Livestock in south-eastern China
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Livestock Feed Resources within Integrated Farming Systems
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LIVESTOCK IN SOUTH-EASTERN CHINA
Prof. George Chan
Environmental Engineering Consultant
United Nations University
Zero Emissions Research Initiative (ZERI) Programme
E-mail: 100075.3511@compuserve.com
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ABSTRACT
This paper describes the five important roles of the pig in a
Chinese household, first as a garbage disposal plant to eat
everything that humans do not want. Its wastes make it a power
station providing biogas energy which can be converted into
electricity, and then a fertilizer factory to supply nutrients
to both water for polyculture of fish and macrophytes, and
soil for multicropping of grains, vegetables, fruits and
flowers. It also contributes to a feed mill, as the crop and
processing residues are used as livestock feeds, and is
finally a meat producing plant. These 5 useful functions make
the pig a very special part in the life style of Chinese rural
society, as it recycles all its wastes and residues most
effectively and efficiently while contributing to its economic
and social development in a sustainable manner. Following the
same economic, ecologic and social principles, the integrated
farming system has evolved, enhancing the farming and
agroindustrial activities of every farm family to meet the
needs of a modern society by providing the renewable means of
production such as energy, fertilizers and livestock feeds.
KEY WORDS: Integrated farming system, China, pig, livestock,
recycling, feed
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INTRODUCTION
This paper deals with livestock production, using crop and
processing residues from integrated farming systems as feeds,
in the southern part of Pearl River delta, province of
Guangdong in South-Eastern China, which lies in the subtropics
with year-round agricultural production where water is made
available in polyculture fish ponds that have been in
operation for many centuries. It covers 800 km2 of low-lying
land and, before the modernization craze, had a population of
1,2 million people who were the most productive farmers in
China, and probably the whole world, based on productivity per
unit surface and human or artificial energy input, because of
its most efficient waste recycling processes in an integrated
livestock-fish-plant system.
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LAND TENURE
In the past, the whole region was divided into big properties
owned by warlords or mandarins, and every property was
sub-divided into small family farms on a share-cropping basis.
The land tenure system did not change much despite changes in
land ownership, private or state -- even during the Commune
era, the family farm became the production unit and the
village became the production brigade. But the farming system
underwent dramatic changes, depending on the ingenuity of the
farmers to make the most of their small plot of land and
water, not only for survival but also to cope with the
increasing population.
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FARMING SYSTEM
Until the recent past, the usual livestock was 2-3 pigs per
family behind the residence, raised not so much for meat
production but as scavengers to eat anything that humans did
not eat. They usually provided the meat for various festivals
for families which were close relatives. Their wastes were
taken daily to the field and used as raw fertilizers for the
fish ponds to produce various plankton as fish feeds, and the
only supplement was fast growing elephant grass grown on the
edges of the ponds to feed the grass carp or other herbivorous
fish.
The human faeces were retained in brick-lined pits in the
courtyard and taken regularly in covered containers to the
field and composted with coarser crop residues before being
used to condition the plant beds -- the less coarse ones were
used to supplement the pig feed. The human urine was always
separated in a covered fired-clay jar used by males, and the
females used chamber pots which were then emptied into the
same jar. The fermented urine was used as fertilizer for
vegetables which represented 80-90% of the human diet. The
rest was provided by fish, duck eggs and bean or bean
products. Ducks, also scavengers, were reserved for visitors
or as festival fare.
No external input was provided for the livestock, fish or
plants. Any surplus produce from the farm was preserved by the
farm family without any input from outside, and nothing was
burnt or thrown away. In fact, the whole life style was based
on cycles and recycles.
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AGRO-INDUSTRY
The most important export items, besides food and drink
products which included sauces, pastes and other condiments,
were silk and silk products. Mulberry bushes grown on half the
dykes provided the leaves to feed the silkworms, and the
silkworm excreta and feed residues were used to fertilize the
fish ponds or feed the fish. The nutrient-rich pond water was
used to irrigate and fertilize the mulberry bushes and other
crops which occupied the other half of the dyke, and the pond
mud was removed once a year, after harvesting the fish, to
enrich the soil on the dykes.
Fish residues were also used to supplement the pig diet.
Surplus fish was salted, then dried or canned, as export
items. Surplus pork and ducks are marinated in soya sauce and
air dried, and then exported in jars and later on in cans.
Surplus duck eggs were salted or covered with clay and rice
straw for preservation, and exported. Most crop residues,
which could not be used as livestock feeds, were used for
culture of mushrooms which were dried and exported, with the
residues then used as feed or compost.
All these preservation and value-added activities were done at
family farm level, and provided employment for all members of
the family which became well-off by any standards. As a matter
of fact, the productivity in that part of Guangdong province
was so enormous that even if the whole of China was closed to
the outside world for nearly 3 decades, this province was
allowed to hold two Canton Fairs yearly, each lasting one
whole month, to trade with visitors from various parts of the
world. There was never any interruption, and they are still
being held now.
When China opened up to the outside world in the early
eighties, such strategies allowed many families to become the
first 10,000 yuan farmers, when the salary of a university
professor were less that 2,000 yuan yearly. After the recent
agro-chemical invasion of Chinese agriculture in many coastal
provinces, such strategies are proving useful again ...
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MODERN FARMING
Such a philosophy has not changed much even with
modernization, despite the special economic zones with foreign
investments and technologies, and the agro-chemical invasion
of Chinese agriculture in recent years. It is true that much
harm has been done to the environment by the new industries
and the increase in chemical fertilizer and fossil fuel uses,
especially coal, but the Government has reacted effectively
because of the solid farming foundations based on such a
philosophy.
As the farmers became better-off, they increased the size of
their livestock, with the pens built on the dykes next to the
fish pond. In 1985, 3,000 hectares of integrated farms were
added in 3 regions of the province, with bigger ponds and more
livestock. Some additional feeds were used but they were
limited to corn, peanut and soya cakes after oil extraction,
and created some pollution due to non-consumed feed residues.
However, it was the livestock wastes which became a limiting
factor for the ponds because of oxygen consumption by the
organic content of the increased raw wastes.
That was when I became a volunteer at the Academy of Sciences
in Guangdong province, and I advocated the use of digester and
shallow basins to pretreat the livestock wastes not only to
solve this oxygen problem but also to increase substantially
the number of livestock in the system for economic benefits,
which I have been doing since 1969 at the South Pacific
Commission in New Caledonia, and later on at United Nations
ESCAP in Thailand. It took us nearly 4 years to put together
an Integrated Farming proposal for consideration by DANIDA,
but the Tiananmen incident shelved it, and I left China to
continue my work in Vietnam and other places until the United
Nations University came up with the ZERI programme, and I was
the only one they could find to implement it.
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INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEM
If we are trying to help the poorest of the poor farmers in
the third world, with limited land and monetary resources,
there is no way they can grow fodder to feed their livestock,
and they have to depend on residues from their food and raw
material crops for local utilisation first, with any surplus
for export. All available crop and processing residues, with
simple physical processing and requiring no complex equipment
or microbial processing taking advantage of the warm climatic
conditions, should be used as livestock feeds. If required,
they can be enhanced with solar and/or biogas energy produced
on site. Use of fossil and other imported fuels can never be
economic, and are NOT used as a recurrent input.
Only an integrated system of livestock, fish and crop with the
wastes and residues of ALL three operations being used as
feeds for livestock and fish, and as fertilizers for fish and
crop cultures, can be viable economically, ecologically and
socially -- see Annex I. All the processes involved can remain
biotechnological, using simple locally-built structures and no
external input , as the system produces the essential means of
production such as feeds for livestock and fish production,
fertilizers for fish and crop culture, and energy for domestic
and farm uses. As the farming activities increase, keeping the
same economic and ecologic principles, the integrated farm
will become totally self-sufficient in feeds, fertilizers and
energy for an agro-industrial complex which can become a
prosperous enterprise.
A thorough analysis of all the processes involved will
convince any biotechnologist that such achievements are
feasible, as shown below. The most surprising feature is that
they work best in the wet tropics, where water is available
year-round, and marginal lands such as marshes are the best
and cheapest sites for integrated farming systems.
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PROCESSES INVOLVED
1. DIGESTION of livestock wastes up to 60% reduction in
biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in a digester which can be a
simple plastic bag or a self-built brick tank with a domed
roof that is made airtight with liquid barriers, while
producing biogas fuel.
China is the most advanced country with digester technologies,
with sizes ranging from 5 to 2,000 cubic metres, supplying
cooking gas to millions of households and meeting the energy
needs of huge farms or agroindustries. The biggest power
station run on biogas has a capacity of 1.5 Megawatt.
2. OXIDATION of digested effluent for a further BOD reduction
of 30%, or of washwater, with algal growth in shallow basins
to produce the needed oxygen naturally. The algae can also be
produced, using solar or wind energy to move the liquid, for
sale to manufacturers of health foods or cosmetic products.
The effectiveness and efficiency of oxidation can also be
enhanced in deeper ponds with contact oxidation media,
resulting in substantial reduction of the space required. Some
cheaper versions of oxidation consist of earth channels, where
various kinds of macrophytes are grown as livestock feeds
while producing oxygen, to partially treat raw livestock
wastes before they flow into fish ponds.
China and other countries such as Cuba and Mexico produce
algae for commercial purposes, with or without livestock waste
treatment.
3. POLISHING of the 90% treated effluent by dilution and
aeration after it enters the deep fish ponds for polyculture
of various kinds of fish feeding at different trophic levels.
Such ponds are clean with prolific growth of various plankton
in the water, and grass on the edges of the pond, to feed ALL
the fish, which are not under stress even if the yield is very
high compared with other forms of aquaculture worldwide, using
artificial feeds.
Unfortunately, in most places of China, raw livestock wastes
are used to fertilize polyculture fish ponds, but things are
changing as more digesters are introduced.
4. AQUAPONIC culture of cereals, fruits and flowers on the
edges of the pond and on half the pond surface using bamboo or
plastic floats, with nylon netting below to protect the roots,
to control eutrophication caused by excess nutrients from the
bigger size of the livestock, without interfering with the
fish polyculture.
For China, the economic implication is enormous when it is
considered that there is twice as much water surface than land
in an integrated farm. This breakthrough is also very
meaningful from the environmental point of view, as China is
losing more and more land to industry, urbanisation and
highway communication -- half the huge water surface from the
multitude of fish ponds, reservoirs and lakes are now
available for food culture!
5. MACROPHYTE culture of useful chlorella, spirulina, azolla,
lemna, pistia and even water hyacinth as livestock feed in
shallow channels which distribute the nutrient-rich pond water
to the fields for irrigation. The macrophytes are first used
as substrate to grow mushroom to break down the
ligno-cellulose and make the residue more digestible and even
more palatable for the livestock, which eat more to grow
faster and produce better wastes for the system.
This important strategy, which also uses all the available
crop and processing residues, is widely practised in China,
which produces over 50% of the world's mushroom output, using
simple structures and methods in the backyards of most farmers
in the south.
6. AEROPONIC & MULTICROPPING cultures of various vegetables
and fruits on the dykes using the pond water to irrigate and
fertilize them, have enabled farmers to increase food
production without the use of chemical fertilizers or
pesticides for centuries. It is certainly a much acceptable
and more practical way of using livestock wastes to fertilize
crops, instead of the big mess created and intensive labour
required to handle organic wastes around the world.
China has increased its use of agrochemicals from practically
nothing to 21.5 million tons in 1994, and is determined to
reverse this disastrous situation with the new Chinese
Ecological Agriculture (CEA) programme, implemented in ALL
provinces. I cannot see the newly affluent farmers replacing
the convenience of purchased fertilizers or pesticides with
the messy handling of organic wastes as they did in the past.
So the only solution to the chemical problem is for China to
adopt the integrated farming system, which is only receiving
lip service at the moment in most places.
7. PROCESSING of produce for preservation and/or value added
is the best way to prevent spoilage of valuable foods, and the
simple processes at village level are well known, especially
in Asia, without using complex processes and fossil-fuel
operating equipment. In modern times, much bigger
agroindustrial factories are required, but still maintaining
the same economic and ecological principles.
China has demonstrated a few outstanding examples of
stand-alone farms and factories which produce their own energy
and fertilizers for big agro-industrial enterprises, with the
crop and processing wastes used as livestock feeds, with and
without further physical and/or microbial processing. The
government should make such practices mandatory for all
enterprises.
8. MARKETING of produce and goods in some parts of Asia is
quite impressive even in the rural areas where vegetables and
meat are sold fresh, and fish and poultry are sold live. The
government has a very important role to play by providing
facilities for the farmers to sell their surplus crops at a
fixed price to government stations, where the crops are
processed for local and export trade.
China has such "import and export corporations" which are
beneficial to the farmers, who are certain of a fixed price
for any produce they cannot sell on the local market, and for
the government which is assured of having the surplus crops
for processing and export to maintain a healthy balance of
payments for many decades.
Some concrete examples can be supplied to participants on
request.
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ANNEX I: GOALS OF INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEMS
The goals of integrating livestock, fish and crop are
described as follows:
1. ECONOMIC
The universally known problems of commercial farming in the
developing world are the prohibitive costs of external inputs,
such as feed for livestock and fish, fertilizer for crops, and
energy for processing, while most wastes and residues are left
to pollute and even degrade the environment when they should
be recycled as useful resources. These problems are compounded
with imported technologies which are inappropriate, costly and
inefficient due to the wrong systems used and which do not
take full advantage of local climatic and environmental
conditions to make the processes more effective and less
costly.
The Integrated Farming System demonstrates that the only way
for commercial farming to be viable economically is to recycle
all wastes and residues as means of production for maximum
productivity at lowest costs. There is no other way for most
developing countries without fossil fuel, mineral and other
mining resources. They should capitalize on their sunny and
hot climate for optimum microbial processes for recycling all
their wastes and residues as fuel, fertilizer and feed to
produce food, fibre and raw materials for economic
development.
2. ECOLOGIC
For centuries, most developing countries have followed
ecological principles for subsistence and self-sufficiency
from their lush forests and rich aquatic life. The same
principles can be used to meet the requirements of a modern
society, instead of adopting systems that have been designed
for other climatic and environmental conditions, requiring
imported and costly input such as fossil fuels, agrochemicals
and complex equipment, and can never be economic in most of
the third world.
Some developing countries were even forced to accept polluting
industries to locate in their poor communities to provide
lowly paid jobs, without any provision for environmental
pollution control or even workers' safety. There are enough
horrible examples in some countries to make the concerned
leaders stop such disastrous development strategies, and adopt
more appropriate systems.
The Integrated Farming System shows that modern scientific
knowledge and technological innovations can improve all the
farming and agro-industrial processes involved without
upsetting the ecological equilibrium, and provides a new
concept of development that can prevent environmental
degradation while benefiting both investors and communities
concerned, with production of foods and renewable raw
materials first.
3. SOCIAL
Past development in the third world depended heavily on the
strategies of the administrative powers, which used the land,
people and natural resources to meet the material and
industrial needs of the metropolitan nations. This development
used huge areas of prime lands for livestock ranches and
monocultural plantations for primary produce for export, very
often at the expense of local food production. It is
unbelievable that such development still continues in most
countries of the third world today, and it is not surprising
that they remain poor or even become poorer.
In the past, there were also many man-made cultural
constraints on reutilisation of wastes in many parts of the
world, with many official bodies making things worse by
arbitrary laws and regulations. They resulted in many human
settlements living in squalor because the wastes were not
disposed of properly. Many changes have occurred in recent
years when the powers that be, including all the religious
bodies, began to realize that the only way to solve such
problems is to recycle the wastes as economic resources.
The Integrated Farming System demonstrates that the developing
countries can have more viable agro-industries, with their
wastes used as inputs in surrounding integrated farms, while
solving the waste and pollution problems effectively and
efficiently and making local enterprises highly rewarding in a
healthier environment. So both industrialists and farmers
benefit socially and environmentally from such collaboration.
One additional aspect, which should not be overlooked, is the
establishment of self-employment for the individual farm
family with relatively small area of land and low investment
which can be recovered within a couple of years, with the
prospect of its members becoming entrepreneurs as the
integrated farm expands.
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FAO ELECTRONIC CONFERENCE:
LIVESTOCK FEED RESOURCES WITHIN INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEMS
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