Intensive Livestock Production: Lessons learned and future prospects.

Abstract

The focus of this paper is the commercial production of poultry and pigs permanently confined in some kind of housing. Data on livestock numbers and production indicate low levels of commercial pig meat production compared to that from traditional systems. The opposite holds true for poultry products. There is significant production of broiler chickens by independent growers, mainly sold in the live bird markets. The demand for meat and eggs is expected to continue to grow at about five percent per year due to population increases and factors to do with urbanization, incomes and aspirations. Papua New Guinea conditions are favourable for intensive production, especially by smallholders. There are minimum sizes of operation for practicality but the economics of scale are not important. Local production of feeds is feasible making good use of local resources but quality feeds will never be cheap. The concepts of nucleus estates and vertical integration are appealing but implementation is problematic. A number of lessons from past experiences with intensive systems give guidelines for best practice. It is concluded that the bulk of desired 'growth in livestock production over the next 10-20 years can come from smallholders and this will be profitable for them.