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Sustainable intensification of smallholder farming in central Mozambique: Benefits from better integration of crops and livestock

OAR@ICRISAT

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/9025/
 
Title Sustainable intensification of smallholder farming in central Mozambique: Benefits from better integration of crops and livestock
 
Creator Rainde, J O
Kee Tui, S H
Vilela, P
Quembo, C
Assane, F
Gule, C
Senda, T
Masikati, P
 
Subject Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
 
Description The Government of Mozambique gives particular importance to strategies for sustainable
intensification of agriculture in the smallholder-farming sector, accounting for more than
95% of the total agricultural land. Better integration of crops and livestock is key to sustaining
vital smallholder farming, rewarding higher agricultural production and improving the overall
wellbeing of smallholder farms, especially in provinces like Tete and Manica, with high potential
for crops and livestock.

Farmers with animal draft power can cultivate larger parts of their land in time and are thereby
able to also produce more feed, critical for improving animal performance. Better-managed
and fed animals reproduce more, provide better draft services and avail manure as important
source of locally available organic fertilizer. Farmers thereby increase production at reduced
costs and risk, overall farm net returns increase more than through single technologies.

These benefits can be harvested over large areas, and with different agro-ecological potential.
Farmers with cattle cultivated more land than those without cattle: in Dororo, Manica province,
with high agro-ecological potential, 4.4 ha as compared to 2.9 ha cropland; in drought prone
Marara, Tete province, 3.1 ha of as compared to 2.1 ha. On average farmers with cattle made
20% higher cereal yields in Dororo, and 30% higher cereal yields in Marara. Yet 52% and 45 % of
the households don’t have cattle in Dororo and Marara respectively.

This leaflet illustrates the benefits from better integration of crops and livestock. We describe
forage production and draft power animal management as two complementary technologies
critical for sustainable intensification of smallholder farms, demonstrated in the MOREP
project. These technologies are useful for farmers in similar environments like in Tete and
Manica provinces.
 
Publisher ICRISAT
 
Date 2015
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
application/pdf
 
Language en
en
 
Rights —
—
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/9025/1/Flyer_%20Sustainable%20intensification%20of%20smallholder_English.pdf
http://oar.icrisat.org/9025/2/Flyer_%20Sustainable_Portuguese.pdf
Rainde, J O and Kee Tui, S H and Vilela, P and Quembo, C and Assane, F and Gule, C and Senda, T and Masikati, P (2015) Sustainable intensification of smallholder farming in central Mozambique: Benefits from better integration of crops and livestock.