Questions about silvopastoral systems.

Dear readers, this publication arises from the concern of a Colombian agricultural producer, who contacted us via Instagram when he saw our publications regarding the use of trees in ecosystems cultivated with pasture for ruminant feed, the producer wanted to know our position on the matter, considering that his country has good progress in the livestock system and in some production units use this sustainable alternative to achieve ecological balance in their systems.

From our position we began by pointing out that the ecosystems in Colombia, being part of the tropics, present edaphoclimatic characteristics similar to those of the ecosystems in some areas of Venezuela, so we agree to establish silvopastoral systems with the use of tree and herbaceous species of the leguminous family, since they are species that provide great nutritional value, in addition to providing considerable volumes of forage biomass. From there, the following questions arose:

In livestock production systems, there are several strategies to be implemented to achieve the proposed objectives, one of them is the use of silvopastoral systems, which provide an innumerable amount of benefits to the system in harmony with the environment, which gives them vital importance to be considered at the time of planning and establishing a production unit.

For agricultural producers, the fact of sustaining the largest possible number of animal units is a great challenge, and it is precisely one of the benefits offered by the implementation of silvopastoral systems on the farm, since they allow increasing the production of biomass for animal feed, while significantly improving the quality of the diet, since most of the species recommended for the system in question belong to the Fabaceae family, which provide a number of nutrients of great nutritional value, especially in relation to the protein content.

In addition, silvopastoral systems allow the development of a microclimate that promotes the diversity of wild fauna and flora, which have the function of acting as biological controllers and maintaining a harmonious balance in the ecosystem, as well as keeping cattle in a state of comfort, providing a pleasant microclimate in relation to solar incidence and temperature, to carry out the rumination process.

The implementation of a system that includes tree species in its spatial arrangement, can improve the quality of pastures, since several researches have studied the effect of shade on the nutritional quality of different species, while improving the cycling of nutrients in the soil, firstly, because the roots of the trees could extract nutrients from the deeper layers of the soil, and make them available to plants with shallower root systems, and also by the decomposition of the litter that falls from the trees to the ground. The environmental services provided by silvopastoral systems are innumerable, and therein lies the importance of considering them as an option in livestock systems.

In the Municipality of Colón in the state of Zulia - Venezuela, there is a diversity of forage trees and shrubs that are adapted to the agroclimatic conditions, which belong to a tropical rainforest zone with temperatures ranging around 28 to 35 °C and relative humidity of 70 to 80%. For the establishment of a silvopastoral system in the area, species of the Fabaceae family such as Gliricidia sepium and Leucaena leucocephala can be selected, as well as species such as Moringa oleifera, which, although it does not belong to the legume family, can provide great benefits, among the most important of which is the high protein value of its biomass.

In addition to this, the leguminous plant families, besides recycling nutrients through their leaves, can fix atmospheric nitrogen through a symbiotic process that they carry out with some bacteria of the rhizobium and bradyrhizobium genus with the roots of these plants, which translates into the contribution of an important element for the growth of crops such as nitrogen, which will help the pasture to produce a greater amount of biomass, This has been evidenced in some experimental trials by the Indio Hatuey Pasture and Forage Experimental Station.

Dear readers, these were some of the questions and opinions that arose from the concern of those who have production systems and do not know the advantages and disadvantages of some agroecological alternatives. In future publications we will go a little deeper into this alternative that, although it has been applied in some countries for many years, there are still production units that do not put it into practice.