Smallholder Pigs Production Systems in Tanzania

Pig production is becoming increasingly important in Mbozi and Mbeya rural districts to characterise smallholder pig Eastern Africa in recent years. Two studies were carried out in production systems and associated pig management practises. A participatory rural appraisal （PRA）, involving 279 pigs-keeping households in nine villages and a cross sectional survey using a random sample of 300 pig farmers in 30 villages of the study districts, were used to collect data. Important economic activities were crop farming, livestock keeping, petty business, casual labour and artisan works in that order. The mean farm size and number of pigs per household was 2 ± 2.7 ha and 4.9 ±4.2 pigs, respectively. The largest categories of pig herd structure were breeding females followed by piglets. Age, marital status, household size and land size of household head had significant influence on the pig herd size （P 〈 0.05）. Pig farmers practised three main types of pig management systems, namely, total confinement, semi confinement and free range/herding. Each system had specific management practices in relation to feeding and housing. The frequencies of these systems varied significantly （P 〈 0.01） by socio-economic factors, such as, educational status of household head, land size and herd sizes of pigs, goats and cattle. The authors recommend effective use of locally available resources and careful consideration of existing farming systems for sustainable development of smallholder pig production.

Barrier Structure Design for Fattening Pigs in Large-scale Pig House with Fermentation Bed

[Objective] The large-scale single-column fattening pig house with fermen- tation bed could hold 1 500 heads of fattening pigs. Since the number of pigs in piggery is too large, the management is difficult. The behavior of feeding, drinking, movement, sleeping, fighting of pigs is difficult to handle. The pigs cannot be man- aged well, resulting in the enhanced weakness of piglets, enhanced illness of weak pigs and missing treatment of ill pigs. The management for the pig populations is not satisfactory, and thus, it is needed to improve timely. [Method] The barriers for the fattening pigs in the large-scale pig house with fermentation bed were designed. The single management for single fattening pig was proposed. The large-scale fat- tening pig house was divided into 8 regions. Among them, 4 regions were located in both sides of the fermentation bed. Their main function was to separate ill, weak, small and bad pigs. In addition, the main column was divided into 4 gradual barri- ers. They were used to separate different-size fattening pigs. In view of manage- ment, the different-type pigs were managed dividedly with the gradual barriers. The equally-sized pigs were concentrated into one column. The ill, weak, small and bad pigs were isolated into barriers. Thus, the dynamic management was adopted. Until the fattening pigs grew up to 75 kg and their health was stable, the barriers among the columns were canceled to mix the pigs again and guarantee the pigs more gymnastic space. [Result] This design would improve the disease resistance of ill pigs, health status of weak pigs and management level of pig populations. This study would also provide a basis for the healthy running of large-scale fattening pig house with fermentation bed. [Conclusion] The pig-raising model with fermentation bed would improve the environment of pig house and the welfare of pigs. In addi- tion, the performance of pigs and quality of pork were also improved. The fermen- tation bed had an obvious advantage in safety and economics, and it had a broad application prospect.