TAA CIAT La Nonprofit Organization Devoted to the Agricultural and Economic Development of the Lowland Tropics
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TAA CIAT la nonprofit organization devoted to the agricultural and economic development of the lowland tropics. The government of Colombia provides support as host country for CIAT and furnishes a 522-hectare .-ite near Cali for CIAT's headquarters. In addition, the Fundaci n para la Educaci6n Superior (FES) makes available to CIAT a 184.hectaro substation in Ouilichao and ia 73-hectare substation near Popayan CIAT also co manages with the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA) the 22.000-hectare Carimagua Research Center in the Eastern Plains o' ".olombia. and r:arries out collaborative work on several of ICAs experimental stations in Colombia Similar work is done with national agricultural agencies in other Latin American countries ClAT s financed by a number of donors represented in the Consulative Group for International Agricultural Research(CGIAR) DLring 1981 these ClATdonors are The Rockefeller Foundation. ;hu Ford Foundation. the International Bank for Reconstruction ind Development (IBRO) through the lnterna'ional Developmnrit Association (iDA). the Inter-American Devulopment Bank (lOB). the European Economic Community (EEC). the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). the International Develop ment Research Center (IDRC). and the foreign assistance agencies of the governments of Australia. Belgium. Canada. the Fedora! .1epublic of German . Japan. Moxico. the Netherlands. Norway. Spain. Switzerland. the United Kindgcoom. and the United S'tates In addition, special project funds are supplied by various of the aforementioned donois. plus the Kellogg Foundation. and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Information and conclusions reported herein do not necessarily reflect the position of ar.y of the aforementioned agencies, foundations or governments "'-J )U ,',:K/ 5 2z Sen, CIA T 02LTPI$J92 Septedmbre. 19452 Tropical Pastures Program Annual Report 1981 entro Intnational de Agriculture Tropical, Apsitado 6713, Cml, Colombia Contents Page Introduction........ .... ........ 3 Ge rmplasm o...... .................................................... 0.0.000 0 0 0 ;. 11 Agronomy in the Isohyperthermic Savannas (Carimagua)............... 21 Agronomy in the Isothermic Savannas (Cerrado)....................... 37 Agronomy Evaluations in RegionalTrials............................. 51 Plant Pathology......... ........ ....... 85 Entomology......................................................... 113 Forage Breeding Agronomy............ .... ............................ 131 Legume Improvement,................. oo........................... 139 Soil Microbiology . .o~o . .oo .. .s .o .. ~. ~ .s . o . o ....... o o o o o......... .... 149 Seed Production.................................................. 163 Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition.................................. 167 Pasture Development in the Isohyperthermic Savannas-Carimagua....... 193 Pasture Development in the Hyperthermic Savannas-Cerrado............ 201 Pasture Quality and Nutrition............... ... .. 0.0.0.0.0......... 209 Pasture Productivity and Management................................. 237 Cattle Production System........................................... 249 Cattle Production-Cerrado................................... .... ....... 255 Animal Health.................................... ................. 271 Economics ........................................................... 283 Personnel............ ......... ... o....................... O 297 Program and Staff Publications ............................... .. 301 le htroduction it has been well documented in previous annual reports that beef and milk are staple food commodities in tropical America. It has also been shown that low income urban families spend a large proportion of their income on beef and milk, and that they prefer those products over other food commodities. The growth rates of demand and production of beef in Latin America are shown in Table 1. With the exception of temperate Latin America, the fast growing demand for beef is not being met by production in all other countries and sub-regions. The same applies to dairy products. This inbalance between demand and production growth rates causes a continuous increase in real prices affecting both the diet and the standard of living of the low income strata of the population. Figure I shows real changes in beef prices in Brazil, Colonbia and Venezuela for the last 15 years. Table 2 shows that the total impori value of dairy products spent by tropical American countries exceeds 600 million US dollars per year. Tropical America is a region with vast areas of acid infertile soils totalling 850 million ha. Table 3 shows the distribution and proportion of Oxsols and Ultisols in Latin America. Stbcking rates, as well as animal productivity, in these acid infertile -oil regions have always been low. The current average stocking --.e in Oxisol savannas of 0.12 animal/ha can potentially be increased more than ten fold. In addition, beef production per head could be more than doubled. These acid infertile soils could also contribute significantly to increased milk production through dual-purpose production systems, especially in regions close co markets. Area of Interest Ecosystems Classification. This vast frontier land of tropical America has nearly one billion hectares of savannas and tropical forests. A survey of its lowland acid infertile soil regions was initiated in 1978 in order to classify land resources in terms of climate, land slope and soils, and to provide an ecosystem perspective of the program's area of interest, which would serve zs a basis for the design of its research strztegy. An analysis of the suriey data led in 1979 to a sub-division of the area into five major ecosystems: (i) "Llanos" (tropical well-drained savannas, isohyperthermic), (ii) "Cerrados" (tropical well-drained savannas, isothermic), (iii) tropical poorly drained savannas, (iv) tropical semi-evergreen seasonal forest, (v) tropical rain forest. The distribution of these five major ecosystems is shown in Figure 2. Up to the present, the Program has focused its research only on the 3 well-drained savannas of the "Llanos" and "Cerrados" type. regional trials However, have been established in the other three ecosystems. Table 1. Beef: Annual growth rates of demand and production by countries of Latin America, periods 1960/74 and 1971/79. Demanda Production 1960/74 1971/79 1960/74 Region and country 1971/79 (M) (2) Tropical Latin America 5 . b .9b Brazil 6 5 3.6 2.5 6.0 7.2 Mexico 3.9 1.7 5.3 4.5 Colombia 5.2 8.1 5.2 5.1 Venezuela 2.0 4.4 6.9 4.6 Peru 5.1 3.9 4.7 5.4 Ecuador 1.4 -2.5 7.5 8.3 Paraguay 4.2 5.0 3.1 3.5 Bolivia -1.1 -2.0 4.9 6.1 Dominican 0.0 6.1 Republic 5.8 7.5 Central b 3.7 1.3 America 5.2 4.6 Nicaragua 5.8 3.7 5.2 5.0 Costa 6.7 3.4 Rica 5.2 4.6 Guatemala 7.1 5.7 5.6 5.3 El 4.6 2.9 Salvador 4.8 4.8 Honduras 1.8 4.9 4.6 3.1 8.3 Panama 5 9 2.1 . b 4.0 5.3 Caribbean 4.0 Guayana 4.5 4.0 2.3 2.2 - 4.0 Other Caribbean - 2.9 countriesc - 40 Temperate Latin 2.9 America 2 *b 1.7 Argentina 0.3 5.5 1.7 1.5 Uruguay 0.5 6.1 1.3 0.7 Chile -1.2 1.7 3.0b 2.5 0.2 Latin America 3.3 5.1 5.4 2.2 3.7 a Estimated as: d - P + y Y + y PY, where P and Y are average annual rates of population growth and the respective entry and Ey are the b beef income elasticity of demand. c Pondered average Includes: by population. Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Jamaica and Barbados. Source: Population: World Bank 1979. 1978 World Bank Atlas, Washington, D.C. Production and elasticity entry of demand. FAO 1980. Production Yearbook 1970-79, and Projection of Agricultural Commodities, Rome. 4 160 = 140. 120 / di00 100- II -I****I 1965 1970 1975 1960 * Venezuelo * Brozil * Colombla Figure 1. Changes in real consumer beef prices index, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, 1965-1979 (1965-100). Sources: FGV, Anuario do Brasil; DANE, Boletln mensual de estadistica, World Bank, International Financial Statistics; MAC, Anuario Estadistico Agropecuario. Ministerio de Agricultura y Cria (various issues). Table 2. Dairy products: value of imports in Latin America during 1979. Products Tropical America Latin America b us$ X lo Milk 404 462 Butter 133 153 Cheese 71 82 Total 608 697 Source: FAO. 1979 Yearbook. 5 Table 3. Distribution and proportion of Oxisols and Ultisols in Latin America. Regions Oxisol areasand Ultisol Percentage of region (million ha) (%) Tropical Latin America 848.5 Tropical South America 51 828.2 59 Tropical Central America and Caribbean 15.8 23 Total Latin America 851.1 42 Source: CIAT, 1980. Latin America: Trend Highlights for CIAT Commodities, Cali, Colombia. The ecosystems classification by climatic and soil conditions by the Agrometeorology made Studies Unit is used for designing germplasm collection strategies and for selection of major screening sites and locations for regional trials. Oblectives Pasture-based animal roduction on acid infertile soils a real challenge--a constitutes challinge which CIAT accepted in consideration the existence of vast of areas of acid infertile soils, their potentiality for cattle production, and the pioneer nature of animal production in the frontier. CIAT's Tropical Pastures Program has the following overall objective: "To develop low-cost low-input pasture technology for acid infertile soils of tropical America". With development of this technology, the Program expects increase beef and to milk production in tropical America, and fertile to release cattle land for expansion of crop production. The strategic approach to the problem involves: a) Selecting pasture germplasm adapted to the environmental constraints (climate and soils), as well as prevailing pests and diseases; b) developing persistent and productive pastures; c) integrating improved pasture technology into biologically and economically efficient animal production systems. 6 0 90, 750 600 450 27 I CiMM 15,,0 15* 0.. St,'C pu..: 15 . 150 of Capicorn / e i ° 45. 27 900 75* 600 45 WILL-DRAINED I$OHYPIRTHERMIC I i SAVANNAS (mOly L lie$m). [777J DECIDUOUSFORESTS,CAATINGA? etc. Twpt'901-1060 .. o. 6-8 mouhs Ml Season.WSMT" > 23.5"C. WELL-DRAINED ISOTHERMIC OTHERS' SAVANNAS (mostly Corrodos). TWPE901-1060 mm.