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| Feeding pigs with improved feeds developed through ensiling technology can improve pig production for the growing local pork market |
By MICHAEL DOM of NARI
Papua New Guinea
smallholder pig farmers have opportunities to increase their participation in
the fast-growing and domestic pork market.
In
PNG, pigs are associated with wealth and status.
Wherever there is greater wealth or elevated
status, pigs and pork consumption will increase proportionally. In general,
where there is greater economic activity, there is more demand for pork.
Fueled
by the expected rapid expansion of the national economy, the same trend is expected
for poultry, goats, sheep and aquaculture.
Pigs
have a long history of domestication than other livestock species among
indigenous communities, particularly in the highlands provinces.
Pig-keeping
is closely attuned to everyday village farming activities, where there are
convenient store of surplus or unutilised food, waste garden forage or kitchen
scraps, converted into a more-valuable end product.
As
such they offer enormous strategic advantage to improving the livelihoods of
many rural communities.
The
challenges of pig-farming are related to the scale and orientation of
production. Smallholder piggeries now have a competitive advantage in realising
benefits from recent research advances in improved feeding systems by National Agriculture
Research Institute.
Commercially-oriented
pig farming is of two major categories;
1.
The
large scale intensive piggeries such as Rumion Farms Ltd and Boroma Ltd; and
2.
Smaller
scale, semi-intensive piggeries, which are common throughout the country and
may house anywhere from 20 to upwards of 100 pigs.
Even
without the advent of recent mining developments, the demand for animal protein
is rising and there is a shortage in supply of pork beef and lamb from within
the country.
In fact PNG has long been a net importer of
meat and milk over the years.
In
a recent survey of wholesale and retail outlets in Mt Hagen town, it was noted
that imported pork meat cuts of lower quality, such as jowls and tails, were
sold at K9.45 to K12.00 per kilo, whereas locally-sourced (Lae) higher quality
cuts were priced at K18.50 per kilo (legs) and K26.90 per kilo (fillets).
The
current market value of both low and high quality pork meat cuts presents an
opportunity for improving local production to cater for domestic demand.
However,
the competitive advantages for smallholders need to be properly addressed and
one deciding factor is appropriate feed for growing pigs to finish weights
suitable for slaughter.
For
livestock farming on any scale, the availability of nutritious feed resources,
processed, stored, and supplied at sufficient volumes is critical and stands as
a major obstacle to improving productivity of small scale piggeries.
Improved
use of locally-available feedstuff has been closely investigated by NARI’s researchers
for pig and poultry production.
The
most-promising local feed resources are sweet potato, cassava, taro and banana.
Equally useful are agro-industrial by-products such as copra meal, palm kernel
meal, pyrethrum mark and poultry offal concentrate.
Each
of these are very rich in one or two essential nutrients and need to be complemented
by other feedstuff to make balanced rations that meet nutrient requirements of
productive animals.
Options
for processing feed materials include either drying and milling into meals or
ensiling as a fermented product.
The
latter is more energy-efficient because the forage is processed and stored
fresh or with minimal sun drying.
Practicalities
of ensiling sweet potato for feeding pigs have been investigated through
on-station and on-farm trials.
The
technology is now available for further piloting and adoption by smallholder
farmers.
Smallholder
pig farming has the potential to raise rural farming families from simple
subsistence agriculture to active players in the formal market through
commercially-oriented farming activities that are economically viable and
sustainable.
This
adapted sweet potato-pig feeding system requires forage that may be easily
sourced from local gardens and markets.
Rural workers can be involved in supplying
forage to pig farms, as ensiling or piggery labourers or through providing
services such as transport and supply of other needed feed resources and
materials.
But
this agri-business development process must be facilitated by enabling access
to information on application of proven technologies, appropriate farm tools
and machinery essential to handle routine feed-processing tasks, and rural
credit.
There
is also need to support such farms to meet minimum quality and safety standards
for them to actively participate in the fast-growing formal meat markets.
