Scaling out integrated village management systems to improve Bali cattle productivity under small scale production systems in Lombok, Indonesia

Abstract

This paper discusses results of an adaptive study to scale out an integrated village management system (IVMS), which successfully improved Bali cattle productivity (Panjaitan et al 2008) in 36 farmer groups involving more than 1000 farmers in Central Lombok eastern Indonesia. The IVMS was communicated to farmers by 12 well trained on ground team members (OGTs) using a farmer to farmer approach. The results show that the IVMS was successfully scaled out to a wider farming community in Central Lombok with a similar increase in cattle productivity as reported by Panjaitan et al (2008). Productivity of Bali cattle under small holder conditions can be more than doubled by improving the supply and quality of nutrients according to the physiological status of the animals and by improving housing/hygiene. Despite a significant increase in cattle productivity, the cattle population in the study area did not increase due to limited access to land (for housing and to produce forages). However, the increase in turn off rate has been considerably high. The key to this successful scale out was the continuous facilitation by the OGTs to stimulate collective actions in order to improve farmer capacity to adopt improved management concepts. Sustainability of this system has been constrained by lack of continuous facilitation and by programs that discourage farmer participation.