Increasing smallholder pig farmers' adaptive capacity: Low-cost balanced diets for East African pigs using livestock and plant co-products

By acquiring livestock poor farmers can ascend out of poverty. Pigs require minimal inputs and raising them is often within disadvantaged members of society’s means. In East Africa, 2.2 million pigs are raised by resource-poor, subsistence farmers most with under 2 hectares of cropland. They typi...

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Main Authors: Carter, N., Dewey, Catherine E., Grace, Delia, Lukuyu, Ben A., Lange, C.F.M. de
Format: Ponencia
Language:Inglés
Published: International Livestock Research Institute 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/71056
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author Carter, N.
Dewey, Catherine E.
Grace, Delia
Lukuyu, Ben A.
Lange, C.F.M. de
author_browse Carter, N.
Dewey, Catherine E.
Grace, Delia
Lange, C.F.M. de
Lukuyu, Ben A.
author_facet Carter, N.
Dewey, Catherine E.
Grace, Delia
Lukuyu, Ben A.
Lange, C.F.M. de
author_sort Carter, N.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description By acquiring livestock poor farmers can ascend out of poverty. Pigs require minimal inputs and raising them is often within disadvantaged members of society’s means. In East Africa, 2.2 million pigs are raised by resource-poor, subsistence farmers most with under 2 hectares of cropland. They typically raise 1–4 pigs to pay for school, medical costs, food, and seeds, but pig productivity is low. Lack of feed, seasonal feed shortages and unbalanced diets contribute to slow growth, resulting in compromised earnings from pig-raising. We estimated East African pig feedstuff nutrient composition through nutrient analysis and from literature. Seasonal availability was identified by local experts. Performance results from local-breed pig feeding trials were used to adjust the NRC (2012) nutrient requirement model for growing-finishing pigs. Local pigs’ nutrient requirements under typical management conditions (intestinal parasites present and free-ranging) were estimated. A least-cost diet formulation programme was used to generate diets minimising cost and human/pig competition for food, maximising agricultural co-products and forages use, considering seasonal availability, and satisfying minimal requirements for digestible energy 2960 kcal per kg of dry matter [DM]), calcium, standardised total tract digestible phosphorous, standardised ileal digestible crude protein and lysine (0.28, 0.13, 8.5, and 0.58% of DM respectively) Feedstuffs availability differed between November-February; June-August; and March-May plus September-October. Estimated growth performance potential of local pigs is less when free-ranging, or intestinal parasite infected, than when restrained and non-infected (80; 217; and 259 g per day respectively) A typical least-cost diet for June-August (all as % of DM) is: maize flour 20.6; cassava leaf 20.0; sweet potato vine 19.2; ripe avocado 15.0; Bidens pilosa 7.9; limestone 7.7; molasses 5.0; cattle blood 3.9; Amaranthus spinosus 0.3; table salt 0.24; premix 0.10. Sun-dried fish (Rastrineobola argentea) and grist mill waste are available all year as substitutes for seasonably available ingredients e.g avocado and sweet potato vine. Use of such diets will enable continuous pig feeding during all seasons, thereby increasing farmer resilience. Their use will improve pig performance resulting in increased farmer income, enabling poverty alleviation, improved food security, human health and nutrition, and investment in other livelihood ventures to further increase resilience.
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spelling CGSpace710562025-11-04T19:52:02Z Increasing smallholder pig farmers' adaptive capacity: Low-cost balanced diets for East African pigs using livestock and plant co-products Carter, N. Dewey, Catherine E. Grace, Delia Lukuyu, Ben A. Lange, C.F.M. de swine By acquiring livestock poor farmers can ascend out of poverty. Pigs require minimal inputs and raising them is often within disadvantaged members of society’s means. In East Africa, 2.2 million pigs are raised by resource-poor, subsistence farmers most with under 2 hectares of cropland. They typically raise 1–4 pigs to pay for school, medical costs, food, and seeds, but pig productivity is low. Lack of feed, seasonal feed shortages and unbalanced diets contribute to slow growth, resulting in compromised earnings from pig-raising. We estimated East African pig feedstuff nutrient composition through nutrient analysis and from literature. Seasonal availability was identified by local experts. Performance results from local-breed pig feeding trials were used to adjust the NRC (2012) nutrient requirement model for growing-finishing pigs. Local pigs’ nutrient requirements under typical management conditions (intestinal parasites present and free-ranging) were estimated. A least-cost diet formulation programme was used to generate diets minimising cost and human/pig competition for food, maximising agricultural co-products and forages use, considering seasonal availability, and satisfying minimal requirements for digestible energy 2960 kcal per kg of dry matter [DM]), calcium, standardised total tract digestible phosphorous, standardised ileal digestible crude protein and lysine (0.28, 0.13, 8.5, and 0.58% of DM respectively) Feedstuffs availability differed between November-February; June-August; and March-May plus September-October. Estimated growth performance potential of local pigs is less when free-ranging, or intestinal parasite infected, than when restrained and non-infected (80; 217; and 259 g per day respectively) A typical least-cost diet for June-August (all as % of DM) is: maize flour 20.6; cassava leaf 20.0; sweet potato vine 19.2; ripe avocado 15.0; Bidens pilosa 7.9; limestone 7.7; molasses 5.0; cattle blood 3.9; Amaranthus spinosus 0.3; table salt 0.24; premix 0.10. Sun-dried fish (Rastrineobola argentea) and grist mill waste are available all year as substitutes for seasonably available ingredients e.g avocado and sweet potato vine. Use of such diets will enable continuous pig feeding during all seasons, thereby increasing farmer resilience. Their use will improve pig performance resulting in increased farmer income, enabling poverty alleviation, improved food security, human health and nutrition, and investment in other livelihood ventures to further increase resilience. 2015-09-16 2016-02-15T20:07:42Z 2016-02-15T20:07:42Z Presentation https://hdl.handle.net/10568/71056 en Open Access application/pdf International Livestock Research Institute Carter, N., Dewey, C., Grace, D., Lukuyu, B. and Lange, C.F.M. de. 2015. Increasing smallholder pig farmers' adaptive capacity: Low-cost balanced diets for East African pigs using livestock and plant co-products. Presented at the Tropentag 2015, Berlin, Germany, 16-18 September 2015. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.
spellingShingle swine
Carter, N.
Dewey, Catherine E.
Grace, Delia
Lukuyu, Ben A.
Lange, C.F.M. de
Increasing smallholder pig farmers' adaptive capacity: Low-cost balanced diets for East African pigs using livestock and plant co-products
title Increasing smallholder pig farmers' adaptive capacity: Low-cost balanced diets for East African pigs using livestock and plant co-products
title_full Increasing smallholder pig farmers' adaptive capacity: Low-cost balanced diets for East African pigs using livestock and plant co-products
title_fullStr Increasing smallholder pig farmers' adaptive capacity: Low-cost balanced diets for East African pigs using livestock and plant co-products
title_full_unstemmed Increasing smallholder pig farmers' adaptive capacity: Low-cost balanced diets for East African pigs using livestock and plant co-products
title_short Increasing smallholder pig farmers' adaptive capacity: Low-cost balanced diets for East African pigs using livestock and plant co-products
title_sort increasing smallholder pig farmers adaptive capacity low cost balanced diets for east african pigs using livestock and plant co products
topic swine
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/71056
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