| Abstract | The livelihood of more than half a million people living in the peripheral areas of Ho Chi Minh City (a provice of Vietnam) depends on farming. Average farm size is less than one hectare. Since 1986, a change in agricultural policy from collective farming to a household contracrt system has brought about a marked increase in agricultural production, especially rice. This has resulted in a decrease in the price of many crop products which, in turn, has forced farmeres to diversify their production. In seeking a wider range of products, most attention has been directed to livestock, in particular dairy cattle. Secondary data on agriculture of the city revealed that a major constraint on milk production has been the shortage of feed, especially green forage. Lack of pasture seed at an acceptable price was one of the main limiting factors for such forage production. The objective of this study was to investigate important questions relevant to the design of a development plan to fit small-scale dairying into existing farming systems and which might best attain a set of goals of both individual farmers and government. In late 1990 an exploratory survey was made on 272 farm households in six peripheral districts of the city, in which 38 farmers were raising dairy cattle with an individual herd of one to twelve head, 3.5 head per herd in average. The existing farming systems were classified into rainfed and irrigated, each consisting of lowland, transitional paddy land and upland farming. Seasonal flooding of the lowland areas makes liverstock keeping impractical and the study therefore focussed on the inclusion of dairy cattle in upland and transitional paddy land of both rainfed and irrigated farming systems. In late 1992 a structured survey was conducted on 70 farm households in the four farming systems of interest. Quantitative information was recorded on farmers' resource availability in terms of land, family labor and working capital, and also on farm activities including the amounts of inputs used and the outputs produced. Farm size in rainfed farming (0.66-0.70 ha) was larger than that in irrigated farming (0.52 - 0.57 ha) and the farm size on transitional paddy land (0.52-0.66 ha) was smaller than that on upland (0.57-0.70 ha). This survey also collected data on input and product prices, gross margin of farm enterprises, and farm and household income. In rainfed farming systems the percentages of the gross household income derived from crop production, livestock production and off-farm activities were 48, 31 and 21, respectively; while in irrigated farming systems, those enterprises contributed 67, 21 and 12 percent, respectively. Seed production from centro (Centrosema pubescens) and guinea grass (Panicum maximum cv. Makueni) was investigated in three experiments under rainfed conditions at the Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum Thani Province, Thailand. The first experiment studied the effects of support systems and plant spacings on seed production of centro. In the first seed crop, staking did not affect seed yield of centro while on-row spacing of 0.25 m gave higher seed yield than on-row spacing of 0.5 m. In the second and third seed crops, staking significantly increased seed yield of centro. In the second seed crop, row spacing of 1.5 m tended to produce higher seed yield than row spacing of 1 m while the results reversed in third seed crop. Over the experimental period, stakes and trellises increased cumulative seed yield of centro (range 1792-2049 kg/ha) when compared with unstaked sward (1560 kg/ha). If the farmer wants to have more seed from a small plot of cultivated centro, staked swards of 1 m x 0.25 m spacing would be a good practice. The second and third experiments investigated the possibility of producing centro and guinea grass seed from forage pastures. Results of the second experiment, on a mixed sward of centro and guinea grass, showed that previously cut swards closed for seed production during June gave a higher seed yield of guinea grass and the same yield of centro seed as an uncut sward. In the third experiment, using a sole guinea grass sward, seed yield decreased drastically when swards were closed for seed after mid-July. Highest seed yield was obtained from cut swards closed for seed in June and early July. Whole-farm system analyses based on structured survey data were conducted for a representative farm of each farming system of interest. Multiple crieria decision making (MCDM) models were built for these representative farms in order to investigate the inclusion of dairy production in the four above-mentioned farming systems. Goal programming (GP) approach was used for the construction and application of the models. Sensitivity analysis was used to ecplore a system's response to changes in the priorities and weights assigned to the goals, the farmers' aspiration levels, the interest rates, the wage of hired labor and components of the farm production systems. In the rainfed upland farming system, the farmer achieved fully his expected farm gross margin and minimum farm income from the farm plan with one dairy cow. The farm plan with two dairy cows in the rainfed transitional paddy land farming system allowed the farmer to obtain a higher farm gross margin and a better minimum farm income than the existing farm plan and the modeled farm plan without dairy cow, but the magnitude of the risk and the demand for hired labor increased. Much more employment and foreign currency were generated. The modeled farm plans with one dairy cow in the irrigated farming systems increased the farm gross margin by about 50% and doubled the farm minimum income when compared with the existing farm plans. The farm plan with one dairy cow increased family employment by 15% and more hired labor was not required. Foreign currency saving increased by 3 to 8%. In an attempt to reconcile conflicting goals, the GP model suggested farm plans with one or two dairy cows in most cases with different sets of priorities and weights assigned to objectives, except when the prime consideration of farmers in rainfed transitional paddy land and irrigated upland farming systems was to minimise hired labor. The current interest rate of 36%/year for a loan to purchase a cow inhibited the inclusion of dairying in the farm production systems, except in the irrigated upland farming system; at 24%/year or less all farm plans included a dairy cow. An increase or a decrease of about 10% in the price of milk did not affect much the farm plans with dairy cows, but the farm gross margin was improved by an increase in the price of milk. Farm plan with a dairy cow did not alter much with an increase of 25 or 50% in the wage of hired labor. In conclusion, the inclusion of one or two dairy cows in existing farming systems can satisfy both individual farmers and government objectives with minor changes of farm enterprises and farm activites. |