Tropical forest sheep on legume forage/fuelwood fallows

Abstract

In Amazonian Ecuador, studies are being realized to intensify fallow periods by grazing African tropical forest type sheep (Red Afro-Colombian X Barbados Black Belly) on Asian tropical forest legume cover forage (Desmodium ovalifolium) under American tropical forest legume fuelwood trees (Inga edulis). The specific approach represents an innovative effort to address the complex problems associated with the pernicious use of less fertile lands by small-scale farmers and graziers in the humid tropics. The technologies developed are closely compatible with traditional socio-cultural patterns. For example, shifting cultivators are encouraged to plant contour strips of legume fuelwood trees in their cassava fields. With the cassava harvest, legume cover forage is planted between the fuelwood trees, to be grazed later by tropical forest sheep.

Forage and fuelwood legumes increase soil aeration, organic matter, nitrogen and available phosphorus, control soil erosion and leaching, as well as provide a break in cropping that checks insect, disease and weed build-ups. Tropical forest sheep improve soil fertility by depositing organic matter which stimulates legume/Rhizobium symbiosis and by supplying fecal microorganisms which mineralize crop residues. In addition, tropical forest sheep cause little soil compaction and erosion, produce high quality food protein from legume cover forage, as well as generate cash income, capital and employment for small-scale farmers.

Tropical forest sheep on legume forage/fuelwood fallows not only intensify land use under shifting field cultivation, but also form the basis for rehabilitating already degraded lands for further foodcrop production.