Animal Production and Health Division, FAO Headquaters, Vialle delle
Terme di Caracalla, 010100 Rome, Italy.
An important aspect of area-wide crop-livestock integration is to highlight the competitive and complementary relationships between crop and livestock production in urban and rural production systems. In the broadest sense, we are looking into activities which result in the production of food (livestock products, milk, meat and eggs, and also grains, vegetables and fruits) from peri-urban settings in interaction and complementation with the rural production systems. Essentially, this refers to spatial organisation of crop-livestock systems between urban/peri-urban and rural locations and flows of inputs and outputs between the two.
In the peri-urban context, food production can take place for many purposes and at different scales, and different levels of technologies can be used to produce the same products. The following three production types could be distinguished:
1. Garden production; which is generally oriented for family use of fruits , vegetables or animal products
2. Specialised family production; in which a limited land area is devoted to market oriented production of the above products
3. Specialised commercial production; which uses production science and economies of scale in order to maximise productivity, profitability and output for the urban market
In the context of this presentation the following criteria are assumed as an urban or peri-urban livestock production system:
This implies that small-scale livestock activities that add relatively little to the supply of livestock products in the urban market are omitted from this review. The reason is that the various studies of FAO in Asia and elsewhere consistently state that in urban/peri-urban situations, small-scale production is becoming less and less competitive under the increased pressure from the large, integrated producers and the volumes produced are relatively small. The reports also conclude that the total animal food output is dominated by a small number of large-scale producers who are in direct competition with the same products produced in other areas, be they regional, national or international. These conclusions emphasise the point that peri-urban livestock production is part of the overall urban food supply system which survives only if it is competitive with the other supply sources.
Successful livestock production in the commercially oriented peri-urban setting depends on the array of input and institutional support systems like compounded feed supply, veterinary and extension services, breeding services and functional markets. The system requirements are discussed according to the following animal species:
Commercial poultry, both egg and meat production, is ideally suited in locations where production units are close to major urban centres. The required land allocation is relatively small but needs a secure title and municipal licensing to operate the business safely in a given location. Poultry units benefit fully from the closeness to the markets for their produce. Equally important is access to inputs, specialist, clinical and investment services and skilled and unskilled labour which, in developing country situations, are more reliable in urban/peri-urban areas than in rural areas. Good vertical integration and minimisation of risks of different nature are vital in the poultry industry. This is generally achieved through careful stratification of the various system components utilising strategic alliances which combine a strong financial entity and a technology support team with a group of producers and the processing and marketing industry.
The main input for which the system is dependent on the rural support is the macro items of feed. If a sufficient source of feed is not available in the country, imported items are often utilised. In terms of production costs, feed is the most important single item representing on average 70-80% of the total production costs. Quality of feed components and mixed compounds is crucial for the success of poultry business. Normally, this aspect is well taken care by the management and process control of the feed industry but, beyond that, we have little knowledge about the origins of the raw materials - how they are produced and how stable are the supply channels. It would seem necessary to discuss here how much the animal production planners and specialists should involve their attention to sourcing of the main feed items for the poultry industry.
The relatively high capital investments involved in peri-urban commercial poultry production system also mean that most producers have to have considerable formal education. Such people are more easily available in urban areas. The intensive systems also carry a significant level of management, technology and financial risks. Generally, these concern private entrepreneurs and there would seem to be little justification for targeting public or NGO resources to support this type of business ventures. On the other hand, private service initiatives have become opportune and profitable in measures to reduce the risks and to increase productivity and profitability of the farm operations.
Compared with poultry, intensive commercial urban/peri-urban swine production systems present a very similar picture. Swine production is not dependent on on-farm feed production and, like poultry, the land requirement is limited to provisions for housing of the animals and storing and handling of feed and waste. The vertical integration requirements and need for reliable access to a number of supply and service functions are similar to those of poultry. Therefore, the same requirements listed before for poultry, apply as well to urban/peri-urban swine industry.
Regarding the supply of feed components, there is scope to formulate the rations in a more flexible manner than the poultry rations by utilising the various feed items originating either from rural or urban/peri-urban agriculture and horticulture. They can come from by-products or even from items processed from urban food residues or waste. In the industrial systems, this is not practised to any large extent because the feasible technologies to handle the raw materials are not yet available. In the context of Area-Wide Integration (AWI), and in view of the eventual cereal feed shortages, the potential to promote recycling and processing of urban food residues into feed is a theme which would merit discussion in this workshop.
Peri-urban locations in the developing world have attracted intensive dairy production at a very high rate of growth due to proximity of the market for milk and milk products. In terms of space requirements, dairy units need more land than the monogastric poultry or swine, not necessarily for holding the animals, but a minimum provision of fresh fodder is necessary from nearby land. Normally, dairy-farming complements well with peri-urban vegetable and fruit production systems as reported by the case studies in this workshop. For the supply of the bulk of straw and hay, peri-urban dairy production is dependent on interactive arrangements with the rural agricultural systems. In Asia, Karachi (Pakistan) represents an exception as practically no fresh fodder can be produced locally and it has to be transported a long distance from the Indus Valley. In some places where available roughage is very limited, like in China or in the Near East, intensive dairy feeding systems have been developed for maximum use of concentrates, in which case the relation to rural agricultural systems do not differ much from pig or poultry systems.
The intensive dairy units require genetically high producing animals like the Friesian breed or their crosses with local breeds. As there is generally a lack of well organised and reliable arrangements to produce quality semen or to breed locally a sufficient number of animals for herd expansion and replacements, the breeders rely heavily on imports. In the context of AWI, there would be scope for contractual arrangements with rural farmers to do more heifer rearing away from urban areas, thus liberating maximum space for keeping only cows `in-milk' in the stables. The situation is still far from ideal, favouring the domination of the international suppliers of genetic materials and the local selection programmes are under-utilised to develop animals better adapted to the prevailing environments. An unsolved problem in most intensive dairy operations is the placement of male calves for rearing instead of culling them when newly born.
Peri-urban dairies benefit from the usually easy access to animal health services and monitoring, AI service, skilled and unskilled labour, credit and marketing. It differs from poultry and pig industries in that the vertical linkages are looser. However, it could eventually benefit from similar formal integration as has been reported, for example, in Indonesia.
Intensive beef fattening in peri-urban areas is a relatively minor activity compared with the other production systems described before. It is, however, gaining momentum as reported from China. The urban markets are becoming increasingly more demanding for quality beef, and fattening is becoming economical. In the mixed farming areas, this opportunity can be exploited through backyard fattening. But in case of animals originating from pastoral systems, there is a need to establish feedlots close to a suitable feed source and preferably close to an urban market. The feedlot sites can be further from the cities than dairy and poultry units as the requirement for daily delivery access to market is not as sensitive. A good feed source is most important for fattening operations.
With backyard or feedlot fattening becoming more popular, the potential growth rate and feed conversion ability of the fattened animals becomes important. With systematic breeding programmes, it will be possible to improve these characteristics in the indigenous base populations. The herd management and strategies need to study and analyse the whole production chain to optimise the output, productivity and profitability. All this implies the need for more applied research, improved knowledge of specialists and training of producers to exploit the business opportunities.
The technologies and management methods used in intensive animal production are basically the same as those in the industrialised countries. They have been modified to suit local climatic conditions utilising different levels of local skills and materials in buildings and in the manufacture of the equipment and installations. The levels of sophistication and automation have been reduced from those in the original models to lower utility costs and to take advantage of cheaper labour and less rigid standards for environmental protection. Eventually, however, it will be necessary to bring the sophistication to the same level as in the industrialised countries. The recent epidemic of fowl influenza in Hong Kong and BSE in Europe demonstrated that with the increased concentration of animals and people and greater use of unconventional feed items, the animal and public health risks must be monitored more carefully in the future. These risks are reduced with the treatment and removal of wastes from livestock production and processing and recycling them back for sustainable agriculture.
Regional Workshop on Area-Wide Integration of Crop-Livestock Activities, 18-20 June, 1998, FAO Regional Office, Bangkok Thailand.
