Assessing farmer perceptions on livestock intensification and associated trade-offs using fuzzy cognitive maps; a study in mixed farming systems in the mid-hills of Nepal

ALOMIA-HINOJOSA, VICTORIA; GROOT, JEROEN C. J.; ANDERSSON, JENS A.; SPEELMAN, ERIKA N.; MCDONALD, ANDREW J.; TITTONELL, PABLO

Systems Research and Behavioral Science

John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Año: 2023 vol. 40 p. 146 - 158

1092-7026

Intensified livestock production is considered as a promising pathway for smallholder farmers. Nevertheless, this pathway may entail prohibitive investment requirements of labour, capital or trade-offs at farm level that preclude sustainable intensification. We used fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) to assess farmers´ perceptions of changes in the farm household system resulting from adding livestock to their mixed farms. Farmers identified trade-offs between the increased income and farmyard manure production versus increases in labour requirements for fodder imports. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis performed on the FCMs showed that an increase in milk market demand could have strong positive effects on livestock production and income. We conclude that FCM is a good tool to rapidly identify trade-offs and analyse perceptions of farmers which revealed that although they consider intensification a promising strategy, the perceived deepening of labour constraints and increasing dependency on fodder import makes a concurrent (sustainable) intensification of these farm systems unlikely.