Focus                  
Opportunities for Small-Ruminant Producers
in Latin America
Luis Iniguez, Aden Aw-Hassan, Joaquin Mueller, Manuel Sanchez, Homero Salinas, Expedito Aguiar Lopes, Ana Clara Rodrigues Cavalcante and Marco Bomfim
Demand for animal products is increasing, and markets are growing. Many dry areas in Latin America are poised for a livestock revolution that will allow small-scale producers to improve animal quality, manage their rangelands better, and obtain substantially higher returns from their flocks. ICARDA and its partners have launched a series of pilot projects, promoting low-cost technologies that will enable small-scale producers to take full advantage of these new opportunities.

Health care, feeding methods, market research...
Innovative livestock research makes waves across Latin America.
Weekly livestock market at Quixada, north-east Brazil.  


Cabrito carcasses on sale in Mexico. Producers could improve profits by improving quality.
Why livestock?
The vast dry areas of Latin America, from Mexico in the north to Chile and Argentina in the south, have the highest levels of rural poverty in the region. Crop production is limited by erratic rainfall and recurrent drought; and cattle are expensive to buy and maintain. Small ruminants (sheep and goats) involve less investment, and less risk. For poor households, they are one of the few options for income generation.

In 2003, ICARDA and its partners launched a collaborative project funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD): market-oriented research aimed at improving small ruminant productivity and producer incomes in the dry areas of Brazil and Mexico. The partners included EMBRAPA and the Dom Helder Camara Development Project in Brazil; and INIFAP, the Government of San Luis Potosi, the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi (UASLP), and the Micro-watershed Development Program in Mexico.

The project also had research linkages with the Venezuelan Institute for Agricultural Research (INIA-Venezuela) and the Project for the Sustainable Development of the Dry Areas of Lara and Falcon States (PROSALAFA II).

Four research sites were established in areas where IFAD development projects operated – two in Brazil (Boqueirao community in Pernambuco State, Boa Vista community in Quixada, Ceara State), and two in Mexico (San Jose de la Pena in San Luis Potosi State and Panuco in Zacatecas State).

Four years later, the results are encouraging. Practical, low-cost technologies for improving nutrition and productivity have been tested jointly by farmers, researchers and extension staff. Communities have been trained in improved animal husbandry methods; and adoption is growing.

Understanding the market
A series of studies focused on the livestock production system, constraints, market opportunities, and technologies that could benefit small-scale producers.

Feed blocks prepared with cactus, locally available feedstuffs and urea.
In San Jose de la Pena, for example, the systems are oriented to produce cabritos (suckling kids) and goat cheese. The limiting factor is low product quality. Growing demand for cheese in Mexico and policy developments in Brazil are encouraging farmers (e.g. in Boa Vista, Brazil) to scale up milk production – but small, resource-poor producers often lack the necessary commercial orientation.

One common problem: supply-demand relationships do not always mean higher profits. Small-scale producers respond to market demand by expanding production – but they receive only a small share of the extra benefits. For example, meat is in great demand in north-east Brazil and in the dry areas of Mexico, but farmers are unable to produce large groups of uniform animals to meet this demand.

Better feed, greater opportunities
Most dry areas face severe shortage of feed in the dry season. The project is testing a combination of improved forage varieties and water management methods (water harvesting, conservative irrigation) to improve dry-season forage supplies. In Brazil, two new grass species, Braquiarao (Brachiaria brizantha) and Capim Massai (Panicum maximum cv. Massai), produced dry matter yields of over 11 tons per hectare. Farmers selected these varieties from among several that were tested in forage trials, and are now using them in animal feeding trials.

In Zacatecas, the project has helped to revive pileteo, a traditional method for collecting rain-water. The harvested water is used to grow a range of water-efficient fodder crops including cactus, barley and oats. In San Jose de la Pena, native trees and bushes were tested as ‘protein banks’.

Another project intervention is community-level silage production. Surplus fodder harvested in the wet season is processed and stored for use in the dry season. Adoption is widespread, especially in Boa Vista and Boqueirao.

Manicoba seedlings in a community nursery in Brazil.

Farmer Francisco ‘Chiquinho’ complains that his herd has been ravaged by drought. “Food is always available at the local stores, even during a drought,” he says. “But there is nowhere to buy feed to save our animals from dying. That is why it’s so important to make silage.” This technology is being outscaled by local NGOs and the Dom Helder Camara Development Project.

In San Jose de la Pena in Mexico, UASLP scientists demonstrated the ring, a simple metal device that makes silage processing easier and more efficient. Farmers are now successfully experimenting with the ring, producing silage from fodder grown with harvested rainwater.

Feed blocks are another low-cost technology successfully promoted by ICARDA in several countries in West Asia and North Africa. The technology was also introduced in San Jose de la Pena by UASLP scientists, with feed fortified by adding Opuntia cactus, molasses, local feedstuffs and urea. Farmers who use feed blocks say milk production as well as kid growth rates have increased.

Managing native vegetation
Farmers used satellite images to create their own vegatation maps.
Manicoba (Manihot sp.) is an indigenous species of north-east Brazil. Farmers believed the plant was poisonous – but EMBRAPA scientists had earlier shown that it was, in fact, a valuable feed during drought periods. The plant was introduced in Boa Vista along with Leucaena. Soon convinced, the community established a community nursery, where the plants are grown, to be transferred later to protein banks.

In Mexico, several indigenous varieties of Opuntia cactus were assessed, and some seem promising, for production in rangelands.

Farmers in the project areas in Mexico are now more aware of the symptoms and impacts of land degradation, and the need for better range management.

Project staff affiliated to UASLP shared satellite images with the community. Based on farmers’ experience, the satellite images were used to produce a map depicting grazing routes and degraded land, and simple charts, now used by livestock owners, showing valuable plants that are threatened by range degradation.

In Panuco a ‘deferred grazing’ system was implemented to allow degraded land to recover. Recovery is necessarily a long-term process; but the initial results show improvements in soil cover, botanical diversity and dry matter production. While this system is proving successful in specific (designated) areas, unrestricted communal grazing of rangeland remains an issue to be resolved.

Lamb fattening
A uniform group of animals (same age and weight), properly fattened, fetches a higher price. To demonstrate how to create such a group, a pasture area was established in Boa Vista under conservative irrigation, and seeded with grasses selected by farmers from varieties tested in an earlier forage trial.

Grassroots research – community volunteers measure dry matter content in forage varieties that could improve livestock health and productivity.
In the same community a strategy was also devised to guarantee animal nutrition for the critical 4-month period when nutrient deficits are most severe. Animals obtain extra nitrogen from Leucaena, Gliricidia, and the native Manicoba plant; energy from grain of rainfed sorghum; and fiber from Massai grass (selected by farmers). In an ongoing trial, these extra nutrients are being fed to female goats, which gained weight and condition in time for the mating season.

Vets with a difference
Intestinal parasites are a common problem in small ruminants in north-east Brazil. Infection is easy to detect and cure – if basic veterinary services are available. If not, mortality rates can be as high as 50%, and even the surviving animals become unsaleable.

The project introduced the Famacha technique – a cheap, simple procedure that , is easy to implement, and reduces the risk of parasite resistance. It also reduces the environmental pollution caused by excessive (and often ineffective) use of chemical drenches.

The Famacha technique involves observations of the eye mucus for early diagnosis and assessment of the degree of anemia. The anemia level is compared with a predetermined scale, based on which a decision can be made whether drenching is necessary and cost-effective. Nine young women from the community were trained in this technique, and the results were far beyond expectations. Their work was so effective – and the community so enthusiastic – that EMBRAPA set up a laboratory for parasite assessment. The tests are being conducted by local farmers, who will provide free parasite control for the community’s flocks – and eventually will provide paid services to neighboring communities.

Reproduction management
In Mexico, the project focused on improving goat reproduction rates to help farmers better target the market niche for cabritos, or suckling animals. With the females in better condition before the mating season, kidding rates increased and fewer ewes suffered abortions. The project has also made communities familiar with the ‘ram effect’. Rams are normally kept with the flock round the year. Instead, if rams are kept separate and introduced into the flock only during the mating season, fertility and kidding rates increase significantly, and flocks can grow much faster.

Production of goat cheese is offering new income opportunities for women’s groups.
Melting the cheese
 Small-scale goat producers once struggled to  access the thriving market for goat cheese in San Jose de la Pena and Panuco. Their cheese wouldn’t sell because it would not melt when heated. An ICARDA milk technologist worked with farmers in the two communities to assess the problem. Back at his laboratory, he found a simple solution: use yogurt starters during the elaboration of cheese.

In Panuco, INIFAP, a key project partner, is helping women farmers scale up cheese production. The women have formed an association, and are setting up a small homestead milk processing plant, now under construction. INIFAP helped design the plant, and provided the women with training in cheese processing.

Building capacity
The project has trained over 60 scientists from three countries on various aspects of small ruminant management. Resource persons were drawn from ICARDA, EMBRAPA, INIFAP, INIA-Venezuela, the Argentinean Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), and research institutions in USA, Austria, UK and Indonesia. Five regional workshops were conducted on various research methodologies: the livelihood framework and participatory approaches; improvement of feeding systems in dry areas; management of native vegetation; participatory breeding of small ruminants; virtual communication and exchange.

A traveling workshop allowed scientists from Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico to visit the dry areas of Chaco Argentina and share experiences with INTA scientists. About 80 farmers were trained during specific events and another 300 during field days. Over 200 technicians from IFAD-funded development projects also received training in specific aspects of small ruminant production.


Information exchange is an important project component. Various audiences are targeted – farmers, extension staff, researchers – using dissemination methods tailored to each group.
International cooperation – scientists from ICARDA, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela share experiences on the use of native vegetation.

In Mexico’s San Luis Potosi State, the project created a Virtual Information and Communication Center that is now hosted by the State Secretary of Agriculture. A web portal on small ruminant production in Latin America (www.rumela.org) provides a range of services to scientists, universities, governments, policy makers, and development projects: exchange of data, information on best-bet technologies, access to databases, as well as more detailed information on specific issues.

Simple but profitable
Latin America is known for large, sophisticated cattle ranching operations in relatively favorable areas. But the vast majority of its livestock owners live in much drier regions, with limited infrastructure and markets, and produce small ruminants. This project has demonstrated how simple, currently available technologies can help producers move from subsistence to sustainable, viable, market-oriented production.
  ___________________________________________
Luis Iniguez (l.iniguez@cgiar.org) is Senior Small-Ruminant Scientist; and Aden Aw-Hassan is Agricultural Economist at ICARDA. Joaquin Mueller is Animal Breeder at INTA, Argentina. Manuel Sanchez is Secretary of SEDARH in San Luis Potosi and the project’s Focal Point in Mexico. Homero Salinas is Regional Director for INIFAP's North-Central Region and National Coordinator for the project in Mexico. Expedito Aguiar Lopes, Ana Clara Rodrigues Cavalcante and Marco Bomfim are small ruminant production scientists at EMBRAPA-Sobral Goat Center and served consecutively as National Coordinators for the project in Brazil.
   
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