Comparative study of Indigenous pig production in Vietnam and Sri Lanka

Abstract

Smallholder pig farming is an important livelihood source in many rural communities of countries in Asia region such as Vietnam and Sri Lanka. The indigenous pig population is diminishing over the years and it requires a better attention for conservation and sustainable utilization. The objectives of this study were to identify the pig farming system characteristics and investigate the effect of these characteristics on keeping pigs for livelihood in Vietnam and Sri Lanka. A total of 725 households were surveyed including 264 keeping pigs and 461 without pigs. Farming system characteristics were analyzed by descriptive statistics. The effect of farming system characteristics on keeping pigs for livelihood was determined by logistic regression models (Models I and II). The results revealed that majority of famers (>80) kept indigenous pigs as an income source in both countries. Free range pig rearing system with low cost feeding (mainly the kitchen waste) was predominant in Sri Lanka whereas confined pigs and providing commercial concentrates was mainly practiced in Vietnam. The average herd size was significantly (p<0.05) different in Vietnam (8) and in Sri Lanka (4). Age at first farrowing, farrowing intervals and number of piglets per farrow were higher in Vietnam than in Sri Lanka. The results of model-I showed that family size, availability of piped water, keeping other livestock than pigs, watering pigs adlibitum, positively influenced keeping pigs for home consumption, whereas feeding kitchen waste, availability of water connection in working condition and livestock income negatively influenced for the same attribute. The results of model-II revealed that availability of river water and livestock income have positive impacts while availability of piped water and watering pigs adlibitum have negative impacts on keeping pigs as a income source. These findings will be useful in formulating policies to conserve the gene pool of indigenous pigs and facilitate the indigenous pig production. Increasing indigenous pig production will contribute in considerable level to ensure the food security and income generation of rural families.

Indigenous pig genetic resources: Preliminary documentation of current status and population trend of Tswana pigs in three districts of Botswana

“…The main reason for that is the slow growth rate compared to the exotic commercial pigs (Wang et al 2021). Farmers prefer exotic and crossbred pigs due to their large body frame and fast growth rate which makes the pig production enterprise profitable (Silva et al 2016, Wang et al 2021. The same scenario was reported by Krishnan et al (2020) in India.…”

“…In 2020, more pigs were removed through death rather than being sold while in 2019 the mean number of sold pigs were similar to died pigs. On the contrary, Silva et al (2016) reported that more removal of indigenous pigs in Vietnam and Sri Lanka were due to sales, instead of mortality.…”

“…The same scenario was reported by Krishnan et al (2020) in India. This limits the indigenous pig rearing by the smallholder resource-poor farmers for home consumption and occasional sales (Silva et al 2016).…”

The role of local pigs for economic and socio-cultural in East Flores District, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

“…The community in East Flores needs local pigs to increase income and other purposes, especially concerning ceremonial activities, therefore, the local breed pigs must be protected. Sahu and Gupta (2022) and Silva et al (2016) stated that governments must maintain local breed phenotypes for conservation purposes. However, other breeds should be introduced to produce more productive cross-breeding to continue their increasing income generation in the community; the cross-breded animals often bring higher sale prices than local breeds.…”

Indigenous pig farming in rural areas of Sierra Leone: Practices, constraints and impact on livelihood

“…A similar report was given by Niraula et al (2015) where pig caring was mainly done by women. The main reasons for rearing indigenous pigs were for income generation (90.4%), food (6.5%) and cultural and religious ceremonies (3.0%) which are in line with Silva et al (2016). Mbwambo (2015) reported income, food and employment as the main reasons why pig owners' rear pigs.…”