Increasing livestock productivity in mixed crop-livestock farming systems in south Asia: the project proposal

摘要

Sere and Steinfeld (1996) have classified livestock production into 11 systems, six of which are mixed farming systems where crops and animals are integrated on the same land unit under rainfed or irrigated conditions. Mixed farming systems are the largest category of livestock system in the world. They cover about 2.5 billion hectares of land, of which 1.1 billion hectares are rainfed crop land, 0.2 billion hectares irrigated crop land, and 1.2 billion hectares grassland (de Haan et al. 1997). Mixed farming systems produce 92% of the global milk supply, all of the buffalo meat and approximately 70% of meat from small ruminants. About half of the total production of milk and meat in these systems are produced in developing countries.