Activities in the first year of the project were focused on establishing teams and facilities, selecting and engaging with communities in the three study regions, developing protocols and beginning the 'best bet' process with communities and farmers.

The project employed 14 On Ground Team (OGT) members and one Project Officer in November 07 after an intensive recruitment process in August and September. The team is an impressive group of recent graduates and recruits with experience in smallholder farming systems and comprises skills in socio-economics, animal management, forage monitoring and smallholder farming - all with abilities in regional languages.

The OGTs have received theoretical and practical training from SulSel and Australian specialists on an array of topics including forage analysis and monitoring, nursery establishment and maintenance, animal nutrition and health, farming systems and modelling and engagement and social survey techniques. Most OGT training is also attended by local agricultural extension staff from the project's study villages.

To ensure effective project coordination, a multi-level team structure was established. The Project Management Team is responsible for operations & coordination; the Project Specialist Team is responsible for technical expertise & training and the On Ground Team is responsible for implementation & extension. A start-up meeting attended by all teams was held in Makassar in November 07.

In addition, a Steering Committee was established in November 07, comprising representatives from Dinas Peternakan at provincial and regency levels, BPTP, UNHAS and CSIRO. The Committee's role is to provide overall guidance and advice on the direction and relevance of the project.

Farming systems data were collected from all villages in the three study regencies - Barru, Gowa and Bone. Criteria for village selection included size and relative importance of cattle population, access to study sites, willingness of the community to participate and scope and willingness for adopting improved technology and recommendation of regional and local agricultural extension officers. Twelve study villages were selected in January. Village benchmarking (social, economic and cultural information) and mapping is due to be completed in May.

In January, OGTs were placed in Barru, Gowa and Bone regencies. Introductions were made to local farmers, heads of village and local government officials. Accommodation, office space and facilities were sought in each region.

This project builds on cattle and forage improvement tools and technologies developed by precursor ACIAR projects, and successfully tested and implemented by ACIAR project AS2/2004/005 (Improving smallholder crop-livestock systems in eastern Indonesia). In essence, the improvement technologies (Best Bets) are:
Making better use of existing forages in a farming system
Introducing new forages
Seasonal (controlled) mating to match feed supply and labour needs
Preferentially feeding particular animals
Feed budgeting and planning to meet forecast feed demands

Best Bet activities in the first field season will be predominantly focused on managing forage resources. Other options will be negotiated incrementally.

Due to the late start of the project, the project team was not able to launch the Best Bet process (village workshop to identify constraints and options for increased cattle production; negotiation of Best Bet options with individual farmers; design and establishment of on-farm trials and monitoring) during the main 07-08 wet season.

However, the project team is taking advantage of Bone's bimodal wet season ('small wet' from December to March and 'big wet' from April to July) to launch Best Bet activities in that regency's four study villages.

A priority for the project team over the next six months is to finalise the model, methods and monitoring for scale-out activities for years 2 and 3. These will be largely be informed by the results and findings of the AS2/2004/005 project. Activities to date supporting scale-out include farmer-to-farmer visits, extension worker joint training, village and farmer group meetings and use of farmer and OGT diaries.

Communication and engagement activities in year one include: organising or facilitating participating farmer visits to established Best Bet farmers, producing the first edition of a project newsletter which will be distributed to relevant institutions in South Sulawesi, Lombok and Australia; and engaging proactively with key regional stakeholders, including Dinas Peternakan at provincial and local levels, and heads of participating and interested villages in the study region.

Activities in the second year of the project focused on consolidating best-bet activities in our 12 study villages across three regencies, establishing a framework for social research, supporting and tracking scale-out and capacity building.

The best-bet process was completed in Barru and Gowa during the 08-09 wet season. This process incorporates a workshop in each study village to identify constraints and options for increased cattle production; negotiation of tailored best-bet options with individual farmers; design and establishment of on-farm trials. Village nurseries, cattle and forage monitoring and dynamic calendars of activities are now in place for each farming unit.

Because of Bone's bimodal wet season ('small wet' from December to March and 'big wet' from April to July), best-bet activities in that regency's four study villages are well advanced. The project team reported that forage introduction (generally the 'entry point' of best-bet activities) by nearly all farmers was exceptionally good. Some farmers now have more feed than they can use and are actively giving planting material to other farmers to create their own forage supply, supporting significant scale-out. In addition, many farmers are already adopting better feeding practices and some with suitable aged calves commencing early weaning and preferential feeding.

A new group of researchers has now taken responsibility for the social research component of the project. Following a workshop in Sydney in December, a framework and sampling strategy has been finalised to investigate aspects of adoption and impact of the best-bet practices. Semi-structured interviews will be used to understand household decision-making processes for adoption and social network analysis will be used to examine what people and institutions are influential in information transfer and exchange. Training in these techniques was given in May and data collection will begin in June.

Impact work will centre on the assumption that increases in productivity lead to increases in income which lead to enhanced livelihoods. This will bring together both biophysical and social indicators and will focus on farmers (best-bet and scale-out) associated with the precursor project. Relevant training will be given in August.

With several new members, the Project Steering Committee continues to provide guidance and advice on the direction and relevance of the project. The Committee met three times during the reporting period, both in Makassar and respective regencies. Committee discussion has been about synergies and communication between institutions, the need for collaboration between OGTs and PPLs, the importance of participation and forming and working with farmer groups.

The project team identified farmer-to-farmer interactions as having the greatest potential to enhance scale-out of on-ground practices. Project activities supporting these interactions include farmer visits to established best-bet farmers in other regencies; a farmer field day in the study sub-district in Bone; supporting farmer 'champions' in each district; and maintaining and distributing a good source of forage material. Each best-bet farmer and OGT is collecting basic information about potential scale-out farmers. This information will be used in a mapping exercise and as part of the social research work.

The greatest potential for long-term support for the project principles and approach (institutional scale-out and capacity) was agreed to be fostering closer links with PPLs and farmer groups, in existing and neighbouring villages. With agreement from local, regency and provincial Dinas managers, a pilot training program for PPLs and PPKs has been developed for the Libureng sub-district of the Bone regency, to begin in June. Initial training will focus on nursery establishment and forage management and use, to take advantage of the extended wet season. It is envisaged that OGTs will subsequently act as facilitators and advisors for the PPLs in setting up village nurseries and managing both forage and cattle. In return the project team is negotiating formal and informal training for OGTs in farmer group engagement and negotiation.

Communication and engagement activities in year two include: presentations by project members at a number of international conferences; media coverage from Bajar TV (Makassar) of the Bone farmer field day; hosting two international journalists - one freelance writer and one from the Australian Financial Review; production of two editions of the project newsletter (distributed to relevant institutions in South Sulawesi, Lombok and Australia); regular engagement with government officials and heads of participating and interested villages in the study region.