In a community participatory assessment on animal production, smallholder farmers in Papua New Guinea (PNG) were empowered based on livestock technologies. The exercise was to build capacity of livestock farmers in the country with livestock management systems and livestock feeding systems. The assessment involved feedback from communities, comprising opinions and experiences on the introduced livestock technologies. The introduced technologies included pig management practices, sweet potato silage for pig feed, and fish and duck integration. The activity assessment succeeded to reduce number of pigs roaming freely thus destroyed food gardens creating disharmony among farmers and within the community. As a result of good management practices, pigs are now provided with better housing and husbandry such as tethering. Due to the implementation techniques offered by National Agricultural Research Institute’s (NARI) livestock scientists, farmers have reportedly fattened their pigs through making sweet potato silage and quality feeds. Through scientific supervision and assessment, smallholder farmer managed to sell more quantity of meat at a quality market standard.
http://www.nari.org.pg/node/317