imp lemen tation

of inn ovation This p articip atory sim u lation m eth od

cou ld b e m ore w id ely u sed to facilitate th e d iffu sion of

in n ovations su ch as in tegratin g livestock feed in g

system s w ith con servation crop p in g p ractices.

Keyw ord s conservation agricu ltu re, livestock

system s, m ou ntain areas, p articip atory sim u

-lation, Vietnam

Introd uc tion

Since 1997, the Mou ntain Agrarian System s

Program has been investigating land -u se

changes and p rioritising d evelop m ent issu es in Bac Kan, one of the p oorest p rovinces in northern Vietnam (Castella et al., 2003a) The d iagnostic

p hase revealed three d riving forces for local

d evelop m ent that are shared by m any other

u p land areas in northern Vietnam and also by Southeast Asia in general First, the villagers’ access to m arkets, ed ucation, health services and technical inform ation is of critical importance

in p rovid ing d iversified local d evelop m ent

op p ortu nities The geograp hic d iversity of the land scap e is reflected in the w id e d iversity of socio-econom ic environm ents (Donovan et al., 1997) Second , the su ccessive land p olicies that have accom p anied the p rocess of agricu ltu ral

d ecollectivisation over the last d ecad e have been a m ajor d riving force of changes in land

u se Land d istribu tion to ind ivid u al hou sehold s

p rofound ly m od ified land -u se system s both

in the valley bottom s and on the hillsid es (Castella & Dang, 2002; Jam ieson et al., 1998) Third , crop – livestock – forest interactions w ere com p letely transform ed by a changing econom ic context, and by accessibility and land tenu re

p olicies The extensive m anagem ent of

large-ru m inants (bu ffaloes and cattle) has becom e a

m ajor obstacle to agricu ltu ral intensification in both the low land s and the u p land s (Castella

et al., 2003b; H u sson et al., 2001a) The restriction

of the access bu ffaloes and cattle had to their trad itional forage resou rces resu lted in their straying into shru b- and forestland , cau sing p ro-blem s for forest regeneration and also for the anim als, as p oor d iet lead s to p oor p erform ance

In recent years m ajor environm ental concerns

118

have been raised abou t m ou ntain agricu ltu ral

system s, concerns that em erged after the

aboli-tion of the agricu ltu ral collectives in 1988

Althou gh ou r research p rogram m e cou ld not

go beyond the d ocu m entation of the im p act

of accessibility and land p olicies on land -u se

changes, w e d evelop ed a range of technical and

organisational innovations to overcom e som e of

the crop – livestock issu es that w e id entified

A d iagnostic stu d y carried ou t beforehand set

the stage for the d iffu sion of the innovations

A large nu mber of cropping practices based on

p lant cover and embracing the p rinciples of

con-servation agriculture w ere d eveloped as

alterna-tives to slash-and-burn p ractices and tested in

the real cond itions that the farm ers face (Altieri,

2002; H usson et al., 2001b; Uphoff, 2002) These

w ere d esigned as basic components of m ore

com p lex cropp ing system s that farm ers can

com bine in d ifferent w ays d ep end ing on their

specific need s and objectives (e.g give p riority to

rice sufficiency, crop –livestock association, p ut

m ore emp hasis on forage for livestock, expansion

of perennial crops, etc.) The m ost p romising

inno-vations thu s far have been, (1) d irect sow ing of

u pland rice or m aize in a m ulch of Brachiaria

(grass) or M ucuna (legum e), (2) crop –legum e

association (e.g cassava – Stylosanthes, orchard

-Arachis), (3) vegetative strips (natu ral vegetation,

p lanted grasses or legum es) along contour

lines, (4) a soil slow burning techniqu e that

boosts the fertility of d egrad ed soils by releasing

p hosp horu s in a form that the plant can easily

u ptake, and (5) m ini-terraces to control erosion

on steep slopes In ad d ition to restructuring soils,

controlling erosion and improving crop m

anage-m ent, these innovations can also p rovide good

quality forage for livestock (Eguienta et al., 2002)

Farm ers w ho tested the p rop osed techniqu es in

their ow n field s w ithin the fram ew ork of the

p roject w ere very interested in these alternatives

to trad itional slash and bu rn p ractices They

su ggested im p rovem ents, and p rop osed som e

of their ow n innovations (e.g treatm ent of straw

w ith u rea) that w ere tested at a w id er scale in

the p roject H ow ever, the d iffu sion of these new

p ractices w as not an easy p rocess The sp ecific

constraints of the m ou ntain environm ent had to

be taken into accou nt in d esigning strategies for

the d issem ination of innovation In m ost cases it

is im p ossible for su bsistence farm ers to ad op t a

com p lete p ackage; stepwiseadoption (i.e the

intro-d u ction of su ccessive com p onents of a given

crop p ing system s) is p referred The introd u ction

of any innovation is m anaged in a systemic perspective, as changes in the crop p ing p atterns

of sm all u p land farm s inevitably affect livestock and forest resou rce m anagem ent For exam p le, the d evelop m ent of cover crop s or vegetative strip s w ou ld lim it livestock access to fallow field s d u ring the w inter and w ou ld thu s requ ire farm ers (1) to fence their field s to avoid d am age

to soil conservation crop s by straying anim als, and (2) to com p ensate for the restriction

im p osed on trad itional forage resou rces by grow ing their ow n forage or p rovid ing access to other grazing areas The integrated com p onents

of farm ers’ livelihood system s thu s cannot be stu d ied or m od ified ind ep end ently from each other Lastly, soil and w ater conservation tech-niqu es enable the highly d iverse u p land

environ-m ent to be u sed to ad vantage In the face of the

d iversity of situ ations and system s, a wide range

of solutionsis requ ired Farm ers can choose from

am ong the op tions those that best fit their ow n

p articu lar circu m stances and need s

The above constraints in the d iffu sion of inno-vation call for an integrated m ethod ological

ap p roach to farm ers’ livelihood system s and

m ore sp ecifically to crop – livestock m anagem ent

In su ch a d iverse natu ral and hu m an

environ-m ent, only a p articip atory ap p roach is able to

id entify farm ers’ need s in a tim e effective

m anner (Castella et al., 2003b; N eef, 2004; Pretty, 1995) H ow ever, certain factors that ensu re the

su ccess of the p articip atory m ethod (Mosse, 1994) have to be taken into accou nt w hen d esign-ing a m ethod that allow s farm ers to sim u late the

ad op tion of innovation The p articip atory sim u -lation ap p roach d iffers from a ‘rap id ’ ap p raisal that cannot resu lt in a fu ll u nd erstand ing of the com p lex system s involved nor establish a relationship of tru st betw een the local p op u lation and ou tsid ers Fu rtherm ore, a p articip atory

ap p roach can accom m od ate d ifferent d egrees of

p articip ation by p articip ants in a given session, and also d ifferent p ercep tions of the ap p roach

by p articip ants (Moser, 1991) The facilitators of the m eetings m u st have good technical know

l-ed ge as w ell as good com m u nication skills to enable all the p articip ants to exp ress them selves Facilitators also need a good know led ge of the local context to be able to interp ret the

infor-m ation generated by the ap p raisal, p articu larly the socio-p olitical asp ects, in ord er to avoid m is-interp retation (Sayer & Cam p bell, 2004; Shanks

& Bu i, 2001) The tools (i.e tables, m ap s, figu res)

u sed to generate this inform ation m ay be an

obstacle to active p articip ation if they are not easy

to u nd erstand (Mosse, 1994) In ou r case, the

sim u lation w as not carried ou t in ‘virgin’ territory

bu t in a village w here p roject staff (inclu d ing one

native of the village) had been exp erim enting

innovations w ith local farm ers for the p ast three

years This p rocess had resu lted in a good

relation-ship betw een local stakehold ers and researchers

and the latter had acqu ired a good know led ge

of the local context

In this pap er w e highlight the process of

inno-vation d iffu sion that engaged both scientists and

local stakeholders in d esigning a platform for

social learning for the m anagem ent of natu ral

resources (Ro¨ling & Jiggins, 1998) The scientists

facilitated the d iffusion of innovation by provid ing

all the inform ation needed to enable local p eople

to m ake their own evaluation of crop–livestock

issues, to collectively d iscover d ifferent possible

solutions and to ad ap t them to the sp ecific issues

they had d efined together To start the interactive

com m unication p rocess w e d esigned a grap hic

language to be used by scientists and local

stake-holders The grap hic language incorporated tw o

m ajor assum ptions d erived from p revious stu

d-ies in the same area: (1) the village entity is the

relevant sp atial and social u nit for com m

unity-based m anagem ent of natural resources (Castella

& Dang, 2002), and (2) the spatio-temp oral

d im ension of crop –livestock interactions is a key

factor to take into accou nt w hen d esigning or

introdu cing technical innovations (Castella et al.,

2002a) The aim of this p aper is to rep ort on our

experience using and evaluating the new com

-m unication tool as a sup port for the d iffu sion of

sustainable technical innovations The m ethod

itself is d iscu ssed in d etail in two other p apers

(Castella et al., 2002a, 2002b)

The Suc c essive Sta g es in the

Pa rtic ip a tory Sim ula tion of

Innova tion Ad op tion

We p resented our grap hic m od els to rep

resenta-tives of the local comm u nity to check that w e had

in fact d esigned a ‘comm on spatial language’

betw een researchers and farm ers The com m on

spatial language is intend ed to p rovide a concrete

supp ort for (1) the p articipatory valid ation of

local inform ation related to spatial m anagem ent

of natu ral resources, and (2) the introdu ction of

technical innovations to imp rove feed ing systems

for large rum inants Sixteen farm ers attended the

first session held on 18 and 19 October, 2001 at the Phieng Lieng People’s Com m ittee The p

artici-p ants w ere (1) reartici-p resentative (men and w om en)

of the three m ain household typ es classified in a household typology m ad e in Phieng Lieng in 2000 (Eguienta et al., 2002); (2) knowled geable and influ ential p eople w ithin the com m u nity; and (3) farm ers w ho w ere familiar w ith the p roject activi-ties and innovations through p reviou s

involve-m ent in project experiinvolve-ments

At the beginning of the m eeting, the d ecrease

in natu ral forage resou rces and the im p ortance

of natu ral resou rce m anagem ent w ere high-lighted At the first session, a 3D m od el of the village (Castella et al., 2002b) w as u sed as a visu al su p p ort to show the farm ers the m ain land scap e featu res and the d ifferent land -u se classes We established a link betw een the m ain land m arks on the 3D m od el and their rep resen-tation on a p ap er-based sp atial grap hic m od el Once the p articip ants w ere com fortable w ith the

sp atial grap hic m od el that rep resented land u se

in their village in 2001, w e u sed the sam e kind

of grap hic rep resentations to show the changes

in land u se that their village had u nd ergone over the last 40 years We w ere thu s able to show how cu rrent land u se and related issu es

w ere a p rod u ct of the p ast (Castella et al., 2002b)

At the end of the first session, a blank calend ar (Figu re 1) w as d isp layed so the p articip ants cou ld rep resent the d istribu tion of their activities over a

p eriod of one year by d istingu ishing the relative contribu tion of m en and w om en and the location

of the d ifferent activities in the village territory Eight activities w ere inclu d ed : irrigated rice,

u p land crop s, orchard and gard en, anim al

hu sband ry, gathering of tim ber and non-tim ber forest p rod ucts, and off-farm activities For each activity and gend er, the corresp ond ing w orking

p eriod w as m arked on the calend ar Inform ation abou t annu al d istribu tion of labou r betw een activities and betw een m en and w om en is very

im p ortant becau se lack of labou r can be a m ajor constraint in the ad op tion of innovations

Interesting inform ation also cam e to light abou t interactions betw een crop and livestock related activities, show ing that the anim als relied exclu -sively on natu ral resou rces or crop resid u es for forage:

After each rice h arvest, th e ru m in an ts graze in the rice field s (N ovem ber – Decem ber and briefly in May – Ju ne)

Th e on ly forage resou rce available in th e crop

-p ing area d u ring the cro-p -p ing -p eriod is

veg-etation bord ering the field s and this is not

su fficient

Farm ers h ave to carefu lly m an age th eir stock of

rice straw, w hich is d istribu ted to the w orking

bu ffaloes d u ring the second rice crop p ing

season

At the second session, the sp atial m od el

corre-sp ond ing to cu rrent land u se w as first p resented

to the p articip ants and the sp atial com p artm ent

m od el w as then introd u ced After the d ifferent

com p artm ents had been d escribed , a p ap er

cop y of the grap hic m od el of the village w as d

is-tribu ted to each p articip ant w ho w as invited to

locate his or her ow n land resou rces in the d

iffer-ent com p artm iffer-ents N ext, five innovations w ere

p rop osed together w ith their feed ing cap acity

for large ru m inants Pap er cop ies of the com p

art-m ental art-m od el w ere u sed as su p p orts for a p

artici-p atory sim u lation of innovation ad oartici-p tion The

farm ers w ere then invited to choose am ong the

p rop osed innovations the one they w ou ld like

to ad op t, to locate it on the com p artm ental

m od el, and w ith the assistance of the researchers,

to calcu late the feed ing cap acity of their herd The

p articip ants w ere alread y fam iliar w ith these new crop p ing system s as they had been tested by som e of them in their ow n village They w ere free to p rop ose their ow n innovations w ith the corresp ond ing technical p aram eters

Mod elling Sp a tia l Ma na g em ent of

Na tura l Resourc es a t the Villa g e Level a nd Rela ted Livestoc k

Ma na g em ent Issues

The c om p a rtm enta l m od el The d ifferent land -u se typ es in Phieng Lieng village territory w ere taken from a village scale GIS to create a com p artm ental m od el (Castella

et al., 2002a), w here each kind of land -u se w as rep resented p rop ortionally This com m u nication

Figu re 1 Sp atio-tem p oral d im ensions of the sim u lation

tool w as p resented to the farm ers attend ing the

sim u lation p rogressively in d ifferent versions

First, the sp atial m od el corresp ond ing to the

cu rrent land u se (first level of abstraction) that

had been show n to the farm ers at the p reviou s

session w as d isp layed on a p ap er board Then

the d ifferent elem ents of the sp atial m od el

(Castella et al., 2002b) w ere id entified and p

ro-gressively d raw n on a new schem atic m od el in

ord er to lead the farm ers to a second level of

abstraction: the com p artm ental m od el

Once the schem atic m od el w as d raw n, a

colou red version w as p resented w ith p rop ortions

of land u se areas that show ed the real village

situ ation (Figu re 1):

th e low lan d crop area m ain ly corresp on d ed to

1 – 2 cycles of irrigated rice, som etim es m aize

(hot rainy season) and vegetables (cold d ry

season);

th e gard en area w as d ed icated to vegetables

and fru it trees;

th e u p lan d crop area corresp on d ed to rain fed

rice, m aize, cassava and p lantations;

th e term ‘forest’ in clu d ed p oor an d secon d ary

forests as w ell as w ood y regrow th

Finally, each p articip ant received a sheet of p ap er

show ing the village m od el on w hich they cou ld

p osition their ow n crop and anim al resou rces

along w ith the innovations they had chosen

Sp a tio-tem p ora l c onstra ints linked to

a nim a l husb a nd ry

Anim al hu sband ry issu es exist in the tw o

d im ensions of sp ace and tim e At the beginning

of the 1990s, the coop erative herd w as d istribu ted

to ind ivid u als (one head/p erson) w ho each

looked after their ow n anim al The forage

resou rces that form ed the basis of this d evelop

-m ent w ere collective p astu res and the forest

H ow ever, these areas w ere not controlled and

natu ral resou rces grad u ally becam e insu fficient

in term s of feed ing cap acity, cau sing tw o

seriou s p roblem s that w ere inter-related :

lack of forage d u rin g th e w in ter (cold d ry

season): forep art from a lim ited qu antity of

d ried rice straw, natu ral vegetation w as the

only feed ing resou rce available and its

grow th w as near zero The resu lt w as w

eaken-ing anim als lead eaken-ing to a red u ction in fertility,

abortion, d ecreased resistance to d isease and

low w ork p erform ance at the beginning of

the rainy season (first cycle rice p lou ghing/ harrow ing in March);

in tra- an d in ter-village con flicts: d u rin g th e

w inter, starving anim als broke fences and

d am aged crop s w ithin the village and d u ring the rest of the year they grazed in the neigh-bou ring village’s m ead ow

To clearly illu strate the p roblem s cau sed by roam ing anim als, the m ovem ent of the village herd in the d ifferent com p artm ents w as illu s-trated on the m od el by arrow s (Figu re 2) The

ad vantages and constraints of d ifferent solu tions for ind ivid u al and/or collective m anagem ent of the livestock herd w ere then introd u ced and

d iscu ssed : closin g off access to oth er village territories

w ou ld be very d ifficu lt as it w ou ld requ ire fencing large areas in the u p p er p art of the village w atershed ;

exten d in g grazin g in th e collective area: th e land cu rrently u sed cou ld only feed 12 bu ffa-loes w hereas there w ere in fact m ore than 100

in Phieng Lieng Increasing the am ou nt of m

ea-d ow lanea-d w ou lea-d requ ire collective m

anage-m ent or ind ivid u al u se of p lots in the collective area, neither of w hich w as con-sid ered feasible by the farm ers at the tim e; im p lem en tin g feed ing system s for

large-ru m inants by com bining innovative crop p ing system s in sp ace and tim e on ind ivid u ally

ow ned land : this w as the solu tion chosen by the farm ers w ho agreed to sim u late the resu lts of su ch system s

Results of the Pa rtic ip a tory Sim ula tion

Inp uts–outp uts There w ere tw o sim u lation inp u ts:

ad op ted in n ovation : each in n ovation h as an associated yield and p eriod (w inter or

su m m er);

su rface area: 2000 m2 w as chosen as the u nit

su rface area, as it is the size of the average p lot The ou tp u t is exp ressed as the nu m ber of equ iv-alent bu ffalo (equ bu ) p er u nit area

Fou r p aram eters w ere inclu d ed : p rod u ction p eriod , exp ressed in d ays (PProd ); con su m p tion rate for a given forage, ran gin g from 1 to 10 (CR);

d aily th eoretical m ain ten an ce n eed s (MN ) for

1 equ bu , exp ressed in kg DM/equ bu/d ay

The average w eight of a bu ffalo is 300 kg and

its d aily food requ irem ent is 2.5 kg d ry m atter

(DM)/100 kg In ord er to take other anim als

into accou nt, a cow is estim ated as 2/3 equ bu

and a goat 1/10 equ bu ;

p oten tial yield , exp ressed in kg/h a (PY) For a

2000 m2p lot, PY

CR/(PProd

MN ) ¼ n equ.bu

Orig in of the innova tions a nd the m od el

p a ra m eters

The crop p ing system s w ith p lant cover sim u

l-taneou sly enable su stainable agricu ltu re on

slop ing land and im p roved anim al feed ing

These techniqu es w ere first tested u nd er

con-trolled cond itions on exp erim ental p lots hired

from the farm ers Once valid ated in local

con-d itions, they w ere im p lem entecon-d by farm ers on

their ow n p lots w ith the assistance of technicians

w ho collected the d ata and feed back from

farm ers abou t the su ccess they had and the

d ifficu lties they encou ntered w hile im p lem enting the new techniqu es

At this p oint, five typ es of innovations had been selected in consu ltation w ith farm ers, each one sp ecific to an agro-ecological u nit (or com p artm ent of the village land scap e)

Food -forage crop rotation (e.g th ree years of Brachiara sp then m aize) allow s feed ing of one bu ffalo/u nit area from March to

N ovem ber

Food -forage crop association : – Brachiara sp interlined w ith m aize allow s feed ing of half bu ffalo/u nit area from

Au gu st to N ovem ber;

– Stylosanthes guyanensis – cassava or orchard (p erennial system , one year settlem ent and w eed ing requ ired ) allow s feed ing of one bu ffalo/u nit su rface from March to

N ovem ber;

orchard soil covered by Arachis pintoı¨ (p eren -nial system , one year settlem ent and w eed ing requ ired ) allow s feed ing of one bu ffalo/u nit area from March to N ovem ber;

Figu re 2 Discu ssion abou t a collective livestock m anagem ent p lan

u rea treated straw allow s feed in g of:

– one bu ffalo/u nit area from Decem ber to

March for m aize straw ;

– tw o bu ffaloes/u nit area, sam e p eriod for

rice straw

Win ter oats in th e irrigated rice field s allow s

feed ing of one bu ffalo/u nit area from

Decem ber to March

Valu es for p aram eters (Table 1) w ere estim ated

from exp erim ental resu lts obtained in the Mou

n-tain Agrarian System s Program from 2001 to 2003

and from the literatu re (FAO) In ord er to be

realistic and to highlight the constraints of

innovative crop p ing system s, reference yield s

corresp ond to m inim u m valu es obtained w ith a

low level of inp u ts on p oor soils Du ring the

d iscu ssion, inform ation abou t com p u ted yield s

w as com p lem ented by inform ation abou t forage

valu es d istingu ishing betw een p rotein and

energetic forages (Figu re 3) and consid ering the

biop hysical effects of the cover crop s:

grasses w ith a d eep an d stron g root system ,

su ch as Brachiaria sp , p lay a key role in soil

d ecom p action and in the im p rovem ent of

p orosity; they also p lay the role of ‘biological

p u m p ’ by recycling m inerals that are not

accessible to associated or rotated crop s;

legu m es, su ch as Stylosanthes an d Arachis sp p ,

im p rove chem ical fertility of the soil by fixing

atm osp heric nitrogen;

u rea treatm en t of rice an d m aize straw are

alternatives to bu rning straw that help red u ce

CO2 em ission w hile p rovid ing good qu ality

feed for livestock;

w in ter oats crop p in g in p ad d y field is a p

oss-ible first step tow ard m ore com p lex crop p ing

system s associated w ith a living p lant cover

A su bstantial increase in the soil organic

carbon content in the 10 cm top soil layer in

no-tillage soils com p ared w ith soils u nd er natu ral vegetation and long-term conventional tillage (Se´guy et al., 2003) can occur d u e to high crop-resid u e inp ut and lack of soil d

is-tu rbance Moreover, m icro and m acro-fauna populations, abundance, d iversity and soil bio-logical activity d ecrease d uring trad itional cu lti-vation system s Conversely, the soil structure is improved w hen a vegetal cover w ith a strong root system is p erm anently m aintained on the soil (H usson et al., 2003; Up hoff, 2002)

Im p lem enta tion of the sim ula tion

Po sitio ning fa rm ers’ reso urc es o n the m o d el

Farm ers d rew lines on the grap hic m od el to show the land they ow ned or cou ld u se in each com p artm ent, i.e the lim its of their ind ivid u al land u se system (Figu re 4) A table w as d istribu -ted so each farm er cou ld note d ow n the size of his bu ffalo herd

Figu re 3 Forage valu es of som e grasses and legu m es tested (H u ssonet al., 2003)

Tab le 1 Valu es for p aram eters of the innovations u sed for the sim u lation

Innova t ion P ot ent ia l yield

(kg/ha )

P roduct ion period (da ys)

Consumpt ion ra t e N equ.bu

Pre senta tio n o f the inno va tio ns

The innovations w ere p resented on a table

(Figu re 5) giving p otential ou tp u ts (equ bu/u nit

area) w ithin the p rod u ction p eriod along

w ith sp ecific characteristics (settlem ent tim e,

fer-tilisation and labou r requ irem ents, etc.), and

illu strated w ith p hotos taken d u ring p reviou s

exp erim ents in their village

Cho ic e o f inno va tio ns b y the fa rm ers a nd eva lua tio n o f the results

Coloured squares corresp ond ing to the d ifferent innovations w ere exp lained and then d istributed to the farm ers w ho chose som e of them and p laced them in the relevant com p artments on their

sche-m atic sche-m od el A brief d esche-m onstration showed thesche-m how to calcu late the nu mber of buffaloes fed

Figu re 4 Positioning farm ers’ resou rces and innovations on the com p artm ental m od el

d uring the d ifferent p eriod s of the year The result

w as then transferred to the buffalo table In

ad d ition to the d em onstration, it w as explained

that:

th e feed in g cap acity lin ked w ith th e in n ovation

is only estim ated and in p ractice it m ay be

slightly d ifferent;

on ly th e sim p lest an d ch eap est tech n iqu es

had been p resented , and these w ou ld not be

su fficient to feed all the bu ffaloes even if they

w ere ap p lied to the w hole village territory;

at th is stage, th e calcu lation d id n ot take labou r

requ irem ents into accou nt

The farm ers w ere then invited to m ake their own

calcu lations based on their own sp ecific situation,

w ith the assistance of the project staff, and to enter

the result on their own table, enabling them to

see if their w hole herd cou ld or could not be fed

from their ind ividu al plots This triggered a

lively d iscussion (Figure 5) At the end of the

session they w ere remind ed that this w as only

the first step in solving their problem , and they

w ere encouraged to contact the team if they

w ished to imp lem ent the proposed innovations

From Sim ula tion to Ac tion

Und ersta nd ing a nd d isc ussing the m od el a nd

p roposed innova tions Follow -u p visits (tw o sessions totalling five

d ays, betw een the end of N ovem ber and the beginning of Decem ber) w ere m ad e to Phieng Liengfarm ers w ho had attend ed the sim u lation The aim w as to m aintain the farm ers’ interest in innovations initiated by the sim u lation, to check their u nd erstand ing of the m od el, and to get their p oints of view abou t the feasibility of the innovations The su rveys w ere cond u cted as

op en interview s to:

listen to th e farm er ’s com m en ts abou t th e

m eeting and p articip atory sim u lation;

ch eck the farm er ’s u nd erstand ing of the

m od el Before d iscu ssing the innovations the farm er w as interested in, he w as asked to

d escribe the three m ain com p artm ents of the

m od el, the location of his resou rces and the innovations he had chosen, in ord er to check his u nd erstand ing of the m od el and to clarify any p oints that had not p reviou sly been m ad e clear;

Figu re 5 Discu ssions betqeen farm ers and researchers abou t the sim u lation in term s of feed ing cap acity

d iscu ss th e in n ovation s ch osen (con strain ts,

p lans, etc.)

All those interview ed exp ressed p ositive

reac-tions to the m eeting Most of the p articip ants

cor-rectly u nd erstood the m od el and the sim u lation

gam e This resu lt confirm ed their interest and

ability to concentrate d u ring the testing of the

m od el Farm ers’ com m ents, p lans and

con-straints abou t p ossible innovations and their

ap p licability are p resented in Table 2 The

general colu m ns d escribe id eas for w hich there

w as a consensu s in the com m u nity The sp ecific

colu m ns are based on ind ivid u al com m ents

m ad e by farm ers of each farm typ e classified by

Egu ienta et al (2002)

Th e lack of forage in w in ter w as a m ajor con

-straint for m ost of the resp ond ents It has

nega-tive effect on p erform ance, rep rod u ction and

resistance to d iseases In 2000 there w as an ep

i-d em ic that lei-d to the i-d eath of m any bu ffaloes

Ap art from in d ivid u al activities, th e p roject

m ay assist the village in a collective activity

p rop osed by one farm er to grow m u cu na on

the collective p astu re area to regenerate the

soil and overcom e w eed s Mu cu na is easily

cleared and other crop s can then be grow n

The p roject cou ld thu s initiate a d ynam ic of

collective m anagem ent that cou ld p artly com

-p ensate for -p roblem s cau sed by ind ivid u al

im p lem entation

Man y resp on d en ts w ere w orried abou t th e fact

that forage crop p lanting tim e (March) m ay

coincid e w ith the sp ring season There is a

risk of a labou r shortage at this tim e and

som e hou sehold s w ou ld thu s not be able to

im p lem ent the innovations

Very few of th e farm ers in terview ed w ere in

ter-ested in rotating forage and food crop s They

ap p eared to consid er it a w aste of land and to

p refer associating these crop s, w hich highlights

the land satu ration situ ation

Som e farm ers fear th at u rea treated straw,

esp ecially m aize straw, cou ld be d angerou s

for their livestock

On ly a few farm ers w ere in terested in grow in g

w inter oats becau se the p ad d y field s are

u su ally not fenced d u ring the w inter This

absence of fencing is also a seriou s constraint

for innovation im p lem entation in the hillsid es

Most of the crop associations are p lanted in the

resid ential/gard en area w here su rveillance is

easier

Table 3 show s the d iversity of the p articip ants rep resented by the w id e range of agricu ltu ral and anim al resou rces Farm ers’ strategies

d u ring the sim u lation w ere influ enced by their available resou rces, cap abilities and objectives, resu lting in a w id e range of reactions and inno-vation choices (Figu re 6) The objectives of their anim al hu sband ry activities d iffered as a fu nction

of their ind ivid u al circu m stances These can range from ow ning a cou p le of bu ffaloes for land p rep aration in the p ad d ies, to d evelop ing a living cap ital, p rod u cing m eat or d iversifying sou rces of incom e All these p aram eters influ -enced the farm ers’ interest in the sim u lation, their choice of innovations, and their m otivation

to actu ally im p lem ent the innovations For instance, som e farm ers w ho d id not ow n large

ru m inants also p layed the gam e, either becau se they p lanned to bu y an anim al or becau se they

w ere interested in the soil fertility im p rovem ent

fu nction of the techniqu es, or in the feed ing valu e of the cover p lants for fish farm ing It can also be seen that som e constraints affect the

w hole com m u nity w hile others are sp ecific to som e hou sehold s: available labou r is a p roblem for som e farm ers, w hile for others it is the

d isp ersion of their p lots or their rem oteness that

p revents them from fencing

The m ain ou tcom es of this exp erim ent in p arti-cip atory sim u lation w ere first that farm ers w ere not p rep ared to collectively m anage forage resou rces at the village scale in ord er to feed their entire bu ffalo herd They p referred to rely

p rim arily on the anim al feed they cou ld

p rod u ce on their ind ivid u al p lots (Castella et al., 2002b) Second ly, crop p ing system s based on cover crop s w ou ld be d evelop ed on the hillsid es only throu gh a step w ise p rocess that w ou ld solve the p roblem of forage d eficit d u ring the

w inter before establishing cover crop s on the slop es and therefore avoid ing d am age by anim als to u p land field s N ew forage resou rces from the valley bottom w ou ld facilitate the

intro-d u ction of the conservation crop p ing system s on the hillsid es

Im p lem enta tion of innova tions The follow ing w inter season (2001), tw o inno-vations w ere p rop osed to the farm ers: u rea treated rice straw and w inter oats The aim of these tw o new com p onents in the livestock feed ing system s w as to low er anim al p ressu re

on the new cover crop s on the hillsid es as w ell