XÂY DỰNG MÔ HÌNH CHUYỂN ĐỔI ĐẤT 1 VỤ LÚA MÙA KÉM HIỆU QUẢ SANG TRỒNG CÂY THỨC ĂN GIA SÚC

The Northern mountainous midland consists of 714,6 thousand hectares of lowlands, of which 28,38% can only cultivate a single rice crop per year. Rice yield in this land type is low and unstable. The main reasons are of poor soil quality, water shortage, low intellectual level and no approach to adoption of technical innovations. The region is of high potentials for developing cattle raising. However, forage shortage, particularly in the winter, is the main constraints to the region’s cattle development. In order to exploit fruitfully the region’s potentials and to increase the efficiency of land use, efforts have been spent for forage production in single cropping paddy lands for intensive cattle production. Fodder grass, such as VA06 has been introduced and cultivated. Each hectare of this grass could yield 115 - 138 tons/ha/year of green biomass, enough for feeding 11-12 heads of buffalo or cow. Development of an additional crop of maize (in thick plant density) has also been introduced as another option for forage production. Each hectare of maize could yield 29.5- 50.7 tons/ha of greed materials, enough to feed 11-16 cow/bull or buffalos during 90 - 100 days. All these options could thus help increase the efficiency of land use and promote the development of intensive cattle production through providing quality feeds, especially during the winter time. This in turn, contributes to improve household income for farmers in the region.