Adoption of forage conservation technologies and their impact on livestock production in Honduras

While silage and hay making are ancient strategies to overcome periods of forage shortage in temperate climates, it is hardly practiced in the tropics and subtropics. This study contributes to the hitherto scarce information about the impact of extension interventions on the adoption of forage conservation technologies. The study forms part of a BMZ-funded CIAT project entitled ‘Demand-Driven Use of Forage in Fragile, Long Dry Season Environments of Central America to Improve Livelihoods of Smallholders’. The study evaluates the adoption of silage and hay technologies as result of participatory research and extension interventions in Honduras. Two silage promotion strategies, namely promotion of innovation (PI) and promotion of adoption (PA), applied to different adoption stages, are distinguished in order to evaluate how and in which situations extension activities can reach higher impact. An emphasis is on the potential of little bag silage, e. g. as a tool for participatory silage research and extension. Moreover, the effect of feeding different farm-produced conserved forages on livestock production and profitability is assessed using participatory on-farm experiments as well as a system approach.