Living fences for improved smallholder livestock systems in Cambodia

ABSTRACTIn northwest Cambodia, the majority of smallholder households own livestock. Poor consistency in feed supply throughout the year is a major constraint to livestock performance. Another critical challenge, livestock roaming in the dry season for forage, results in smallholders having few options to protect any post-rice dry season cropping activity from free-ranging animals. Living fences have the potential to address both these challenges, by providing high-quality feed for livestock throughout the year, while also serving as a barrier to protect the land from livestock grazing. A mixed-methods approach was used with communities in Battambang Province, including household surveys, a fodder production experiment, a cattle feeding trial, farmer training and data on dissemination and adoption. Results showed that living fence species, such as Leucaena leucocephala, can produce 2.5 kg of fresh weight per week per 100 trees during the dry season. This biomass volume is sufficient to supplement cattle diets so that a smallholder can sustain a small percentage weight gain in cows throughout the dry season. Critical challenges, including land tenure, physical access to paddy lands, and the gendered nature of these farming systems, remain for realizing private benefit on paddy lands culturally considered public in the dry season.