Developement of an integrated farming system centered on pigs

Abstract

Efforts were taken to develop a model integrated farming system (IFS) centred on pigs at Centre for Pig Production and Research, Mannuthy. This animal-fish-vegetable IFS consisted of three groups of pigs viz. Large White Yorkshire (L WY), Crossbreds (CB) (Large White Yorkshire x Desi) and Desi, three tanks for fish rearing and three sets of vegetable plots with four varieties of vegetable crops. Different treatments were applied to each unit of fish feeding as pig manure only, pig manure and feed and feed only. In the vegetable plots different treatments were applied in manuring as pig manure only pig manure and chemical fertilizer and chemical fertilizer only. A clear breed difference was noticed between LWY and Desi with respect to traits such as feed intake, body weight, body measurements, average daily body weight gain (ADG) and' feed conversion efficiency (FCE). But there was no significant difference (Pbetween L WY and CB in ADG and FCE. When pig manure was used as fish feed the water quality was deteriorated but body weight, total yield and survival rate of fish were higher. The highest yield of vegetable obtained from the different crops depend on the variety of crop and manure or combination of manure used. The economics of production indicated that rearing pigs entirely on concentrate feed is uneconomical. But the integration of fish and vegetable to the pig production could improve the productivity of such systems with the improvement in overall economic efficiency. The result also indicated that a combination of LWY, fish utilizing the manure and vegetable cultivation by supplying the nitrogen requirement through pig manure is the most economical integration.