OAR@ICRISATSustainable intensification of smallholder farming in central Mozambique: Benefits from better integration of crops and livestockJ ORaindeauthorS HKee TuiauthorPVilelaauthorCQuemboauthorFAssaneauthorCGuleauthorTSendaauthorPMasikatiauthorThe Government of Mozambique gives particular importance to strategies for sustainable intensification of agriculture in the smallholder-farming sector, accounting for more than 95% of the total agricultural land. Better integration of crops and livestock is key to sustaining vital smallholder farming, rewarding higher agricultural production and improving the overall wellbeing of smallholder farms, especially in provinces like Tete and Manica, with high potential for crops and livestock. Farmers with animal draft power can cultivate larger parts of their land in time and are thereby able to also produce more feed, critical for improving animal performance. Better-managed and fed animals reproduce more, provide better draft services and avail manure as important source of locally available organic fertilizer. Farmers thereby increase production at reduced costs and risk, overall farm net returns increase more than through single technologies. These benefits can be harvested over large areas, and with different agro-ecological potential. Farmers with cattle cultivated more land than those without cattle: in Dororo, Manica province, with high agro-ecological potential, 4.4 ha as compared to 2.9 ha cropland; in drought prone Marara, Tete province, 3.1 ha of as compared to 2.1 ha. On average farmers with cattle made 20% higher cereal yields in Dororo, and 30% higher cereal yields in Marara. Yet 52% and 45 % of the households don’t have cattle in Dororo and Marara respectively. This leaflet illustrates the benefits from better integration of crops and livestock. We describe forage production and draft power animal management as two complementary technologies critical for sustainable intensification of smallholder farms, demonstrated in the MOREP project. These technologies are useful for farmers in similar environments like in Tete and Manica provinces.Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics2015ICRISATArticle

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