Intensive sustainable livestock production: an alternative to tropical deforestation.

To solve the problem of tropical forest destruction demands a strategy which is of necessity complex, and yet must also be aggressive, if the remaining tropical forest areas with their ecological riches and biological diversity are to be preserved. Intensive livestock production models, based on true tropical resources, appear to offer real alternatives to the pressures exerted by the major enemy of the forests-the extensively grazed beef animal. The model developed in Colombia employs perennial crops with high biomass production potential (sugarcane and forage trees) and complementary livestock species (pigs and sheep) managed in confinement. Productivity is a function of sugarcane yield which depends on soil fertility, water availability and variety. For the world average yield of 50 tonnes per ha per year, total liveweight production per year from pigs and sheep can be 1500 kg per ha per year. However, with appropriate management, sugarcane can yield up to 180 tonnes per ha per year, which will give 8000 kg liveweight per hectare per year. Implementing these models on a massive scale will result in a substantial reduction of the area required to support resource-poor farmers, committed to colonizing the forest. At the same time, existing grazing areas can be transformed into more productive units with obvious advantages in terms of job creation and economic stimulus to rural development. More research and development is needed, and especially the validation of the technologies in areas where the rate of forest destruction is most acute.