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P P (-L3 - eDo -00(~( 4';/'~ pt w S &ffiA11 83)03 p I 'p Thwqpi~093LP*Talo afl4~finrmu~ UA 1 ~ll)Wfli CIAT is a nonprofit agricultural research organization devoted to the goal of increasing sustainable food production intropical developing regions. CIATisone of 13 international agricultural research centers under the auspices of the Consultative Group on Interna tional Agricultural Research (CGIAR}. The governmentof Colombia providessupportas a hostcountryfor CIATandfurnishes a 522-hectare site near Cali for CIAT's headquarters. In addition, the Colombian Foundation for Higher Education (FES) makes available to CIAT a 184-hectare substation in Quilichao and a 73-hectare substation near Popaydn; the Colombian Rice Federacion (FEDEARROZ) also makes available to CIATa 30-hectare farm-Santa Rosa sub-station-nearVillavicencio. CIATcomanageswith the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) the 22,000-hectare Carimagua Research Center on the Colombian eastern plains and carries out collaborative work on several other ICA experimental stations in Colombia; similar work is done with national agricultural agencies in Latin American, African and Asian countries. CIAT is financed by a number of donors, most of which are represented in CGIAR. During 1986these CIATdonors include the governments of Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, theFederal Republicof Germany, ItalyJapan, Mexico,the Netherlands, Norway, the People's Republic of China, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Organizations that are CIAT donors in 1986 include the European Economic Community (EEC), the Ford Foundation, the Inter-American Devel opment Bank (IDB), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (iFAD), the Rockefeller Foundation, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Information and conclusions reported herein do not necessarily reflect the position of any of the aforementioned entities. Annual Report 1985 Tropical Pastures Working Document No. 17, 1986 (CcC ["I ALV Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical N Index PAGE INTRODUCTION 5 GERMPLASM 12 PLANT BREEDING 29 BIOTECHNOLOGY 41 AGRONOMY (CARIMAGUA) 58 AGRONOMY (CERRADOS) 78 PASTURES PROJECT IN PANAMA (IDIAP/RUTGERS/CIAT) 92 INTERNATIONAL TROPICAL PASTURES EVALUATION NETWORK 104 ENTOMOLOGY 128 PLANT PATHOLOGY 166 SOIL MICROBIOLOGY 207 SOIL/PLANT NUTRITION 242 PASTURE DEVELOPMENT (CARIMAGUA) 271 PASTURE QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY 287 ECOPHYSIOLOGY 309 SEED PRODUCTION 320 CATTLE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS 335 ECONOMICS 359 TRAINING 379 PUBLICATIONS 385 LIST OF STAFF MEMBERS TPP 397 Introduction The mandate of the Program was defined commodities. Lower prices will bene by the External Panel Review in 1984 fit particularly the poor. as "The acid poor soils in the lowlands under subhumid to humid In countries of tropical America, the climates, with emphasis in' tropical growth rate of demand for beef and America". milk increases at a faster degree than the growth rate of production (Table Tropical America's cattle inventory 1). This disequilibrium induces an adds to more than 200 million head increase in prices for these com --17% of the total cattle population modities, negatively affecting. the of the world. nutritional level and the economy of the lower income populations. Produc In contrast to other tropical regions tivity of tropical livestock is low of the world, beef consumption in (Table 2) as compared with that -tropical America is higher. It ranges reached- in developed countries and from 7 to 38 kg/capita/year. The under temperate conditions. - This low percentage of food expenditures for productivity is due to the extensive- beef and milk is high in most Latin American cities, even among the poor. In the lowest income quartile of the Table 1. Beef: Annual growth rates of population, beef expenditures ranged demand and production in Latin from 12.4% to 26%, while expenditures American countries, 1970-1981. on milk and dairy products ranged from Region, Growth rates (%) 7.to 13%. The income elasticity for country Demand Production beef and dairy products is high Tropical throughout Latin America at all income America 5.3 2.2 levels. Recent studies in different Bolivia 4.9 4.9 regions of Colombia and in urban and Brazil 6.1 1.5 rural areas indicate that food Colombia 4.9 3.5 expenditure shares for beef and milk Dominican are also high for rural populations: Republic 6.0 3.4 28.2% for urban areas vs. 24.4% for Ecuador 8.9 5.3 the rural population. This indicates Mexico 4.4 3.3 that beef and milk are staple food Paraguay 4.4 -1.1 commodities for the Latin American Peru 3.0 -1.3 urban and rural populations. Venezuela 4.2 5.4 Central America 4.0 3.3 The socioeconomic characteristics of The Caribbean 3.2 2.0 beef and milk in tropical America Temperate Latin clearly indicate the importance of America 1.7 3.2 price fluctuations in these 5 Table 2. Livestock population and predominant chemical characteristics animal productivity in the United (excessive acidity and aluminum States and selected countries of Latin toxicity, as well as low levels of America, 1981. exchangeable cations) constitute the Population Produc- most important limiting factor which Region, (million tivity explains why these areas have not been country animal (kg/animal! colonized and used for the production units) year) of food crops throughout history. United States 114 90 IMPACT AREA OF THE PROGRAM Tropical Latin America 199 24 The Program's mandate up to date has Brazil 93 24 circumscribed the low lands (< 1000 Colombia 24 24 masl), acid, infertile, soils under Venezuela 11 31 subhumid to humid climates, of trop ical America, including the countries Temperate Latin of the Caribbean, the southern part of America 69 52 Mexico, Central America, and South America north of the tropic of Latin America 267 31 Capricorn. The region includes countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Latin America: Trends in CIAT Com Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, Guyana, modities, 1983. Surinam, French-Guiana, Panama, Jamaica, Trinidad, Guadaloupe and ness of production systems, to genetic Martinique where Oxisols and Ultisols -factors of the herd, is linked to account for more than 40% of their -climatic constraints and, mainly, to territories. Based on existing edaphic constraints conditioning the information from climatic and soil low quality and availability of the studies, the tropical savannas (> 200 primary resource (pastures), especial millions ha) and humid tropics (> 50C -ly in marginal areas, where cattle millions ha) of South America were raising is an economically favorable classified into large ecosystems activity (low opportunity cost of the creating the basis for development of land). a decentralized germplasm evaluation approach. Contrasting with the large agricul tural frontier areas (more than 1000 OBJECTIVE million hectares), where land , is evidently under-utilized and where The Tropical Pastures Program is es cattle raising constitutes an sentially a strategy for the pioneer incipient and pioneer agricultural rural development of the largest activity, is the fact that even today agricultural frontier of the conti a large proportion of the cattle in nent. tropical America is found competing with crops in fertile lands suitable Its general objective is "to develop for agriculture. low-cost low input pasture technology for the acid and low fertility soils These large agricultural frontier of tropical America". areas offer an excellent production potential since solar radiation, Through the development of this tech length of growing season, and the nology, beef and milk production are predominantly good physical and expected to increase by incorporating topographical soil characteristics are areas into marginal production. Also not limiting factors. However, it is expected that fertile lands now 6 dedicated to cattle raising would and efficiently produce in times of become free for the expansion of crop national, regional or individual production. negative socioeconomic conditions and will spread by adoption and increase CONSTRAINTS FOR PASTURE DEVELOPEMENT productivity under favorable conditions. The -program recognizes that several problems for pasture development exist RESEARCH STRATEGIES in tropical America. The main ones are: The strategies of the program to tackle these problems are: - Lack of adaptation of commercial cultivars of tropical pastures - To develop a broad enough germ selected in other continents to plasm base and to systematically the predominantly acid poor soils screen it to select adapted and the prevalence of negative materials to the diversity of - biotic factors in the lowlands of ecosystems of tropical America. tropical America. This has been responsible for the failure of - Low-input philosophy; implying many introduced grasses and the development of technologies legumes. based on adapted materials that will make efficient use of the - The variation in ecosystems and naturally available resources and germplasm/parasite interactions limited purchased inputs. This will require diverse germplasm to includes the development of suit the environment with adapted low-cost pasture establishment; materials. In addition, the pastures associating grasses with range of existing farming systems effective N-fixing legumes, and will require different kinds of optimizing nutrient recycling adapted pastures playing one or