A successful smallholder cattle fattening project based on leucaena diets in eastern Indonesia

Abstract

This paper describes the outcomes of a five-year (2011-2016) partnership project between the Indonesian Government and the Australian Centre for international Agricultural Research. The objective was to promote the use of Leucaena leucocephala for fattening cattle in the Provinces of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). Detailed biophysical and socio-economic measurements demonstrated that it was possible to double productivity of smallholder cattle by improving their nutrition based on feeding leucaena, thus improving the livelihoods of farming families. The results highlighted an opportunity to similarly enhance productivity of other smallholder cattle enterprises in Indonesia and in other tropical developing countries.