Abstract
Majority of people in the arid Sumbawa rely on agriculture and mostly practicing integrated farming with maize and cattle being the most common crop and livestock enterprise. While cattle productivity has been low, profit margin from crops is substantial, making large number of people live just on the poverty line. A research for development project promoted the utilization of Leucaena leucocephala, to improve cattle productivity hence farmers’ livelihood through cattle fattening. This paper provides insight that livelihood improvement has been made possible through cattle fattening and how the innovation has been taken in a wide scope. A case study was conducted in Jatisari and Labangka as an existing and new Leucaena feeding practice. The study found that planting and feeding Leucaena, farmers were able to earn profit from fattening about IDR. 500,000/head/month. One household were fattened around 4-6 bull/six months period and potentially earn around IDR. 18 million to 21 million/year compares to crops which was about IDR. 3 to 4 million once a year. It is concluded that cattle fattening based on Leucaena is an option to improve small holder farmers’ livelihood in tropical areas like Sumbawa. Keywords: integrated crop-livestock, small holder, traditional system, livelihood improvement.