Exploring socio ecological niches for forages in climate smart dairy systems in Rwanda

Objectives

Research questions:
1. What are the socio-ecological niches suitable for on-farm forage planting?
2. How to quantitatively match the forage varieties to the identified niches?
3. Can the on-farm forage integration improve milk yield and reduce enteric CH4
emission intensity?

Conceptual framework

What is socio-ecological niche?
– An extension of ecological niche
– Defining the desired environment for a agricultural technology by various types of resources and contextual factors.

How to characterize the socio-ecological niche?
In this study, we proposed 6 criteria to define the socioecological niche.
Criterion 1: Agro-ecological environment
Criterion 2: Cultural environment
Criterion 3: Socio-economic environment
Criterion 4: Institutional support
Criterion 5: Production objectives
Criterion 6: Farm production environment

Huang, Qingye; Groot, Jeroen; Paul, Birthe; van Veluw, Kees.