Enhancing the contribution of livestock within smallholder mixed farming systems in the Philippines

• Leyte State University, Philippines
• Curtin University of Technology, Australia
• Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Australia

Opportunities for improved livestock productivity in Southeast Asia have been identified at several international meetings. Poor feed resources are now seen as one of the most important factors constraining productivity for all livestock in the smallholder sector. In Leyte in the Philippines this affects village pigs and poultry. This project, known in the Philippines as the Leyte Livestock Improvement Program (LLIP), focused on increasing the production of higher protein feeds and conserving feedstuffs that are available irregularly or seasonally, so as to make the production system more sustainable.

The project also addressed the poor record in adoption of agricultural technology and concerns about the effectiveness of the traditional 'transfer of technology' approach. The research was participative from the start, in the hope that this would lead to greater adoption. Many agricultural communities in Australia also face adoption problems, and the project also focused on the Australian pork industry.

The project aimed to increase the capacity of participating producers to improve the management, profitability and long-term sustainability of their livestock systems. Using a continuous improvement approach their creativity, decisions, processes, practices and performance were focal points, along with improving the contribution of livestock to the social and economic wellbeing of smallholder families in western Leyte.

The project was mainly based in Hindang municipality in the Philippines - a tropical lowland region near study sites that were used in ACIAR project AS2/1994/121, the predecessor of this project. The work comprised six subprojects. The first was the participative core, dedicated to training all project staff and forming local farmer teams and networks. The second subproject concentrated on research into management of pigs and poultry. The objective was to improve the quantity and quality of feedstuffs and find the best ways of dealing with livestock waste.
The third subproject developed a local animal health and productivity computer information system. The status of marketing and credit opportunities, and how they can be improved, was the basis of subproject four, while Subproject five conducted independent monitoring and evaluation of all the work, assessing the success of the project as it was implemented.
Subproject six comprised the Australian component. The pig industry in northern NSW and southern Queensland had been trialling the Continuous Improvement Program to improve performance; scientists assessed the methods and identified the participative research, development and extension processes most useful to pork producers.

The program developed and promoted the Leyte Improvement and Innovation Network (LIIN), designed to help members adopt continuous improvement and innovation (CI&I) methods. Building a LIIN based on mutual responsibility-taking and support was novel in a region that had previously experienced many aid projects based on 'dole-outs'. The concept needed time to be experienced, developed and assessed. In October 2003, LIIN farmer members scored an average of 8.9/10 for their understanding of LIIN; 7.9/10 for the value of working together in a network; and 8.4/10 for their motivation for continuing the network.

Working in teams using the CI&I process and tools enabled farmers and partners to establish effective and cooperative approaches with technical specialists and other partners, to achieve their target outcomes. All Philippine and some Australian LLIP staff achieved accreditation in the University of Queensland's 'Continuous Improvement and Innovation' course.

Fifty-five LIIN pig farmers focused on improving profit by five per cent per year. Forty-five of these worked with LLIP to increase understanding of smallholder pig production and marketing as a system, build capacity to assess alternate management practices in relation to profit, and implement and monitor their chosen strategies to improve pig profit.

The Hindang Swine Raisers' Association team of farmers established a local 'Agri-Vet' store, which raised capital by pooling farmers' savings, then used the capital to buy feed, giving individual members quick and convenient access to better quality inputs at lower costs.
The chicken profit improvement process encouraged farmers to identify and rank opportunities to achieve greatest impact on profit. Twenty-four LIIN chicken farmers originally chose to focus on improving profit by five per cent per year, and of these 16 retained profit from raising chickens as a focus for four years. All 24 continued to keep chickens, though some recorded a financial loss from doing so.

Smallhold farmers' raising pigs in densely populated environments have compelling reasons to improve the management of their pig waste. At the start of LLIP, 59 pig farmers chose to focus on managing pig waste. Twenty-seven of them developed and implemented at least one plan of action to improve their waste management: 12 installed concrete biodigesters, four plastic biodigesters and 11 reduced pig waste at the pens by collecting manure to dry as fertiliser before washing the pig pen.

Environmental benefits included cleaner waterways and fewer problems with mosquitoes and flies. Social benefits include improved relationships with neighbours, often linked to reduced on-farm smell; greater cleanliness of farmers' immediate surroundings; and greater confidence in raising pigs. Efficiency benefits include using the pig waste as an input to biodigesters to produce gas for cooking, and as a fertiliser for crops. The success of this subproject prompted farmers and local government units around the Eastern Visayas region to request LLIP extend its pig environment improvement work.

Twelve farmers from the original six LIIN farmer teams participated in the development of a pig and chicken production and profit information system. This entailed six months recording and analysis of economic and biological key performance indicators for improving profit. Farmers used this information both to benchmark their performance against group averages, and to improve their decision-making on production and marketing matters. Participating farmers indicated that the production and profit information system helped them to enhance their decision-making.