Improving Livelihood of Smallholder Farmer Through Cattle Fattening Based on Forage Tree Legume in the Arid Sumbawa



Nurul Hilmiati(1*), Dahlanuddin Dahlanuddin(2), Tanda Panjaitan(3)

(1) Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
(2) University of Mataram
(3) Assessment Institute for Agricultural Technology West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


Majority of people in the arid Sumbawa rely on agriculture and mostly practicing
integrated farming with maize and cattle being the most common crop and livestock enterprise.
While cattle productivity has been low, profit margin from crops is substantial, making large
number of people live just on the poverty line. A research for development project promoted the
utilization of Leucaena leucocephala, to improve cattle productivity hence farmers’ livelihood
through cattle fattening. This paper provides insight that livelihood improvement has been made
possible through cattle fattening and how the innovation has been taken in a wide scope. A case
study was conducted in Jatisari and Labangka as an existing and new Leucaena feeding practice.
The study found that planting and feeding Leucaena, farmers were able to earn profit from
fattening about IDR. 500,000/head/month. One household were fattened around 4-6 bull/six
months period and potentially earn around IDR. 18 million to 21 million/year compares to crops
which was about IDR. 3 to 4 million once a year. It is concluded that cattle fattening based on
Leucaena is an option to improve small holder farmers’ livelihood in tropical areas like
Sumbawa.
Keywords: integrated crop-livestock, small holder, traditional system, livelihood improvement.


Keywords


integrated crop-livestock; small holder; traditional system; livelihood improvement

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