Record Details

Sustainable milk and beef production in Nicaragua: actions and opportunities for an inclusive value chain

CGSpace

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Sustainable milk and beef production in Nicaragua: actions and opportunities for an inclusive value chain
 
Creator Hoek, Rein van der
Mena Urbina, Martin A.
Corrales, Roldan
Mora Benard, María Alejandra
Boekhorst, Jeanne
Ojango, Julie M.K.
 
Subject milk
livestock
value chain
ganado
leche
cadena de valor
 
Description In Nicaragua the cattle sector accounts for 36% of agricultural exports and presents an important opportunity for smallholder farmer livelihoods. Current extensive dual-purpose (milk and beef) cattle production leads to soil degradation, deforestation, high levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit of product, and a shift of the agricultural frontier towards the vulnerable Caribbean region. The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish is implementing activities to make the dual-purpose cattle value chain more efficient, competitive and inclusive, with a specific focus on gender equality. Feed and forages work has improved the productivity of forage-based livestock production (up to 100% in terms of kg milk/ha), increased carbon accumulation and at the same time reduced its ecological footprint (by over 50% in terms of GHG emissions per unit of product) as part of LivestockPlus. This concept addresses sustainable intensification in three ways: socioeconomic – market opportunities and policy application; ecological – improved farm and natural resource management practices; and genetic – improved forage cultivars. Work on genetic improvement of cattle has included establishing an information, input, and service data platform linked to breed improvement in a wider farm-household context. It involves continuous monitoring and assessment of the performance of the predominant breed-types reared by 155 farmers in central Nicaragua as an initial step towards informing development of breeding strategies for dual purpose cattle in mixed farming systems. In collaboration with a farmers cooperative, capacity development in Farmer Field Schools and on-farm research involving 1000 farmers has resulted in increased productivity (milk by 40%, liveweight by 70%), income (by 20%) and natural resource integrity (establishment of 4,000 ha of silvopastoral systems). Strategic alliances have been developed between value chain actors (farmers' organisations, NGOs, research, private sector with a focus on value addition to livestock products while increasing gender equity. In general, however, adoption of improved technologies and practices is still low. There is therefore a strong need for an increased policy incidence on sustainable livestock development and incentive mechanisms for farmers and other value chain actors, including certification of sustainable livestock products.
 
Date 2016-09-19
2016-09-14T15:34:46Z
2016-09-14T15:34:46Z
 
Type Poster
 
Identifier Hoek, R. van der, Mena, M., Corrales, R., Mora, M.A. and Ojango, J. 2016. Sustainable milk and beef production in Nicaragua: Actions and opportunities for an inclusive value chain. Poster prepared for the Tropentag 2016 Conference on Solidarity in a Competing World—Fair Use of Resources, Vienna, Austria, 19–21 September 2016. Cali, Colombia: CIAT.
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/77048
http://www.tropentag.de/abstract.php?code=0LF5CPDV
https://www.slideshare.net/ILRI/tropentag2016-hoek
 
Language en
 
Rights Open Access
 
Format application/pdf
 
Publisher International Center for Tropical Agriculture