Subject: Constraints to the Promotion of Integrated Farming Systems in Small
Island States
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Second FAO Electronic Conference on Tropical Feeds
Livestock Feed Resources within Integrated Farming Systems
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CONSTRAINTS TO THE PROMOTION OF INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEMS IN
SMALL ISLAND STATES
F. A. Neckles
Sugarcane Feeds Centre, Trinidad, West Indies
E-mail: FANEC@eclacps.undp.org
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INTRODUCTION
Over the centuries, agriculture in the small island states of
the Caribbean has been dominated by export crops such as
cocoa, cotton, coconut, coffee, citrus, bananas, nutmeg, etc.
Up to the middle of this century, "agriculture" was therefore
taken to mean "export crop" agriculture. Crops such as bananas
and sugar are still very important at the present time in
specific countries. Bananas are important in Dominica,
Jamaica, St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Grenada; sugarcane in
Barbados, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Trinidad; cocoa and nutmeg in
Grenada; coconuts in Dominica, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and
Trinidad; and, citrus in Dominica, Jamaica and Trinidad.
While these commodities were exported, the territories
imported much of their food needs. Yet food was produced for
local consumption. There was dichotomy in agriculture as
mainly small farmers, landless peasants and estate workers
were engaged in such production. Food crops were allowed on
the estates as long as they did not interfere with or reduce
resources allocated to the "main" crops. Production of local
food was not given recognition in terms of statistics on
agriculture, so that it would have been difficult to assess
levels of poultry or eggs, mutton or root crop production.
There were however integrated systems of production, crops
with animals as shown below:
(i) Prior to the widespread use of inorganic fertilizers,
inter-planted crops of cocoa, nutmeg, citrus and bananas were
fertilised mainly with manure from pens of zero-grazed cattle.
Animals were tied to stakes in the fields and fed legumes such
Leucaena, Glyricidia, Spondias spp., and grasses such as
Brachiaria mutica, Pennisetum spp. and guinea grass, and crop
or agro-processing wastes. The organic matter, after a period
of curing, was used on the crops.
(ii) Sugarcane cultivation was carried out on both estates and
small farms with animals - water buffalo, zebu or creole
cattle - providing traction/haulage and also, manure, meat and
milk. Animals utilised molasses, cane tops, grasses and
legumes as the main feeds.
(iii) Coconut plantations had either estate or worker/peasant-
owned cattle, small ruminants and pigs tethered between the
trees. These controlled the under-storey vegetation at low
cost, allowing a more complete harvest of fallen nuts. On
larger estates, herds of cattle were (and are still) kept.
Often, the importance of the coconuts was diminished as trees
aged, with little replanting or maintenance. This has been due
to competition from soya bean oil with the coconut oil. Soya
bean is imported and processed in the region.
(iv) The small landholder, squatter or landless peasant
practised mixed farming on small holdings, growing mixtures of
fruit trees, annual plants, vegetables, etc., and rearing
free-range poultry for eggs and meat, and tethered pigs,
sheep, goats or cattle on roadsides or open lands. Pigs were
also fed mainly on household wastes, sometimes collected from
neighbours or institutions.
This general situation of integrated farming practices has
been mainly reversed and there are at least three aspects to
this:
* the search for modernisation of agriculture;
* pressures of the wider economy on agriculture and resource
use; and
* the failure to recognise and deal with agriculture for local
consumption.
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MODERNISATION OF AGRICULTURE
The plans of the larger Caribbean states in the 1960's were to
encourage economic development with modernisation and
industrialisation of agriculture. These involved "improved
technology". There were some influential factors:
(a) Being situated close to North America and its agriculture
with yields based on high levels of technology, equipment,
pesticides, irrigation, etc., this model was adopted.
(b) Even though the islands had limited land with small and
fragmented agricultural holdings, "economies of scale"
parameters were promoted. Poultry, pigs, milk and, to a lesser
extent, beef production were encouraged as monoculture
operations. (State assisted farms were forbidden to engage in
any secondary enterprises).
Imported feed ingredients - corn and soya bean meal - were
fed to imported, ill-adapted breeds of cattle. Backyard
poultry and pigs were deemed unacceptable. The new feeding
systems ignored traditional mixed crops/livestock farming.
(d) The replacement of animals with tractor power started in
the 1950's and spread to even the smaller farmers. Today,
livestock production by the sugar companies is separated
almost entirely from the cultivation of the crop.
(e) "Modern" agricultural education reinforced the above
developments. Technical efficiency became the goal with
efficiency of general resource use and sustainability ignored.
Monoculture economic models of production were promoted and
accepted.
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PRESSURES OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY
A national economy is made up of several sectors with
agriculture being one and livestock production as a sub-sector
of agriculture. The other sectors heavily influence
agriculture from many points of view such as return on
investment, labour status, alternative land and resource use
(opportunity cost), etc. In all these, agriculture comes out
second best. Labour is attracted to public works, light
industry, hotels and tourism, and the service sector, i.e. to
virtually any non-agricultural activity.
This either leaves land idle or it makes the farmer a part
timer with crop production abandoned and animals kept on
systems such as "uncontrolled grazing". Animals are let out in
the morning to forage where they wish and return to the
owner's holding in the late afternoon to be secured. Milk
production is no longer promoted (too time-consuming) and
there is only occasional slaughter and sale of meat. Manure
use declines. There may be some element of forage harvesting
by the owner of the animals for night feeding or, especially
in the dry season, on his way home from work.
In the drier areas of the islands and particularly on the
coast, the "natural" land for livestock is being diverted into
housing, hotels and related facilities (golf courses, etc.).
The value of land earmarked for such purposes far exceeds its
value for agriculture, so more and more land is lost in the
absence of land utilisation plans or laws or, where they may
exist, enforcement.
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DEALING WITH LOCAL CONSUMPTION
It has been noted that production for local use, with the
notable exception in recent decades of vegetables and root
crops, has been largely ignored and under reported. That was
the case for meat and milk but change has come about with the
attempted modernisation in pig, poultry and dairy farming.
Even in these cases, the official statistics still ignore
production that does not officially enter into processing. For
example, Trinidad and Tobago milk production statistics are
generally given as the milk intake of the single large milk
processor. Yet this is variously estimated to be =BD to 2/3 of
actual national production.
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FEED PRODUCTION, COST AND FEEDING SYSTEMS
Feed manufacturing developed rapidly in response to the
livestock development thrust. Most mills had working relations
with or parent companies in the USA or Canada. In Trinidad and
Tobago, there were as many as 15 mills by 1980. Initially,
feed provided to the farmer was heavily subsidised by the
national government to encourage farm production and
"development". Subsidies were removed and, with successive
devaluations of local currency and increase in international
commodity prices, the quantity of feed manufactured there has
declined markedly. Between 1985 and 1994, prices of dairy, pig
and poultry feed to the farmer have doubled, tripled and
doubled, respectively (Table 1). Manufactured feed use has
likewise decreased. The efficiency of feed use has increased
on the fewer, larger, more capital-intensive units that remain
in production. The other farm units, mainly the middle-sized
pig units, small poultry units and dairy large units, have
dropped out of production. Some information on these trends is
provided below.
Table 1 :Production of dairy, pig and poultry feed in Trinidad
and Tobago ('000 tonnes) and unit cost per 45 kg bag ($TT)
1985 to 1994
FEED DAIRY PIG POULTRY
YEAR Tonnage Cost Tonnage Cost Tonnage Cost
1985 48.8 25.6 27.6 27.2 168.3 37.8
1988 28.3 28.9 23.8 34.9 148.5 43.8
1991 18.9 37.1 20.4 49.1 139.3 58.0
1994 10.2 50.7 5.7 72.4 107.6 81.6
Source: CSO
DAIRY:
Annual production of milk as reflected by sales to the major
processor has been approximately 10 million litres annually
between 1985 to 1994, in spite of increasing feed prices.
Increasingly this milk is attributed to production from
smaller, mixed farms using more forage and by-products with
little manufactured feed.
The bigger producers, with over 100 head, went out of
production by the early 1980's. Even the 266 specialised 10-
hectare pasture grazing units are now either more integrated
farms, with mixed cultivation, or a few are very specialised
but high cost producers, or the farms are out of production
altogether. The smaller, integrated, zero-grazing farms with
cross-bred stock (some are probably ill-advisedly upgrading
their cattle with North American semen) are now producing more
milk than the 10 hectare units.
A look at two dairy farms known to the author reveals the
following:
FARM RESOURCE FARM A FARM B
1. Size (ha) 10 10
2. Grasses Improved + Partially improved,
off-farm cut grass no cut grass
3. Water
Resources No pond Pond
4. No of milk cows
(yield-litres) 30 (15 - 18) 25 (10 - 13)
5. Other Products:
a) Heifers/bulls Heifers/bulls
b) - Fish (Cascadura)
c) - Pumpkin/Melons
d) - Pigs
e) - Ducks
f) - Common fowl/eggs:
(home use or sold)
g) - Manure (sold)
h) - Dahee
I) - Fruit (home use)
RESULTS FARM A RESULTS FARM B
a) Higher milk income a) Mixed income
b) Higher cash outflow b) Lower milk income
for feed, medication, etc.
c) More "dependence", c) Lower cash outflow
lower sustainability
d) Smoother cash inflow
e) More sustainable
PIGS:
Pig sales increased from 50,000 head to 79,000 head between
1988 and 1989, but returned to the former level by 1993 (CSO,
1994). While, in mid-1988, a total of 17,000 pigs were on
farms of 21 to 500 head, by 1994 the number in this size range
was 5,263. Farms with less than 20 and more than 500 head
increased their population, indicative of the dichotomy in the
industry. The smaller farms use less purchased feed, the
larger are vertically integrated. The few large units have
integrated feed manufacture, pig production, processing and
marketing (and export) for high technical efficiency. Small
pig farmers have reverted to farm by-products, household
waste, waste from agro-industrial processing, forages, offal
=66rom poultry slaughter, etc.
BROILERS:
The broiler production statistics are also of interest. Table
2 shows that, while total liveweight production of chicken has
remained steady, the percentage produced by "contract farmers"
who are part of the integrated feed miller/hatchery/
producer/processor/sales complex, as compared to that of
"independent" non-contract farmers, rose from 55.5 to 89.3%
between 1988 and 1994. Efficiency of feed use and marketing of
products are important factors in this development. The small,
independent poultry producers with integrated farm operation
and limited use of manufactured feed (but using forages, waste
grains, etc.) is making a come-back (with some free range
production).
Table 2: Broiler production in Trinidad and Tobago by contract
and non-contract farmers 1988 to 1994 ('000 tonnes).
Year Total Contract Non-contract Contract
farms % of total
1988 25.6 14.2 11.4 55.5
1990 28.5 18.0 10.5 63.2
1992 24.3 19.6 4.7 81.4
1994 26.3 23.5 2.8 89.3
Source: CSO 1994
These indications are still not readily accepted by
"officialdom" for reasons given in earlier sections. There is
admittedly more recent interest in integrated farming and its
validity is gradually being accepted and recognised by
traditionally trained economists.
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THE PROBLEM
The Caribbean region should be seeking to improve its
agriculture and particularly its livestock production. A few
reasons include:
* the need to provide for some measure of "food security";
* the need to use the resources of soils, climate, etc. to
provide employment and economic activity;
* the need to increase inland fish production, given the water
resources available and static world fish output and that the
rapidly developing sub-sectors of the economy (e.g. tourism)
are not only fragile but can ultimately be self-destructive if
not carefully handled and also dramatically increase food
importation;
* with the new world trade situation of reduced farm and
export subsidies, the cost of imported food (and feed) is
rising; and
* developed, "modern" agriculture is not necessarily
energy-efficient agriculture.
With all the modernisation Trinidad & Tobago imports
approximately TT$ 1.5 billion worth of food ($1US =3D $6TT) for
a population of 1.2 million persons. In islands with
"well-developed" tourist industries, the situation is even
more dramatic.
Grenada, with less than 100,000 total population but tourist
arrivals of over 200,000 persons, imported EC$ 21 million
($1US =3D $2.70 EC) of milk products in 1995. For Trinidad and
Tobago, a development economist has noted that the index of
food imported (1973 =3D 100) rose to over 470 by 1983 and in
1990 was 247 (Ifill, 1993). Food imports as a percentage of
total imports rose from 10.3% in 1973 to 20.4% in 1990.
The macro-economic policy of devaluation and later the open
liberalised economy are appearing not to work for the
development of agriculture. In fact the liberalised
agricultural regime is expected to have negative output and
reduced employment implications. Countries of the region are,
however, committed to such policies.
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REFERENCES
1. Central Statistical Office (CSO) (1994) Quarterly
Agricultural Reports, Government of Trinidad and Tobago.
2. Ifill, M. (1993): "How the country got on the devaluation
ladder and why we are likely to stay there"
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FAO ELECTRONIC CONFERENCE:
LIVESTOCK FEED RESOURCES WITHIN INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEMS
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