ELSEVIER Agricultural .Tystems. Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 385408. 1997 Q 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain PII: SO308-521X(96)00102-3 0308-521 X/97 $17.00 +O.OO Pasture Performance and Sustainability in the Peruvian Amazon: Results of Long-Term On-Farm Research William Loker,a* Ratil Verab & Keneth Reitegui” aDepartment of Anthropology, California State University, Chico, CA 95929, USA “Tropical Lowlands Program, Centro International de Agricultura Tropical, Cah, Colombia “ Fundacion para el Desarrollo de la Agricultura, Casilla Postal 410116. San Borja, Lima, Peru (Received 7 June 1996; accepted 22 November 1996) zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedc ABSTRACT Over the past decade there have been signtjicant shifts in both the theory and methods of agricultural development. One of the most significant theo- retical shifts has been the explicit incorporation of ecological criteria in agricultural research under the rubric of ‘sustainability’. Methodologically there has been widespread acceptance of farmer participatory research strategies or ‘on-farm research.’ This paper reports on the results of on- farm research with livestock carried out in the Peruvian Amazon from 1987- 1992. The project was designed with several goals including (a) improving our understanding of farming svstems in the region, (b) testing the agronomic potential of improvedforages under on-farm conditions, (c) measuring the effects of improved forages on animal production and (d) assessing the ecological eflects of cattle raising in the humid tropics. The paper presents results of the on-farm research, including information on pasture establishment, persistence, productivity and sustainability of graz- ing practices in this ecosystem. These results highlight the contribution of on-farm research to improving the productivity and sustainability of pas- tures in the humid tropics. 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd INTRODUCTION Agricultural development, like all intellectual fields, is subject to influence from prevailing social trends. In the mid-1980s increased concern over global *To whom correspondence should be addressed 385