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Matching Livestock Systems with Available Resources |
MEKARN Regional Conference 2007 |
Upland farmers practice mainly under integrated crop-livestock farming systems for subsistence food. In some areas the integrated systems with livestock and fish as the principal commodity were recently introduced to the farmers. The key features of the system are recycling of the waste from animals, control of pollution, provide protein sources and extra incomes. A study of livestock – fish systems was carried out at the Wat Chan Royal Project Development Centre, Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. respectively.
Two schemes of fish culture were practiced: the combinations of pig-fish or chicken-fish culture were carried out on-farm in 3 farmer’s ponds for each combination. The Tilapia fish was stocked at 4/m2, pigs 37/ha and chicken 1,250/ha. The average weights of fish at the end of 7 months experimental period were 60.7 and 88.0 g/fish. Average weight of pig and chicken were 66.9 and 2.48 kg/animal, respectively. The average values of fish production were 2,429 and 3,520 kg/ha, respectively. The averages of pig and chicken production were 2,510 and 3,094 kg/ha, respectively. The initial net income (calculated by subtraction of the cost of young pigs and chicken, fingerlings and feed from the sale of fish plus pig or chicken) for pig-fish and chicken-fish systems were 2,257 and 3,800 US Dollars/ha, respectively.
From this study it shows that the integrated chicken-fish system was more beneficial than the pig-fish system. However, in practice the upland farmers seem to prefer integrated pig-fish system. In conclusion, the integrated livestock-fish systems could well be practiced by upland farmers providing good protein source and generating some extra income in the local community.