University of South Australia

The project Improving Rainfed Rice/Livestock Farming Systems in Northeast Thailand focuses on improving the reliability of rice-based farming systems in Mahasarakham Province in Northeast Thailand, one of the poorest parts of Thailand. In a region that suffers from low soil fertility, salinity and acidity, the major sources of income are rice grown under rain-fed lowland conditions and cattle rearing.
Labour constraints (a combination of a lack of labour and the associated increase cost in hiring labour) have caused a shift from transplanted rice to rice grown by direct seeding; leading to difficulties in the control of weeds and the management of the crop and soil. Grain yields in much of NE Thailand are well below their potential yields. In relation to helping improve cattle production, World Vision's ADPs (Area Development Programs) have provided support for financial systems to assist smallholders purchase beef cattle and better utilise areas that are unsuitable for rice production. However, the potential to improve incomes through increased cattle production has not been fully tapped due to failure to exploit the potential to enhance nutrition through the full utilization of improved forages, combined with a poor understanding of improved livestock management practices tailored to the poor soils that prevail in much of NE Thailand.
Through a partnership between World Vision (WV), Khon Kaen University (KKU) and strategic inputs from international scientists, this project aims to better utilise and, in some instances refine, the knowledge gained in earlier ACIAR supported projects with a focus on agricultural production in NE Thailand. The project aims to further develop the capacity of World Vision agriculturalists to work within the context of a participatory research paradigm with farmer groups. It will also provide opportunities for postgraduate students attached to the Faculty of Agriculture within KKU, to undertake the research component of their degree studies on problems in the project target area, work more closely with communities and thereby foster the development of their extension and community participatory skills. Within the context of the project, farmers will be assisted in exploring a range of options for improving rice and cattle production through existing associations and marketing cooperatives established under the ADP.
Project activities have initially centred around five sub-districts (Na Si Nuan, Mek Dam, Nong Bua, Lan Sa Ka and Pa La Ane) that comprise the Na Si Nuan World Vision Area Development Program (ADP) in Payakhamphun-Pisai District of Mahasarakham Province in Northeast Thailand.
Since commencement in March 2008, the project team has worked closely with target farmers to introduce and demonstrate new agro-technologies application and practices. It has focused on improving the reliability of the rice-based farming system and improving incomes by increasing cattle production through improvement of livestock management practices.
Given the problems associated with broadcast seeding, work has centered around establishing models on row seeding in order to demonstrate its effectiveness in terms of greater yield, weed management, and reduced seed requirement for planting. Some early trials have also been undertaken to assess the potential for second cropping with grain legumes early and late in the wet-season (before and after the main wet-season rice crop).planting as an extra source of income as well as a means of replenishing nitrogen levels in the soil. An improved blast resistant non-glutinous aromatic rice variety (RD33) developed by the Thai Rice Development is also being assessed in the project area in the 2009 wet-season.
With regard to livestock production, a number of forages were trialled in an effort to research and demonstrate the most appropriate forage grasses to be planted in north-eastern Thailand. The project is also in the early stages of comparing the fattening rates of cattle which have been feed with grown forage compared to those which graze on natural grasses.
In April 2008 a benchmark socio-economic survey was conducted in the area of the project, as a basis for measuring the future impact of the project. The survey was undertaken in the five sub-districts that are part of World Vision Foundation of Thailand's Payakhumpun Pisai Area Development Program (ADP). Although the initial focus of the RLFS Project is on four sub-districts, it was agreed that the project survey should cover the five sub-districts of the ADP, to compliment separate surveys of WVFT which generally have a more humanitarian focus. Khon Kaen University had a substantial involvement in the development of the survey questionnaire, while household interviews were primarily conducted by RLFS Project Staff and other WVFT collaborators.
Four recently-recruited World Vision project staff who are assisting with the implementation of the project and who are recent graduates from the Faculty of Agriculture in Khon Kaen University (KKU), have been supported for masters degree studies at KKU under the commemorative Jonathan Treagust fellowships being supported through the project.
As it is still in the early stages of implementation, with only one wet-season of farmer collaborative activities, it is still too early to assess the potential longer term impact of project initiatives. However, early evidence indicates that farmers are very interested in the technologies being assessed for improving rice and livestock production in the project area. The very close collaborative links that have been established among the different partners in the project can be expected to maximize the potential for longer-term impact of the project in the immediate project area, and in other parts of northeast Thailand with similar production environments.

Exceptional weather conditions in north-east Thailand during the past 12 months forced the project to make significant adjustments to its planned activities. In particular, the technologies being evaluated for direct seeding and weed management could not be assessed as thoroughly as had been intended.

The bulk of the work on improving livestock production revolved around demonstrating the production of a range of forage grasses. However, some work was also conducted on livestock health and on cattle fattening techniques, such as comparing ad libitum feeding to the conventional practice of cattle fattening. With support from Khon Kaen University and the project advisory team, the project collected data to compare cattle growth using the recommended improved technologies with that of traditional techniques.

For rice production, the project provided two varieties of seed - KDML-105 and RD33 - to enable farmers to compare the two varieties and decide on which of the two were most appropriate to their circumstances. Other activities included the growing of legumes and trials of the effects of a variety of fertilizer on yield. Demonstrations were held to show the impact on yield of incorporating Bentonite clay into sandy soil.

However, work on aligning broadcast seeds into rows to reduce weed ingress was not able to go ahead as planned due to the heavy early rains. High rainfall at beginning of the wet-season made broadcast seeding of crops impractical (usually up to 80% of the area cropped to rice is usually broadcast seeded), and prolonged transplanting (over more than 2 months in most areas) had to be adopted. Further, the high rainfall early in the season resulted in weeds being a less significant problem than in 'average' years (water-filled paddy fields and related saturated soils were unsuited to weed ingress and growth).

Studies on alternative production systems and weed management will need to continue in years with more typical rainfall conditions in order to carry out a proper evaluation of potential improvements to production and management technologies.

The target farmers for this operating year included families of sponsored children in Nasinuan ADP as well as other households expressing an interest in participating in the project. Project implementation has been expanded into 8 target villages of 4 sub-districts and is expected to continue to increase in scale during the final period.

From 1999 to 2003, ACIAR funded project AS2/96/149 which researched and promoted the use of grain and forage legumes in crop and livestock systems in Zimbabwe and Limpopo province, South Africa. Notable project successes were, to a large extent, the result of investments in capacity building of the project team (students, extension staff, researchers) and well-targeted interventions. A new project was initiated in 2002 following on from some of the successes from AS2/196/149, however it was recommended that a new project should undertake an integrated RD&E program to help the 'emerging farmer' sector in Limpopo, South Africa become more profitable and sustainable. This emerging farmer sector had been broadly defined as previously disadvantaged farmers who are attempting to make a transition to commercially based agriculture. During the planning stages, it was concluded that land reform schemes underway in RSA would result in the creation of a new sector of emerging farmers. Land reform has proceeded slowly however, so the major sector of previously disadvantaged farmers in Limpopo remains as the non-commercial subsistence sector. While this project has successfully engaged some land reform farmers, mainly in the rangeland (veld) areas, tenure of most of the livestock farmers remains uncertain. Amongst the cropping based farmer groups, all are smallholder farmers with varying capacities and desires to make a transition from subsistence based farming to more commercially orientated farming systems.

Activities in the new project, led by Dr Anthony Whitbread of CSIRO and Mr Jeffery Mkhari of the Limpopo Department of Agriculture, began in March 2005 with a visit by the Australian project team and a startup workshop with the project partners (The Limpopo Department of Agriculture, The University of Venda for Science and Technology, The University of Limpopo, Progress Milling, the provinces largest grain milling company and a private consulting company AGES). The project, essentially divided into work on veld based livestock production systems and work on cropping based systems, has undertaken RD&E activities within 7 communities in 4 districts of Limpopo Province, engaging at least 250 farmers and their families in Year 1. To date there have been no mixed crop-livestock systems identified where synergistic opportunities exist for legume forage interventions.

The CSE Rangelands and Savannas team (Neil MacLeod and Cam Mcdonald) with assistance from the Limpopo Department of Agriculture (LDA) veld team (led by Frits van Oudtshoorn) have undertaken activities with 3 farmer livestock groups based at Steilloop (Rebone) in Waterburg District, Nwanedi in the Vhembe District and Maboi in the Capricorn district. During the initial site inspections, it became apparent that insufficient property size and forage limitations due to veld degradation, in particular bush thickening and loss of perennial grasses, were the most critical management problems facing the emerging farmer groups. The need for legume fodder banks, which had been advanced as the key project technology was rated to be of a lesser priority. The main focus of field and communication activities has been strategically switched to veld monitoring, exclosures to identify relictual site potential and to test the feasibility of spelling, shrub control and other reclamation strategies to reclaim lost productivity of the pasture resources. Without a viable pasture base, any objectives to promote advanced animal nutrition and marketing of better classes of stock are of doubtful viability. In line with these conclusions, there have been trial sites (exclosure plots and pasture plantings) established on several farms and a commitment to similar at the remaining group sites; Resource assessments were made in April 2006 at case study farms at Steilloop, Nwanedi and Maboi. Discussions have been held with farmers to aid in the planning of the first round of group training to be held at Steilloop in July-August 2006. Workshops are also to be planned for the other sites, for late 2006 and early 2007.

The crop based work has been undertaken by Dr Kingsley Ayisi of AGES and teams from the University of Limpopo led by Dr Victoria Ayodele, and the University of Venda led by Dr Odhiambo with support from the local departmental extension officers. All the farmers engaged to date are smallholders and not land reform recipients. An extensive program of applied field research activities, based around the themes of improving soil fertility, agronomic management and the introduction of cash cropping, have been undertaken in four communities: 23 farmers from Dzwerani village, Vhembe district; 8 farmer associations at Perkesbult/Bloodriver in Capricorn district (in association with the ICRISAT-Dimes SMCN/2000/173 project): About 25 farmers from Mafarana and Gabaza villages, Mopani district; 69 farmers from Kulani and Sismukani near Thulamahashe town in Bohlabela District. The activities undertaken include demonstrations, researcher managed trials, farmer experiments, farmer discussion based workshops, fields days and farm walks. At the Mopani and Vhembe sites, MSC students have established on-farm field trials to collect some key data sets for use in their thesis and modelling validations. Benchmarking data collected at all sites indicate a large proportion of farmers > 60 years old, poor knowledge about basic agronomy, dissatisfaction with low and unreliable crop production, constrained resources available for inputs and a desire to produce enough produce in excess of home consumption for sale.

In Australia, an on-farm and on-station research program has been established in the Border Rivers and Maranoa-Balonne regions of southeast Queensland to demonstrate and undertake further research on mixed pasture-crop systems. Sites across both catchments have been sown to a range of large scale demonstrations of new legume pasture spp and annual fodder systems and more detailed small plot research sites. Field days and farm walks have created interest in the opportunities for improving production from pasture phases in farming communities where there are economic, social and environmental drivers to reduce the area used for crop production..

The main aim of this project is to improve the sustainability of emerging farmers who operate in crop or livestock farming systems in the Limpopo Province, South Africa and to support two local Universities and the Limpopo Department of Agriculture in conducting participative research and extension. The emerging farmer sector is made up of new farmers created by the land reform programs or existing previously disadvantaged farmers who are attempting to make a transition to commercially based agriculture. Emerging farmers created from the land reform schemes are essentially restricted to those undertaking livestock activities in the low rainfall rangeland (veld) areas, whereas crop based emerging farmers are predominantly pre-existing smallholder farmers in the former homelands. While this project has successfully engaged some land reform farmers, mainly in the rangeland (veld) areas, tenure of most of the livestock farmers remains uncertain and is considered to be a major impediment to success of these farmers. Amongst the cropping based farmer groups, all are smallholder farmers with varying capacities and desires to make a transition from subsistence based farming to more commercially orientated farming systems.

The project is led by Dr Anthony Whitbread of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems and Mr Jeffery Mkhari of the Limpopo Department of Agriculture. It started in March 2005 with a visit by the Australian project team and a startup workshop with the project partners (The Limpopo Department of Agriculture, The University of Venda for Science and Technology, The University of Limpopo, Progress Milling, the provinces largest grain milling company and a private consulting company AGES). The project, divided into work on veld based livestock production systems and work on cropping based systems, has undertaken RD&E activities within 7 communities in 4 districts of Limpopo Province, engaging at least 250 farmers and their families. To date there have been no mixed crop-livestock systems identified where synergistic opportunities exist for legume forage interventions. There is, however, the potential for these systems to develop in many of the smallholder cropping areas.

The CSE Rangelands and Savannas team (Neil MacLeod and Cam Mcdonald) with assistance from the Limpopo Department of Agriculture (LDA) veld team (led by Frits van Oudtshoorn) have undertaken activities with 3 farmer livestock groups based at Steilloop (Rebone) in Waterburg District, Nwanedi in the Vhembe District and Maboi in the Capricorn district. As reported in the 2006/07 annual report, uncertain land tenure, insufficient property size and forage limitations due to veld degradation, in particular bush thickening and loss of perennial grasses, were the most critical management problems facing the emerging farmer groups. The need for legume fodder banks, which had been advanced as the key project technology was rated to be of a lesser priority. The main focus of field and communication activities was therefore strategically switched to veld monitoring, exclosures to identify relictual site potential and to test the feasibility of spelling, shrub control and other reclamation strategies to reclaim lost productivity of the pasture resources. In line with these conclusions, there has been trial sites (exclosure plots and pasture plantings) established on farms at all sites.

The crop based work has been undertaken by Dr Kingsley Ayisi of AGES and teams from the University of Limpopo led by Professors Ayodele and Mariga, and the University of Venda led by Dr Odhiambo. Local departmental extension officer support is considered an essential component of the program and has been sought at all sites with varying degrees of success. All the farmers engaged to date are smallholders and not land reform recipients. An extensive program of applied field research activities, based around the themes of improving soil fertility, agronomic management and the introduction of cash cropping, have been undertaken in four communities: 25 farmers from Dzwerani village, Vhembe district; 8 farmer associations at Perkesbult/Bloodriver in Capricorn district (building on the associations of the ICRISAT-Dimes SMCN/2000/173 project): About 25 farmers from Mafarana and Gabaza villages, Mopani district; >100 farmers from Kulani and Sismukani near Thulamahashe town in Bohlabela District. The activities undertaken include demonstrations, researcher managed trials, farmer experiments, farmer discussion based workshops, fields days and farm walks. At the Mopani and Vhembe sites, MSC students have continued field trials to collect some key data sets for use in their projects and modelling validations. In the past 12 months, Guar bean has also been introduced as a potential industrial cash crop and seed multiplication, on-farm experiments, harvesting and processing and market development is underway led by Jeff Mkhari and also a new MSC student Mrs Ruth Mkhari. For the remainder of the projects life key field activities will continue but a greater emphasis will be on the development of extension material and the communication of this material in an effort to improve the livelihoods of many of the smallholder cropping farmers involved.

In Australia, on-farm and on-station activities were established in the Border Rivers and Maranoa-Balonne regions of southeast Queensland to demonstrate and undertake further research on mixed livestock-crop systems. Sites across both catchments have been sown to a range of large scale demonstrations of new legume pasture species and annual fodder systems and more detailed small plot research sites. Field days and farm walks have created interest in the opportunities for improving production from pasture phases in farming communities where there are economic, social and environmental drivers to reduce the area used for crop production. For the last 2 years of the project, the Australian component will be continued under other funding arrangements, and the focus of this ACIAR project will be generating communication and extension materials for South Africa and creating as many opportunities as possible for significant farmer adoption and commercialisation.

The aim of this project is to improve the sustainability of emerging farmers who operate in crop or livestock farming systems in the Limpopo Province, South Africa and to support local researchers and extension staff to develop systems based participative research and extension programs. The emerging farmer sector is made up of new farmers created by government land reform programs or existing smallholder subsistence farmers who are attempting to make a transition to commercially based agriculture. Emerging farmers created from the land reform schemes are largely restricted to those undertaking livestock activities in the low rainfall veld (rangeland) areas, whereas crop based emerging farmers are predominantly pre-existing smallholder farmers in the former homelands. While this project has successfully engaged some land reform farmers, mainly livestock farmers, the land tenure of many remains uncertain and is considered to be a major impediment to their success. Amongst the cropping based farmer groups, all are smallholder farmers with varying capacities and desires to make the transition from subsistence based farming to more commercially orientated farming systems.
Now in its 4th year, the emerging farmers project is led by Dr Anthony Whitbread of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems with local South African partners Mr Jeffery Mkhari (Limpopo Department of Agriculture) Dr Jude Odhiambo (University of Venda for Science and Technology) and Prof. Victoria Ayodele (University of Limpopo). Dr Kingsley Ayisi, a private consultant based in Limpopo has provided excellent support and service to the project as has Mr Frits van Oudtshoorn, formerly an LDA officer and now a private consultant. Dr Bruce Pengelly gives excellent support to the project in his role as an advisor and providing training.
The livestock and veld management focussed work is led by Mr Cam McDonald and Mr Neil MacLeod (CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems) with assistance from LDA animal and pasture extension staff. Field research and training activities have been undertaken with three farmer livestock groups based at Steilloop in Waterburg District, Nwanedi in the Vhembe District and Maboi in the Capricorn district, and in the last year an additional group of farmers at Mannamead in the Capricorn district. Uncertain land tenure, insufficient property size and forage limitations due to veld degradation, in particular bush thickening and loss of perennial grasses, are critical management problems facing these emerging farmers. The program has included veld monitoring, exclosures to identify relictual site potential and to test the feasibility of spelling, shrub control and other reclamation strategies to reclaim lost productivity of the pasture resources and training. A key focus has been the delivery to farmers (100+) and extension staff (20+) multi-day training courses and follow-up workshops. The development of a brochure, "Veld Management - the Basics" has summarised key information from these interactions and is being widely distributed. This team has engaged the South African pasture research community in discussions around how to intervene effectively in emerging farmer communities.
The crop based work has engaged smallholder farmers, not land reform recipients and established an extensive program of applied field research activities based around the themes of improving soil fertility, agronomic management and the introduction of cash cropping. These have been undertaken with focal groups of farmers in five communities: 25 farmers from Dzwerani village, Vhembe district; 8 farmer associations at Perkesbult/Bloodriver in Capricorn district (building on the associations of the ICRISAT-Dimes SMCN/2000/173 project): 50 farmers from Mafarana and Gabaza villages, Mopani district; 40 farmers from Kulani and Sismukani in Bohlabela District. The activities include demonstrations, researcher/student trials, farmer experiments, farmer discussion based workshops, fields days and farm walks. At the Bohlobela community, resource constrained smallholder farmers have shown that they can adopt improved agronomic practices and increase cultivation and production of cash crops for sale. A wonderful and significant outcome that we hope to build on in other communities. The guar bean activities started in 2006/07 as a potential industrial cash crop industry has continued with seed multiplication, variety evaluations, harvesting, processing and market development. There is much enthusiasm from government and the mining industry for this to continue and extension material has been developed. For the remainder of the project, key field activities will continue but with a greater emphasis on the development of extension material and the communication of this material. Local departmental extension officer support is considered an essential component of the program and has been sought at all sites with varying degrees of success - this issue remains a significant impediment to progress. There have been significant positive changes in the capacity of local researchers to undertake relevant research and the project to date has enabled 2 female students complete MSc level studies and 4 other individuals obtain honours level dissertations. Two of these students have continued onto MSc level work with the project.
South Africa and southern Africa more broadly, needs more than ever practical systems based RD&E to assist its governmental services, municipalities and NGO's tackle the multitude of problems facing large rural populations.

The project commenced in 2005 with the aim of improving the sustainability of emerging farmers who operate in crop or livestock farming systems in the Limpopo Province, South Africa, and to support local researchers and extension staff to develop systems based participatory research and extension programs. The `emerging farmer' sector is comprised of new farm enterprises created by government land reform programs and/or existing smallholder subsistence farmers who are striving to make the difficult transition to commercially based agriculture. The component created under land reform schemes is largely restricted to undertaking livestock activities in the low rainfall veld (rangeland) areas, whereas the crop-based component largely comprises pre-existing smallholder farmers located in the former homelands. This sector was seen to have more scope in terms of motivation and access to resources for making a successful transition, a priority under the national Black Economic Empowerment program (BEE), than the smallholder and near-urban subsistence sector that has been the focus of many previous unsuccessful development projects.
A project extension supported by ACIAR now allows the project to continue until 31 December 2009. It is led by Dr Anthony Whitbread of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems with local South African partners Mr Jeffery Mkhari (Limpopo Department of Agriculture), Prof. Jude Odhiambo (University of Venda for Science and Technology) and Prof. Victoria Ayodele (University of Limpopo). Dr Kingsley Ayisi, a private consultant based in Limpopo Province, has been engaged to service our activities with the Bohlobela communities as part of the smallholder cropping activities. The activities that are focussed on livestock and veld management have been led by Mr Cam McDonald and Mr Neil MacLeod (CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems) with assistance from animal and pasture extension staff of the LDA and local Municipalities. Mr Frits van Oudtshoorn, a pasture scientist formerly of the LDA, has also been contracted by the project to assist with training activities and development of extension materials.
The crop based activities have largely engaged smallholder farmers, rather than land reform recipients, and have established an extensive program of applied field research based around the themes of improving soil fertility, agronomic management and the introduction of cash cropping. In the past 12 months, activities have continued in 3 farming communities in 3 districts: farmer associations at Perkesbult/Bloodriver (Capricorn district): in the Mafarana and Gabaza villages (Mopani district); Kulani and Sismukani villages (Bohlabela district-now part of Mpumalanga Province). The activities include demonstrations, researcher/student trials, farmer experiments, farmer discussion workshops, field days and farm walks. Two communities, of >50 resource poor farmers each, have demonstrated through adaptive research that it is possible to transform low-productivity maize-based farming systems into more-profitable enterprises by incorporating grain legume cash crops into rotations with maize. These farmers are now packaging, storing and selling high-value legume products, when just three years earlier they were barely at subsistence levels of food production.
In the past 12 months, the livestock and veld management activities have focused on local capacity building activities for both extension personnel and participant farmers. Field research and training activities have been undertaken with 3 livestock farmer groups based at Steilloop (Waterburg district), Nwanedi (Vhembe district), Maboi (Capricorn district), and in the last year an additional farmer group at Mannamead (Capricorn district). A limited field program has included establishing veld monitoring sites; erecting exclosures to identify relictual site potential and to test the feasibility of spelling, shrub control and other reclamation strategies to reclaim lost productivity of the pasture resources; and skills-based training. A key focus has been the delivery to farmers (100+) and extension staff (20+) of multi-day training courses and follow-up workshops, and the development of appropriate extension material which has been critically unavailable to both extension personnel and individual farmers. In rangeland based beef systems, ~ 40 new farmers resulting from government land reform policies have learnt new skills to better manage soil and pasture resources and beef businesses. Significant outcomes such as the adoption of more sustainable grazing practices such as decreased stocking rates and rotational grazing and successes in marketing beef are evidence that on-going efforts to build capacity in local extension staff and farmers and introduce practical and low risk technologies have been successful. Limited capacity within the government agricultural services to support emerging farmers with appropriate advice, input support or infrastructure investment hampers such demonstrated successes being replicated more widely.

The overall objective of the present project is to improve the incomes of Tibetan farmers on mixed crop/livestock farms by identifying ways of boosting grain, fodder and dairy production and facilitating the adoption of this technology on farms. The project builds on two earlier projects in Tibet: CIM/2002/093 'Intensifying grain and fodder production in Central Tibet farming systems' and LPS/2002/104 'Increasing milk production from cattle in Tibet'. Specific aims in this, the first year of the project, were: the establishment of research programs to improve methods of grain, fodder and dairy production; on-farm evaluation of methods to boost cereal, fodder and dairy production; and the enhancement of research and extension capacity in Tibet. Over the course of the year progress was made in most areas of project work, though some activities planned for the year could not be undertaken due to constraints on travel to Tibet.
Firstly, progress was made towards understanding Tibetan farming systems and constraints to grain and dairy production. Surveys on agricultural practices on 45 farms conducted by project team members in the latter stages of the agronomy project (CIM/2002/093) were analysed during 2008, allowing typical agricultural practices to be reported, and constraints to production and opportunities to improve productivity discussed. This survey is included in a paper accepted for publication in Crop and Pasture Science (title: Agriculture in central Tibet: an assessment of climate, farming systems and strategies to boost production): this provides an important baseline document for this and other agricultural development projects in Tibet.
Experiments were established at the Tibet Agricultural Research Institute in 2008 to evaluate different varieties of triticale as winter sown fodder crops, and the productivity of different varieties of oats and maize as spring sown fodder crops. Further to work initiated in CIM/2002/093 concerning crop nutrition, the nutritional status of wheat and barley crops in 16 fields across Tibet's cropping zone was assessed. Preliminary results indicate K, Mg and Zn to be marginal or deficient in many areas, suggesting that amendments with these nutrients should be a focus for future agronomic work. Animal house experiments investigating the productivity of different cattle breeds were designed during early 2009 and will commence by the middle of the year.
A crucial aspect of this new project is the emphasis on extension of technology to farmers. To this end, demonstration sites were established at two locations during 2008, at Chang Dru village, Naidong County, and at Dazi village, Medrogongga County. Two new technologies have so far been demonstrated in these areas: zero-till seeding of vetch as a double crop was demonstrated over an area of 50 ha in Chang Dru village in July 2008; and zero-till sown cereal crops have been established for winter wheat at Dazi. Zero-till sown double crops of vetch were popular with farmers at Chang Dru, and produced around 3 t/ha of quality vetch hay that farmers stored on roof-tops and farm walls. As of May 2009, zero-till sown wheat crops had established well at DaZi. The site at Chang Dru village is being used for demonstrating best practice livestock production in 12 farming households in 2009.
Over the past year, surveys were designed that focus on extension networks and household economics. These were pre-tested in two households during May 2009 and are scheduled for implementation in August 2009 - a year later than planned due to travel constraints.
Finally, progress was made during the project's first year in the development of research capacity among staff from the Tibet Agricultural Research Institute and the Tibet Livestock Research Institute. Three project staff members are currently the recipients of John Allright Fellowships for Masters study in Australia: Ms Wang Li and Ms Xiang Ba are studying for Masters degrees in Animal and Veterinary Science at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, and Ms Pubu Drolma for Masters in Plant Health and Biosecurity at The University of Adelaide.

The overall objective of the project is to improve the incomes of Tibetan farmers on mixed crop/livestock farms by boosting grain, fodder and dairy production achieved through the adoption of technology on farms. The project builds on two earlier projects in Tibet: CIM/2002/093 'Intensifying grain and fodder production in Central Tibet farming systems' and LPS/2002/104 'Increasing milk production from cattle in Tibet'. Specific aims addressed in 2009 (the second year of the project) were: the establishment of research programs to improve methods of grain, fodder and dairy production; on-farm evaluation of methods to boost cereal, fodder and dairy production; and the enhancement of research and extension capacity in Tibet. Over the course of the year excellent progress was made in all areas of project work, despite some catch-up activities resulting from travel constraints in 2008 that limited Australian personnel entering Tibet.
Experiments were established at the Tibet Agricultural Research Institute in 2009 to evaluate different varieties of triticale as winter-sown fodder crops, and the productivity of different varieties of oats and maize as spring-sown fodder crops. Further to work initiated in CIM/2002/093 concerning crop nutrition, the nutritional status of wheat and barley crops in 16 fields across Tibet's cropping zone were assessed. Results from this survey indicate K, Mg and Zn to be marginal or deficient in many areas and a field-based response trial showed biomass and grain yield responses to foliar applied K fertiliser. Further work on K in particular will be carried out in an extensive field experiment established in April 2010. An animal house experiment comparing the productivity of different cattle breeds was undertaken during 2009. Further, an improved practice monitoring technology demonstration was initiated at 2 locations, firstly on the 13 trial farms in Chang Dru village, and secondly at a large scale commercial dairy (both in the Tsedang area). At these 2 locations the continual monitoring of feed and milk data on a daily basis, with varying feed rations, was monitored through 2009.
A crucial aspect of this new project is the emphasis on extension of technology to farmers. To this end, demonstration sites were established at two locations in 2008, at Chang Dru village, Naidong County, and at Dazi village, Medrogongga County. Two new technologies have so far been demonstrated in these areas: zero-till seeding of vetch as a double crop was demonstrated over an area of 50 ha in Chang Dru village in July 2008; and zero-till sown cereal crops have been established for winter wheat at Dazi. Zero-till sown double crops of vetch were popular with farmers at Chang Dru, and produced around 3 t/ha of quality vetch hay that farmers stored on roof-tops and farm walls. In 2009, zero-till sown wheat crops were established at Dazi.
Over the past year, surveys were designed that focus on extension networks and household economics. These were pre-tested in two households during May 2009 and the extensive survey was completed in August 2009. Extensive development of a household model incorporating the socio-economic and farming systems information gathered from the surveys and associated fieldwork occurred in the second half of 2009.
Finally, progress was made during the project's second year in the development of research capacity among staff from the Tibet Agricultural Research Institute and the Tibet Livestock Research Institute. Three project staff members are currently the recipients of John Allwright Fellowships for Masters study in Australia: Ms Wang Li and Ms Xiang Ba are studying for Masters degrees in Animal and Veterinary Science at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, and Ms Pubu Drolma for Masters in Plant Health and Biosecurity at The University of Adelaide. Tim Heath who spent 4 months as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development on the project in Lhasa in 2009 helped other TARI and TLRI staff to improve methods of agronomy and language skills, as well as assisting with agronomy experiments and farm surveys. It is planned to host another Youth Ambassador to assist on the project in 2011.

The overall objective of the project is to improve the incomes of Tibetan farmers on mixed crop/livestock farms by boosting grain, fodder and dairy production achieved through the adoption of technology on farms. The project builds on two earlier concurrent projects in Tibet: CIM/2002/093 'Intensifying grain and fodder production in Central Tibet farming systems' and LPS/2002/104 'Increasing milk production from cattle in Tibet'. Specific aims addressed in 2010 (the third year of the project) were: the establishment of research programs to improve methods of grain, fodder and dairy production; on-farm evaluation of methods to boost cereal, fodder and dairy production; and the enhancement of research and extension capacity in Tibet. Over the course of the year excellent progress was made in all areas of project work.
Experiments were established at the Tibet Agricultural Research Institute in 2010 to evaluate different varieties of triticale as winter-sown fodder crops, and the productivity of different varieties of oats as spring-sown fodder crops. Crop Nutrition experiments were carried out at TARI and at several locations across the project area. Further to work initiated in CIM/2002/093 concerning crop nutrition, the nutritional status of wheat and barley crops in 16 fields across Tibet's cropping zone were assessed. Results from this survey indicate K, Mg and Zn to be marginal or deficient in many areas and a field-based response trial showed biomass and grain yield responses to foliar applied K fertiliser. Further work on K in particular was carried out in extensive field experiments in 2010 with some responses noted but some trials were non-responsive. An animal house experiment comparing the productivity of different cattle breeds under varying feed rations was undertaken during 2010. Further, an improved practice monitoring technology demonstration was initiated on the 15 trial farms in Chang Dru village. At this location the continual monitoring of feed and milk data on a daily basis, with varying feed rations, was monitored through 2010 and is continuing in 2011.
A crucial aspect of this new project is the emphasis on extension of technology to farmers. To this end, demonstration sites were established in 2010, to show the fodder producing ability of winter sown Triticale. In 2009, zero-till sown wheat crops were established at Dazi. In 2010, follow-up interviews were conducted with households in Mozhugongka, Bailing and Naidong previously interviewed in 2009 to gather detailed information for use in the modelling of household crop-livestock systems. This was supplemented with interviews and information sourced from new households as well as from other sources such as local leaders and agribusiness enterprises. The information has been used to further develop the household model and to refine the scenarios to be investigated by the model. The model is now at an advanced stage of development and capable of examining the impacts on households of the innovations identified elsewhere in the project. Additional funding has been allocated for this part of the project in 2011 allowing Australian staff to spend more time in Tibet transferring the model to the local researchers and extension staff.
Finally, progress was made during the project's third year in the development of research capacity among staff from the Tibet Agricultural Research Institute and the Tibet Livestock Research Institute. Two project staff members successfully completed John Allwright Fellowships (JAFs) for Masters Study in Australia: Ms Wang Li completed her Master's degree in Animal and Veterinary Science at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, and Ms Pubu Drolma completed her Masters in Plant Health and Biosecurity at The University of Adelaide. These two staff members have now returned to Tibet and are proving valuable contributors to ongoing project work. Ms Xiang Ba is still on track to complete her Masters Degree in Animal and Veterinary Science at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga. Another project staff member from TARI (Jin Tao) was successful in obtaining a JAF for 2011 and is currently undertaking intensive English training prior to applying to The University of Adelaide for PhD entrance.
The start of 2011 involved a key project workshop in Adelaide for the project combined with the associated ACIAR project LPS/2005/129 'Mineral Response in Tibetan Livestock' The week long workshop brought together 10 local staff from Tibet and all Australian project personnel from both projects. It was a great opportunity to bring together all staff and ensure a successful start to the final year of the project as well as to discuss opportunities for the future and collaboration between the two projects

Commencing in late September 2007, the project started slightly behind the original scheduled start time of July 1, 2008. The delay was primarily due to final approval processes between the different research partners.
Despite the delayed start preparations for the delivery of a range of project activities were quickly actioned, due to the need to establish the range of primary and secondary field trials and demonstration sites and associated activities.
The appointment of the two Research associates linked to the project at the two Indian institutions namely the Directorate of Wheat Research in Karnal and the Haryana Agricultural University in Hisar were delayed due to internal institutional approval processes. Recently two appointments have been made, with the Research Associates commencing during April at the Directorate of Wheat Research, and the end of June at Haryana Agricultural University. These appointments will provide a much needed resource boost to the project, and reduce the additional workloads on the senior project team staff at the two Indian locations.
The Indian partners have proven to be extremely efficient and effective in the delivery of the research and demonstration trials associated with the project, given the constraints associated with the delay in the start time of the project, and appointment of the two Indian research Associates.

The project has the overarching objective of improving farm profitability in north-west India (focussing on Haryana) by improving the grain quality of the wheat produced. It therefore is important that a production and marketing culture is developed that recognises quality attributes and how these can be achieved and rewarded. This project thus aims at identifying the practices that farmers can adopt as part of an integrated system for enhancing both quality and wheat yield. The field demonstration and research components of the project reach into crop rotational sequences involving cotton-wheat, sugar cane-wheat, pearl-millet-wheat and cluster bean-wheat; this is a significant achievement, given that much of the on-farm research in Haryana has tended to focus upon the rice-wheat cropping systems. These experiments include comparisons of conventional tillage and zero till, nitrogen fertiliser use (split applications), micronutrients use, irrigation treatments, and evaluation of wheat varieties with different times of sowing. These field trials are being managed to an extremely high standard in terms of presentation, completeness of treatments and measurements, and the strong linkages between research plans and what the project is aiming to discover and demonstrate to the farming community. Undertaking field trials and demonstrations on-farm presents many challenges compared with institutionally based field research, as there are many factors that can be out of the control of the researchers. In this project the Indian researchers have managed this on-farm research in an extremely professional manner - farmer participation has been excellent and there now are excellent linkages with the State Department of Agriculture and the HAU KVKs at all field sites. This cooperation and enthusiasm for the project work has built significantly over the last year and in some instances staff from these groups are responsible for establishing and maintaining the sites. The Hariyali Kisan Bazaar (HKB) commitment to the project also continues to gain momentum, providing an excellent model of engaging the private agribusiness network in such project work. This broad base to managing the on-farm research and demonstration provides much more impact as part of the overall extension outreach strategy.
There has been significant effort dedicated to the development of improved relationships and enhanced linkages across the agribusiness and State extension networks. This has been demonstrated through the development of crop monitoring resources and guides, regular communication between stakeholders, and increased ownership and participation in a range of extension field days, farmer field walks and contributions to other project activities such as field trials and demonstrations. There has been excellent liaison between the research personnel and agribusiness agronomists from the HKB network in not only activities linked to this project, but also in other field agronomy based research projects. This is assisting in the improvement in the extension outreach activities associated with the project. Such linkages with the State extension and agribusiness staff is also assisting in building the amount of available information and market signals in relation to trends in the marketing of grain. Whilst the market incentives are somewhat dulled due to the continued lack of price differentiation in the market place relating to grain quality (and the associated Government procurement of grain and general inflexibility in Minimum Set Pricing), it is evident that there is an increasing awareness of the importance of quality in specifically targeted markets, in addition to other specified market demands (such as clean and green grain, and an increasing consumer consciousness relating to organically grown grain). As the project continues to generate excellent agronomic management data sets relating to optimal production systems for achieving quality grain, the project will aim to further concentrate on market place analysis of niche marketing opportunities and trends for quality wheat grain in the Indian domestic sector.

The project has the overarching objective of improving farm profitability in north-west India (focussing on Haryana) by improving the grain quality of the wheat produced. It therefore is important that a production and marketing culture is developed that recognises quality attributes and how these can be achieved and rewarded. This project has through two years of field experiments identified practices that farmers can adopt as part of an integrated system for enhancing both quality and wheat yield. The field demonstration and research components of the project carried out in diverse environments and on farmer fields have included comparisons of conventional tillage and zero till, nitrogen fertiliser use (split applications), micronutrients use, irrigation treatments, and evaluation of wheat varieties with different times of sowing. Consistent data was achieved in seasons 2007-08 and 2008-09 that has provided the agronomic best-practice protocol that is established in the field experiments in 2009-10. The basis of best-practice for chapatti quality is early-November sowing, variety choice, zero tillage, micro- and secondary nutrient input (particularly Zn and S) and strategic N-fertiliser that is integrated with irrigation management. This package of agronomic management is additive in its effect and improves the chapatti quality of the farmer preferred (high yielding) wheats, though these wheats still do not reach the desired chapatti quality levels preferred by consumers.
At all stages of this research program farmers have participated through assisting in the site development and attending in large numbers the site-based field days (total 1350 attendees at 8 separate sites). The sites have been an excellent basis for linkages with the State Department of Agriculture and the HAU KVKs and the project partners. The Hariyali Kisan Bazaar (HKB) commitment to the project also continues, providing an excellent model of engaging the private agribusiness network in such project work. This broad base to managing the on-farm research and demonstrations provides much more impact as part of the overall extension outreach strategy. There has been significant effort dedicated to the development of improved relationships and enhanced linkages across the agribusiness and State extension networks. This has been demonstrated through the use of crop monitoring resources and guides, regular communication between stakeholders, and increased ownership and participation in a range of extension field days, farmer field walks and contributions to other project activities such as field trials and demonstrations. There has been excellent liaison between the research personnel and agribusiness agronomists from the HKB network in not only activities linked to this project, but also in other field agronomy based research projects. This is assisting in the improvement in the extension outreach activities associated with the project. Such linkages with the State extension and agribusiness staff is also assisting in building the amount of available information and market signals in relation to trends in the marketing of grain. Whilst the market incentives are somewhat dulled due to the continued lack of price differentiation in the market place, it is evident that there is an increasing awareness of the importance of quality in specifically targeted markets. For example village in Amoli (Jhajjar district) farmers grow 40% of their wheat with variety C-306 (high chapatti quality) and transport this grain 80km to markets where high premium prices are attained. As the project continues to generate excellent agronomic management data and farmer awareness to the practice relating to optimal production systems for achieving quality grain, the project will concentrate on market place analysis of niche marketing opportunities and trends for quality wheat grain in the Indian domestic sector.

The overall objective of the project is to improve rice establishment and productivity in rainfed and irrigated rice farming systems of Cambodia.
The project effectively commenced in May 2010.
Key objectives, outputs and activities for the first 12 months are:
1. Assess current and potential rice establishment methods.
Existing outputs literature and data on Cambodia rice farming systems was collated and compiled into a database available through a website at the University of South Australia.
A farmer survey was undertaken in 3 target provinces (Takeo, Kampot and Kampong Thom) Analysis of the farmer survey has commenced and continues. Progress on the survey conduct, coding and analysis has been slower than desired and is expected in September 2011.
2. Assemble a spatial database about Cambodia to better target establishment options.
A spatial data base known as Cambodia Land and Environment Atlas and Resource (CLEAR) has been assembled and is preparing for a beta release. This database has been populated with data accessed from existing data and potential users. The release of the beta version is planned for June 2011.
The CARDI soils laboratory has been enhanced to allow improved soil analysis to be undertaken so that field experiments can be fully understood.. New equipment and resources have been ordered but have not yet arrived for use. Laboratory staff member has undertaken a staff mentoring and training program from experienced Australian soils researchers where new laboratory techniques and general good laboratory management were emphasised. The updated laboratory manual is being translated into Khmer
3. Identify strategies to improve rice establishment and weed management
Field experiments have been undertaken by all Cambodian collaborators - CARDI, GDA and RUA comparing improved methods of rice establishment and weed management. These experiments provided the opportunity for our Cambodian collaborators to enhance their ability to conduct adaptive research. These experiments have been conducted in both wet season (rainfed) and dry season (irrigated) rice growing systems, in replicated experiments on research stations and un-replicated trials on farmers fields. The results of the experiments point to the success of drum seeders and associated lower seeding rates, and the successful use of herbicides for weed control in rice.
Training materials on use of new establishment technology including drum seeders and seed drills have been developed in Khmer and weed control training materials for Cambodia have been developed by IRRI researchers.
4. Evaluate new practices
Field trials have been initiated in dry rice growing season by CARDI, GDA and RUA although linkages between these organisations and agri-business have yet to be developed.
5. Build capacity of Cambodian participating organisations - Cambodian researchers are undertaking replicated field experimentation as part of the project in conjunction - Several meeting to share experiences, and information have been conducted.
6. In Australia, literature review has been conducted and field experiments were undertaken to investigate techniques to improve rice establishment and the tolerance of rice varieties to saline water. These experiments have been compromised to some extent by the end of the drought and the very wet summer that ensued. Issues with cockatoos, plague locusts, ducks and then mice plague conditions.