Crop- Livestock Interactions: Intensification and

Involution/Positive Step for Environmental Balance.

-Dr.Kedar Karki
M . V. S t . P r e v e n t i v e Ve t . M e d i c i n e
Parasitology Unit.
Central Animal disease investigation laboratory
Tr i p u r e s h w o r

Background
The integration of crop and livestock still represents the main avenue for
intensification of food production. Mixed farming provides farmers with an
opportunity to use labor more efficiently, to have a source of cash and to
add value to low value or surplus feed. To varying extents, mixed farming
system allow the use of waste products, of on enterprise (crop by-products.
manure) as inputs to the other enterprise (as feed or fertilizer). Mixed
farming is, in principle, beneficial for land quality in terms of maintaining
soil fertility In addition. The use of rotations between various crops and
forage legumes replenishes soil nutrients and reduces soil erosion.
Adding manure to the soil increases the nutrient retention capacity
improves the physical condition by increasing, the water-holding capacity
and improves soil structure stability. This is a crucial contribution because,
in many systems, it is the only avenue available to farmers for improving
soil organic matter. It is also substantial in economic terms. Approximately
20 million tons or 22 percent of total nitrogen fertilization of 94 millions
tons and 1l million tons or 38 percent of phosphate is of animal origin,
representing about US$ 1.5 billion worth Of Commercial fertilizer. Not
only does animal manure replenish soil fertility but it helps to maintain or
create a better climate for soil micro-flora and fauna. It is also the best way
of using crop residues.

However, missing crops and livestock neither generates new nutrients nor
reduces nutrient surpluses. But livestock, even in situation of low
technological levels allow for (1) the spatial and temporal allocation of
nutrients from areas of lower returns from cropping to those with higher
returns; (2) the acceleration of nutrient turnover in the production cycle;
and (3) the reduction of nutrient losses within the cycle compared to
agricultural production without livestock.
Key Issue:

Thus, the key issue is the nutrient balance. Most mixed farming
systems of the developing world have a negative nutrient balance. Deficits
are partially covered by a flow of nutrient from grazing areas to crop/grazing
land ratio, and if other sources are not available, fertility gaps widen. This is
typically the case of many mixed farming systems in the tropics. Reported
deficits ranged from about 15 Kg N/ha/year in Mali, to more than 100 kg
N/ha/year in the highlands of Ethiopia. The result is that crop yields continue
to decline. This can lead to increased competition for land grazing resources
which, in turn, can lead to privatization of crop residues, or of the
rangelands. Resource degradation, property and population pressure carry a
high risk of conflict as the recent event in Rwanda has proven. If not
considered this fact in time same may happen in our own contact.

However, positive trends, intensifying and diversifying production also

occur. A key factor facilitating such positive trends is access to markets as
illustrated by the Machakos case study in Kenya. This development path has
the biggest potential in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, where, in most
areas, land is not a limiting factor and integrated crop-livestock systems have
the immense potential to contribute to the required productivity growth.
However, in the intensive production system of the tropical highlands, soil
erosion problems become critical but, here also, livestock can play a positive
role. For example, in Ethiopia losses From poorly managed sloping terraces
under crops and degraded rangelands amount to between 20 and 100
MT/ha/year and well managed forest land loses between 0-7 MT/ha/Year.
This trend can be comparable to our shivalik range, to mid mountain and high
hells as well.

Animal draught is main component many smallholder farms in

developing countries, substituting for human labor and drudgery. An
estimated 250 million working animals provide the draught power to
approximately 28 percent of the world's land, equivalent to 52 percent of total
cropping land in developing countries. In southeastern and East Asia, animal
draught is decreasing in importance as rapid mechanization takes place. By
contrast, many areas in Africa are developing into mixed farming with
draught animals playing a key role in providing tillage for crop areas
expansion and yield increases. As a renewable form of energy, animal draught
substitutes for fossil energy and the use of other natural resources.
Importance of Mixed farming in our Context:
For the mixed farming systems, livestock provides the economic
justification for maintaining a mosaic of land use patterns. Agro Forestry
inputs such as rows of fodder trees and grass bands are widely known in
terms of controlling wind and water erosion and therefore conserving
biodiversity and are found throughout forested and agricultural areas. In a
New York alfalfa "ecosystem" Pimentel reported 600 species of above
ground arthropods. Mixed farming systems and the use of manure, which
bring about an increase in the organic matter of the soil, enhance soil micro
flora and fauna.

What is the Option?

May be our Past policies have often limited the synergistic

effect of crops and livestock in nutrient deficient situations. Imposing high
import duties to protect domestic cereal production hushed cropping into
marginal areas and upset the equilibrium between crops and livestock. poor
land tenure security, especially in the rain fed mixed fanning systems of the
developing world, has provided a disincentive for investment in long-term
soil fertility improvements, such as the use of inorganic fertilizers and the
use of green manure and leguminous fodder crops in the crop rotation.
In many places of the world, subsistence farms with crops, livestock
and household closely interlinked have developed and continue to be a
predominant feature. With human population pressure increasing Further,
the need for intensification bring livestock more and more into cropping
areas and integrates them in nutrient and energy cycles. Almost throughout
the world the family-based and diversified mixed farming system has come
under pressure either from novel technologies and market forces or from
resource degradation and poverty. Two major feature emerge: One scenario
leads to specialization where market forces and technological requirements
forces mixed farming systems to grow in unit size and to specialize. With
specialization, there are fewer opportunities for on-farm crop-livestock
integration. Another significant trend is what has been described as
"involution" or collapse of the mixed farming system. In virtually all
tropical highland areas the relatively high human population densities are
traditionally sustained by rather complex, mixed farming systems.
Population pressure may decrease. farm sizes to a point where associated land
productivity increases resulting in the disintegration of the system. Livestock, often
large ruminants, can no longer be maintained and energy, and leads to a greater
deficit of nutrients and loss of investment. There is mounting evidence that human
population pressures, poverty and resource degradation, aggravated by lack of
access to markets and employment opportunities, are cause-and-effect factors of
the involution. Himalayan hills, African highlands, Andean countries, .Java can be
The trend in this regard.
This involution of previously well-integrated mixed farming is to be seen as
another livestock environment "hot spot". Here, it is not the interaction between
livestock and natural resource that creates a degradation problem but rather the
socio-economic context that lead to a diminishing interaction which eventually
ceases altogether.

dr_kedarkarki@yahoo.com