This report reviews previous agroforestry, forage and livestock projects in eastern Indonesia to assess the potential for integrated timber-forage-livestock agroforestry systems to improve the incomes of smallholder farmers in West Timor. It identifies strategies for developing more acceptable systems, proposes methods for their implementation and provides an assessment and analysis of the constraints to adoption of research results. The scoping study included field investigation and a social survey in West Timor in 2007.

Increased beef demand and prices could increase smallholder cash flow and production if feed quantity and quality limitations could be addressed. This project assessed the potential use of cocoa by-products as a cattle feed and various forage and tree legumes in managed grazing systems in South East Sulawesi (Sultra). Methodology involved laboratory, research facility and on farm trials. Results indicate cocoa pods could successfully be fed to Bali cattle (10-15g DM/kg live weight/d) while contributing to cocoa pod borer management and using simple low-cost processing for storage.

The low weight of Bali cattle for sale was a major issue related to smallholder farmer poverty and an impediment to the development of a cattle industry in eastern Indonesia. An ACIAR-funded research team established that the low weight was due to poor management, particularly nutrition, which led to low reproductive efficiency, and poor survival and growth of the calf.

This report identifies legumes for use in maize and upland rice-based systems of East Nusa Tenggara and contains additional information on biomass and seed production, agronomy (sowing, configuration, pests, weeds, disease) and benefits from legume use.

While many forages suitable for improving livestock production in mixed crop-livestock systems in the tropics have been identified, their adoption has been limited. Before farmers will introduce new forages into their farming system an important prerequisite is that the change will be considered profitable, will have an acceptable level of risk and will not interfere with food security. This paper describes a whole farm systems approach used to identify the benefits of new forages to improve Bali cattle production in the smallholder mixed crop-livestock systems of eastern Indonesia.

This report presents findings from a project aiming to help smallholder farmers improve cattle production in eastern Indonesia by introducing forages into their cropping systems. It identified several factors constraining livestock production in smallholder farming systems, and found that most technologies needed to address the constraints are already available in Indonesia or elsewhere, but have not yet been adopted by local farmers.

This paper presents key findings from a research, development and extension program conducted between 2001 and 2009 in six villages in South Sulawesi and Central Lombok to develop and test a participatory, farming systems approach for evaluating and increasing the adoption of strategies for improving Bali cattle production in the smallholder farming systems of Eastern Indonesia.

This case study presents the research and outcomes of three ACIAR-funded projects to improve Bali cattle production for smallholders in eastern Indonesia. The projects—conducted between 2001 and 2008—developed and tested an approach that combined the principles of participatory, on-farm engagement with farmers, and farming systems analysis and modelling. Their main purpose was to encourage the uptake of technologies that improve the productivity and welfare of smallholder households.