Pig Project

Well somebody needs to start a discussion about pigs in Haiti. They are historically one of the most important livestock in the country. No discussion would be complete without a look at the recent history of pigs in Haiti:

Creole Pig
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Creole Pig was a breed of pig indigenous to the Caribbean nation of Haiti. Creole pigs were well adapted to the rugged terrain and sparse vegetation of Haiti. The pig’s resilience allowed Haitian peasants to raise these pigs with little resources. The peasants characterized their pigs as never getting sick.
Creole pigs served as a type of savings account for the Haitian peasant: They were sold or slaughtered to pay for marriages, medical emergencies, schooling, seeds for crops, or a vodou ceremony. The resillience and boisterous nature of the pigs, as well as their incorporation into vodou folklore and the oral history of the Haitian revolution, made them a symbol for the independence and personality of the Haitian people.
Creole pigs were well adapted to local conditions, such as available feed and conditions needed for their management as livestock and were popular with the Haitian peasant farmers. However, they were almost all killed off in the 1970s and 1980s, ostensibly in order to prevent the spread of African swine fever virus, which had spread from Spain to the Dominican Republic and then to Haiti via the Artibonite River. According to the United States, by 1982 African swine fever had infected almost one-third of Haiti's creole pig population. Concerned about the spread of the disease into the US and its potential effects on agriculture, the US put political pressure on the Haitian government to slaughter all the pigs in their country.
This reasoning was subsequently questioned by the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, as well as numerous academic reports, including a report published in a 1990 edition of "Stretch"[1]. The eradication of the creole pig had gone further to impoverish the already struggling peasants. It forced many children to quit school. Small farmers were forced to mortgage their land. Many Haitians cut down trees for cash income from charcoal. This contributed to the desertification of the Haitian landscape, already begun by overpopulation.
In the Haitian peasant community, the government's eradication and repopulation program was highly criticized. The peasants protested that they were not fairly compensated for their pigs and that the breed of pigs imported from the United States to replace the hardy creole pigs was unsuitable for the Haitian environment and economy.
The new breed of pigs imported from the US, common to large farms in the American Midwest, was characterized as "better" than the creole pig. Unfortunately, they required clean drinking water which is unavailable to 80% of the Haitian population, imported feed (costing $90 a year when the per capita income was about $130), vaccination, and special roofed pigpens. There is controversy over whether the importation of these pigs was encouraged by US agribusiness, as the raising of these pigs was so heavily dependent on imported products. Haitian peasants quickly named the pigs "prince à quatre pieds," (four-footed princes). The repopulation program was a complete failure.
In recent years, Haitian and French agronomists have bred a new variety of pig with the same beneficial qualities as Haiti's Creole pig. An effort to repopulate Haiti with these pigs is underway.[1].
References
1.  Grassroots International

So the pig is back in Haiti. As livestock feed is a challenge, especially for pigs, who are monogastric (single stomached) and basically eat the same foods as humans, we need to find alternative feeds that can be produced in Haiti.

INFORMATION SOURCES:

 A great source of research information is Livestock Research and Rural Development.

Their articles can be searched at: CIPAV, Livestock Research for Rural Development

Other sources include:

Research Cooperation For Livestock-Based Sustainable Farming Systems In The Lower Mekong Basin

Mekarn Research Cooperation For Livestock-Based Sustainable Farming

and

The Information Center about Pig Production in Developing Countries:

PigTrop, Information for developing countries

I am eagerly awaiting a copy of: 

Fodder banks for Sustainable Pig Production Systems

from CIPAV 

 ALTERNATIVE FEEDS:

Some alternative pig feeds include: conventional crop leaves, fodder legumes, sugar cane products, water plants, tree and shrub leaves, and palm products.

Be aware that some of these items may need special processing before feeding to pigs to reduce toxic or anti-nutritional components. There may be limits to the amount that should be fed. Do your homework before experimenting.

Conventional crop leaves include:

pwa enkoni, cowpea, Vigna unguiculata

taro Alocasia and Colocasia (Chou Karayib)

new cocoyam malanga Xanthosoma sagittifolium

Fodder legumes:

stylo Stylosanthes guianensis

Sugar cane products include: chopped sugar cane and cane juice

Water plants include:

water fern Azolla,

water spinach Ipomoea,

duckweed Lemna

Tree and shrub leaves include:

cassava manyok, Manihot esculenta;

nacedero, Trichanthera gigantea;

lila etranje, motel, Gliricida sepium and other legumes

 hibiscus, chou blok, Hibiscus rosasinensis;

mulberry Morus alba 

benzoliv, Moringa oleifera; read way more uses of Moringa (Benzolive) click here

 Acacia auriculiformis, Acacia mangium;

jackfruit, jaquier, Artocarpus heterophyllus;

cashew, pom kajou, Anacardium occidentalis;

banana, fig, plantain, bannan, Musa

Palm products include:

sugar juice from sugar palm Borassus flabillefer

 palm kernel and oil from oil palm Elaeis guineensis

 seeds/nuts, heart of palm peelings from peach palm pejibaye Bactris gasipaes 

As you can see there a wide range of alternative and underutilized crops that can be fed to pigs.

recent publication:

Evaluation of ten tropical legume forages for their potential as pig feed supplement

HAITIAN PIG PRODUCTION

What do Haitians feed their pigs? Do they feed their pigs or do pigs just find what they can?

Kiskeya Farm in Haiti raises large black pigs in Leogane:click here to read all about them.

BIOGAS

In addition to meat, pigs produce manure which can be used to make biogas for cooking. Another alternative to wood and charcoal!  Simple biogas digesters can be made from a double layer of large tubular plastic sheeting.See:

Biodigester manual.pdf

Installation of low cost polyethylene biodigester

BioGas: alterantive energy at work

Tubular plastic sheet and other small scale designs:

Beginners guide for micro scale biogas production