Almost all cattle raised in Cambodia are produced by smallholder farmers in rural areas, and the increasing demand for red meat means that cattle production represents an important opportunity for Cambodian farmers. Smallholder farmers commonly use native grasses and crop residues as feed for their animals. However, as the cattle population and the area cultivated with crops have increased, feed resources for cattle have become a constraint, resulting in low cattle productivity. Nutrition has been identified as the single most important constraint on cattle production in Cambodia. This study reports a survey that was conducted to identify constraints on cattle production of smallholder farmers in Cambodia. Sixty randomly selected households raising cattle in the Kang Meas and Tbong Khmum districts of Kampong Cham province were interviewed in late 2008. Most (80-90%) household income was derived from the farm and only 10-20% of income was from off-farm sources. Cattle production represented 20% of farm income, on average. The mean number of cattle per household was five. Overall cattle production was assessed as very low, with the average calving interval estimated at 18.6 months, and mean growth rates of non-lactating animals at less than 100 g/day. Farmers reported that cattle were mainly used for draught, breeding and selling. This is a significant shift from the traditional approach of using cattle for draught and breeding only, indicating that farmers were responding to market demands. Farmers rated feed availability as the most important constraint on cattle production, followed by diseases. In the surveyed villages, cattle production was severely constrained by the lack of feed resources that caused low animal productivity. Providing locally available feed (natural grasses and crop residues) for cattle is a major challenge for farmers, requiring high labour inputs. Planting alternative feeds such as forage grasses is an attractive opportunity for smallholder farmers to improve their cattle production.
展开▼
