Farmer-led Research in Pig Production in Lao PDR

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1 Farmer-led Research in Pig Production in Lao PDR Phonepaseuth Phengsavanh 1 Werner Stur 2 1 Livestock Research Center (LRC) National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI) Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) Vientiane, Lao PDR 2 International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) Summary Pigs are one of important animals kept by smallholders in the Upland of Lao PDR. It is approximately about % of households in the village have pigs. Therefore, the number of pigs in smallholder systems accounts more than 80% of total pig population of the country. Pigs are commonly kept in three production systems of free scavenging, confined and penned systems. The main constraints in pig production are outbreak of disease and feed limitation in quality and quantity. To overcome of feed limitation, farmers always looking for and test the options that can be applied into their production systems. One of option that has been adopted widely in the North of Laos is utilization of Stylosanthes guianensis CIAT 184 (Stylo184) for supplementing pigs. The Stylo 184 has been originally introduced to farmers for feeding ruminant, but farmers learnt that it can be fed to pigs and observed that they grow better and by having Stylo 184 plot, it helps them to save a lot of time from collecting natural feed from about 3 hours to about 90 min. When these benefit occurs, many farmers in the same and surrounding villages also started to use Stylo 184 for feeding their pigs. To make this happens; it requires a participatory approach that allows farmers to be involved actively in every stage of development. This has encouraged farmers innovation and adoption of technologies. As farmers start to see benefits from the introduced technologies, there are more improvements of production systems and opportunities for new research issues emerged. Apart from working approach, there are several influenced factors of system change, which happen through un-intentional introduction of disease to village, feed resources declination and development and market demand for lean meat. Smallholder Pig Systems The pig can be considered to be one of the most important animals for smallholders, especially in the Upland of Lao PDR. Due to high risk of crop failure in shifting cultivation, which is mainly practiced in Upland, pig raising is considered to be one of most important activities. The population of pigs in Lao PDR is approximately

2 about 1,850,000 pigs; where about more than 80 % of these are in the hands of smallholders (Thorn, 2005). Different people have used different ways to classify pig raising systems in the Upland of Lao PDR, but from recent study by a joint team of researchers from National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI) and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) on pig production in the Northern part of Lao PDR found that there are about 3 main pig raising systems: Free range: This system is practiced in the remote area. Pigs are let to scavenging for the feed either during the day and kept in closure at night time or free roaming all the time. In this system, small amount of supplements is provided. Confinement: In this system, pigs are kept in closure whole year round or during planting season and pigs are let to free scavenging during the dry season. This system is more practiced in the intensive cropping systems. Pen: Farmers in lowland usually keep pigs in the pens for fattening. According to Phonepaseuth and Werner (2006), many farmers and villages have specialized to either raising sows for piglet production which are sold to other farmers or to buying piglets for fattening. Piglet production is practiced by farmers in the more upland areas (Hmong and Khmu ethnic groups), who keep sows for piglet production which they sell to other farmers in Lowland areas for fattening for sale. The main constraints of village pig production are disease epidemics, high piglet mortality, poor growth rates and high labour demand (Stür et al 2002). Disease epidemics cause huge loss for smallholders, in some areas it is up to 90% of pigs in the village died. The demands for labour and poor growth rate are related to feed quantity and quality. Farmers mostly spend up to three hours for collecting and preparing feed for pigs. Then the collected feeds are high in fiber which is also low digestibility for pigs. Farmer innovation on using Stylo for feeding pigs In a trying to help farmers to develop and improve smallholder livestock systems, Forage and Livestock Systems Project a AusAID funded project introduced a few broadly adapted forage varieties to farmers in the upland of Lao PDR for the last ten year with the aim of assisting farmers to overcome seasonal feed shortage in ruminant production. After experiencing with forages, farmers learnt that the only introduced legume Stylosanthes guianensis CIAT 184 can be fed not only ruminants but also pigs. According to information from Farmers interview during the study by Phonepaseuth (unpublished), the main impacts gaining from Stylo utilization for feeding pigs by farmers are on the improving growth rate and saving time and labour for collecting and preparing feed. Labour and time are very limited factors for farmers in area where upland rice is produced in shifting cultivation systems. In this system, weeding is a big problem and farmers will need a lot of time and labour which are about 136 person days a year to do the weeding. Releasing time and labour from pig production help farmers a lot for other activities. Releasing labour and time is an excellent entry point in working with pig farmers in Upland of Lao PDR. By planting and using Styo 184 for feeding pigs, farmers can save

3 a lot of times from about 3 hours for collecting natural green feed and cooking to about 1 and half or even 40 min which depends on the amount of Stylo can be harvested in that time (table 2). Table 2. Time and labour saving. Items Time spent (min) Before Who does the work Some Stylo Now Plenty of Stylo Who does the work? Collecting 125 W/M W/M feed Cook 50 W W Feeding 20 W W Collecting M Stylo Total Source: Phonepaseuth and Werner (2006) The impact of improving growth rate of pigs is also vital for smallholders, as the different of weight gain is almost double from 107 g per day in traditional feeding system to 207 g for pigs supplemented with Stylo 184 (table 1). This can be explained that the traditional feeds are mostly energy sources, and the green feeds which are used as protein sources are high in fiber, low protein and farmers sometimes can not get enough because of seasonal availability and many people use them. Table 1. Productivity of growing pigs supplemented with traditional green feeds or Stylo 184 Traditional green Supplemented feeds (no stylo) with fresh Stylo SE Duration of production cycle, months Initial Weight, kg Final Weight, kg Calculated ADG, g/day Source: Phonepaseuth and Werner (2006) Drivers of System Change There are many ways which either allow or encourage farmers to improve and change the way of keeping animals. The factors influence to the changes include introduction of disease to the village, local feed resources declination, free-range pig production system versus intensive crop system and market demand on lean meat. Introduction of diseases Farmers in rural remote area, where agricultural production is still extensive, often raise their animals in free range systems, because of high feed availability

4 and low risk of diseases, therefore, there are not always problems of high mortality of animals and between crop and livestock production. However, as soon as the villages in the area are became more accessible, the risk for outbreak of disease for roaming animal increases because they expose to an accidental introduction of disease to the villages by the visitors for instance the meat or animal traders will come or pass by or through the villages carrying infected or sick animals. When this problem occurs many animals die (in some cases up to 90% of animals in the village). The loss of animals forces farmers to find the ways to reduce the risk and prevent animals from diseases. One of first thing that farmers usually do is to confine their animals and provide more management on them. Feed resources declination and development Local feed resources, especially natural green leaves & herbs used to be abundant for smallholders to use for feeding their pigs and other animals became limited in present situation and farmers often spend up to 3 hours for collecting these feeds. Introduction new appropriate feed resources to smallholders and helping them to integrate them into farming systems help farmers to save time and look for other production system improvements. The easy access to feed resources and amount of time releasing from feeding pigs have allowed farmers to provide better management. Another things is that by having better quality of feed especially in term of protein sources, farmers see more value of their animals. All of these will encourage farmers move to more manageable pig systems such as confined and penned systems and increase number of animal kept per time (production cycle). However, the important thing to make the change is to look for the entry point, as farmers always first look for technologies that can help them to overcome the limitations in the production, for instance, in smallholder pig systems in the Upland of Lao PDR the entry point is labour constraints for collecting natural feeds such as leaves and herbs. Free range vs. Crop production In the areas where crop production becomes more intensive has put an pressure to free scavenging pigs systems because of damage to the crops. In this situation, village committee has often developed a regulation on banning free scavenging either in whole year or just during the planting season. This also force farmers to change from free scavenging to more confined or penned systems. Market demand for lean meat Local people always like local pigs because they need fat for cooking. However, in some cases, the demand for lean meat has been increased particularly in the

5 Conclusion areas near the big towns which lead smallholders living near this area to change their breed from local fatty pigs to other exotic breed which provide more meat than fat. Good technologies helping farmers to overcome immediate problems are crucial step to the intensification of stallholder pig production systems. As firstly farmers are more interested in solving production constraints rather than animal productivities. Only when they gain benefits or impacts from introduce technologies then they will look for more improvements for production systems. However, the introduction of technologies should be in a way that encourages adaptation and innovation by farmers and result in significant benefits to farmers, required farmer participatory approach, with committed, informed, and confident follow-up. In working with farmers to adapt new technologies into their traditional pig management systems, several new opportunities for improvements have emerged such as production improvement (housing, management issues, deworming and vaccination). Working closely with farmers has identified new research needs such as the use of forage legumes as a protein source for smallholder pig production. As farmers move to more market-oriented systems, they are looking for higher productive animals (change from local to exotic breeds) Reference Phonepaseuth, P., Fahrney, K., Phimphachanhvongsod, V. and Varney, K. (2004). Livestock Intensification: forage and livestock technologies for complex upland systems. Proceeding of the workshop on Poverty Redution and Shifting Cultivation Stabilization in the Uplands of Lao PDR: Technologies, approaches and methods for improving upland livelihoods. Luangphabang, January LRC,NAFRI, Vientiane, Lao PDR.. Thorn., P. (2005). Pig raising in Northern Lao PDR. Working paper No. 4. PPTA No Lao. Participatory Livestock Development Project. Lao PDR. Phonepaseuth., P. Werner., S. (2006). The use and potential of supplementing village pigs with Stylosanthes guianensis in Lao PDR. Proceeding of a workshop on Forages for pigs and rabbits, Aug 2006, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.