TECHNOLOGY INTERVENTIONS AND PRACTICABLE ADOPTION AT THE SMALLHOLDER LEVEL OF SWEET POTATO-PIG SYSTEMS IN SICHUAN

摘要

During the period of 2002-2004, Sichuan participated the International collaborative project entitled Improving Crop-Livestock Production Systems in Rainfed Areas of South East Asia led by the Asian Development Bank and the International Livestock Research Institute. To use participatory approaches to spread the application of appropriate technologies by farmers to enhance the productivity of crop-livestock systems was the goal of the project. Based on the identification of problems and the validation experiments conducted by SASA, a basket of options to be offered to fanners was designed. After on-farm trails, a high yielding and starch-rich sweet potato variety was promoted among the farmers, and it was recommended to use 6 % of maize meal, and 0.5 % salt and 13% rapeseed meal as the additives when ensiling sweet-potato vines and roots, respectively. The results of the premix and the protein-rich concentrate on-farm feeding trials with pigs showed satisfactory performance. Effective diarrhoea prevention in weaned piglets was achieved by upgrading housing facilities. A lot of efforts on training at different levels were put. The impacts of the project were very significant when assessed at the plot and household levels, respectively. New sweet potato variety resulted in at least 25% increment in roots yield. Regarding the conservation of sweet potato vines and roots as silage, most fanners applied the practice. The balanced sweet potato-based diets had resulted in better average daily gains, which in turn resulted in a reduction of about 1.5 to 2 months for pigs to reach market weight, and in an increased number of pigs fattened per year. Most farmers had learnt how to raise pigs scientifically, and now bring to the market more than two groups of pigs, compared to one group per year before the project. The results of the interview indicated that the farmers' livelihoods had improved.