Perspective of increasing value added of waste in integrated rice-livestock system on irrigated land agroecosystem

Abstract

The farmers’ welfare has still the main milestone in agricultural development. Farmers are faced with a lack of access to productive assets that are managed as a source of income. The knowledge and technology owned by farmers in order to manage limited resources of farms and anticipate climate change are also still limited, causing a problem in increasing productivity, low efficiency, and added value of farming. Meanwhile, abundant plant and livestock waste have not been utilized optimally. This study aimed to determine the perspective of increasing the added value of plant and livestock waste as a bio-industrial farming system based on rice-livestock integration in irrigated land agroecosystems. The research was conducted in Setanggor Village, West Praya District, Central Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara from 2015-2020. The results of the study indicate that the processing of livestock waste into organic fertilizer has become a new source of income for farmers and workers and contributes to increasing household income to meet the minimum necessities of life. The use of organic fertilizer from livestock waste for 1-2 t ha-1 in rice farming can increase productivity by an average of 13.11% and farm efficiency by an average of 9.25%, providing additional income to farmers cooperator compared to noncooperator farmers by about IDR.3.638.360 ha-1 (23.73%). The processing and utilization of straw waste into animal feed can overcome the scarcity of feed in the dry season and provide daily weight gain of 0.58-0.69 kg. day-1. The development of a bio-industry farming system based on rice-livestock integration in an irrigated agroecosystem can increase farmers’ income in a sustainable manner.