Abstract
Cattle and corn are important for small farmers in west Timor. However, owing to the lack of proper technologies, marginal lands and erratic rainfalls, productivity of both are low. To improve the productivity, a conservation agriculture approach was demonstrated during 2017-2019 at Camplong II village, on a marginal land with shallow top soil, rocky formation, with existing corn production of <1 ton/ha. The technology package in 2019, includes: (i) hedges of Leucaena leucocephala (planted at 2 m within the row and 4 m between the rows), (ii) Deep planting hole (40 cm x 40 cm x 40 cm) filled with mixtures of soil and cattle manure, (iii) planting of grass within the rows of Leucaena, (iv) cover crop legumes: cow pea, Clitoria ternatea, and Mucuna holtonii while using corn stover and cattle refusals as mulches. Forage was obtained from Leucaena and the grass, while herbaceous legumes were left uncut. The results include: (i) year round supply of high quality forage, (ii) improved the daily weight gain of fattening cattle (0.2 to 0.3 - 0.6 kg/head/day), (iii) reduced calves mortality down to 0%, (iv) and increased corn yield to 5 ton/ha and a second crop harvest as green corn.
Highlights
Corn and cattle are two important agricultural commodities for farmers in East Nusa Tenggara, as staple food and cash
In conservation agriculture (CA) the cover plant biomass was not allowed to be taken from the land, which may not be suitable to the farming practices in West Timor
Site for the experiment demonstration was at Camplong II village, Fatuleu Subdistrict of district of Kupang in West Timor.PlantingLeucaenaleucocephalacvTarrambaand cattle fattening assessments have been conducted in the village since 2015 [4], while conventional CA assessments have been started since 2017, involving 5 farmer groups.At the conventional CA no biomass of cover crops were allowed to be taken from the plots
Summary
Corn and cattle are two important agricultural commodities for farmers in East Nusa Tenggara, as staple food and cash. In the rural areas of West Timor, some carst formation soils exist with a very low soil quality, having shallow top soil on rock formation [1] This soil is not suitable for food crops, such as corn cultivation with very low plant growth and production performances. In CA the cover plant biomass was not allowed to be taken from the land, which may not be suitable to the farming practices in West Timor. Farmers in this area raise cattle as part of the mixed farming systems conducted. A modification of CA in 2019 was introduced in order to provide feed for the cattle as well as improving soil quality and corn (staple food) production
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