3. The possibility of growing crops to feed pigs in the highlands: Early ideas

In this blog I describe the possibility of growing crops to feed pigs in Papua New Guinea.

In a warm tropical environment housing costs for growing small numbers of pigs in a village would be minimal. Sows could be raised on a central facility that would supply contracted villagers regularly with pigs.  The villagers would grow the pigs to sale or slaughter by the central facility and in return for their labour and housing be paid a management fee.  The central facility would provide technical advice and regular visits by service staff.  It is a system that works worldwide for pig and poultry production.

Globally, in pig production, the cost of feed determines whether a business thrives or dies. Hence the logical place for a pig farm in PNG was somewhere in a cropping region where wheat or corn or sorghum or rice or potatoes or cassava could be grown in abundance. In effect we needed a feed energy source.  Failing that the business needed to be close to a grain port. Proximity to main population centres is helpful.

Janet's garden near Como

PNG does not grow grain in quantity. There is good land where corn or sorghum or rice could be grown but there has never been sufficient demand for large volumes of grain.  Most of the people live in villages and the women tend the family gardens.  The main food crop in the highlands is kau kau (sweet potato).  On the coast and the low altitude hotter areas cassava is grown. The villagers grow enough to feed the extended family and a few pigs.  There is an annual surplus about 25 kilograms of kau kau which is traded at local markets.  The women could easily grow more but they don’t because there is no market for the surplus. They also grow a little cassava (it does better in hotter climates), beans, cabbages, cauliflowers, carrots, capsicums, tomatoes, onions, melons, pineapples, bananas, paw paws and tropical tree fruits. Their gardens are a palette of greens, yellows, reds, purples and whites. To me they are very much alive. Real people care for them.

The Pastor's new house and
 garden near Komo

In one village near Komo, in Hela province in the Southern Highlands, a new thatched house for a new pastor had been built. When we arrived it was being smoked to rid the thatched ceiling of insects.  The local villagers had, in the last week or two, finished planting the kau kau garden. There were eight kau kau mounds about 3.0 X 1.0 metre and 30 cm high freshly planted with Kau kau vines.  

Bordering the round, single room thatched house was a row of banana trees interspersed with the decorative red-purple leafed Ti plants common everywhere in PNG. A row of young sugar cane in tufts about 30 cm high provided a further layer. About a dozen taro plants had been carefully placed between the sugar cane and the banana trees. The ground was damp. The air was misty but the morning sun warm.  The soil was a rich brown volcanic earth.  You could just about see the plants grow.  Babies could grow in it.

Women selling vegetables in the Tari market

Corn is grown in village gardens but only in a few rows.  It grows all year round so it can be planted every month. There are no large-scale livestock sectors stimulating supply chain arrangements.  Some of this is due to the availability of large plots of land.  To supply corn or sorghum or cheaply requires large tracts of land or a concerted collaborative effort by villagers.  The village economy is still largely subsistence based.  The sizes of the plots of land owned by families are small, acres or hectares rather than the hundreds of acres common in broad acre agriculture. Village women sell their corn by the cob or kau kau by the kilogram in the local market.  It’s as much a social outing as a marketing venture.

I needed kau kau, cassava or corn by the tonne. One sow will consume about one tonne of dried corn a year. Her 16-20 growing pigs that she might raise in a year will consume about four tonnes of dried shelled corn or wheat. Kau kau is 30% dry matter. Dried shelled corn is about 90% dry matter.  Ten pigs fed a kau kau or cassava diet supplemented with a protein-mineral balance need about five tonnes of fresh cassava or kau kau to sustain them from six weeks until about 24 weeks of age when they can be sold. How on earth am I going to get the villagers to grow this much?

In the next blog I look at the villagers, the social dynamic, crops and pigs and test some ideas.