In the last two decades, Asia has become the world’sfastest economically growing area. Countries in Southeast Asia are growing at an increasing rate. For instance, the average annual income is increasing from 4% to 8%, population from 2% to 3%, urbanization from 4% to 6%, and meat consumption from 4% to 8%. In this region, pork is the most important source of meat, accounting for approximately 58% of total meat output. However, pig production in the region is small in scale with more than 70% being smallholders. Regional and national goals to reach the international market threaten traditional pig production due to its perceived low standard of output.
Alongside, natural resources are under high pressure from heavy pollution emanating from pig production. Industrialization has caused the migration of the pig population from rural areas to the outskirts of big cities like Manila, Ho Chi Minh, and Siemriep, or Phnom Penh. Industrialization has also resulted in air, soil, and water pollution in these cities. In addition, the region shares a huge area of the South China Sea and by intensive pig keeping, surplus nutrients and minerals flow into that sea.
Alongside economic growth, animal production is increasing rapidly in Asia. Compared with their 31% share of the world meat production in 1980, developing countries will produce 60% by 2020 (Delgado et al. 1999). Of this projected 60%, 13.2% will be produced in SoutheastAsia alone.Depending on the country and the scale of production, pigs are important for farmers as a major source of family income or as a ‘savings bank’ (Steinfeld 1998). In the studied areas, pig production shares 2.0% to 2.8% of the total value of national GDP (Jones 2002; FAO AGAL 2005a).
However, the increase in production has brought forth a host of social, economic and environmental concerns. Specifically, these concerns relate to such areas as nutrition, animal health, animal productivity/genetic make-up, extension services, provision of finance to small-scale producers, and marketing. In addition, countries in the region aim to expand pig production and start exporting their pigs and pig products (MARD News 2006); this means that there will be a dramatic increase in the pig population and the attendant effects of such development in the near future. Given the future of pig production and its accompanying problems, developing countries—in particular, the subjects of our study—need to focus on the impact of such development not only on the livelihood of smallscale pig holders but also on the environment. The effects of pig production on both economic growth as well as environmental sustainability should be seriously considered in drawing up regional and national plans.
Table 1. Pork consumption in proportion to total meat produced in some countries in Asia.
2000, % 2001, % 2002, % 2003, % 2004, %
Laos 37.7 39.2 38.0 38.0 32.4
Thailand 26.0 28.9 28.2 29.6 36.8
Cambodia 53.3 53.3 53.6 53.6 53.0
Taiwan 55.6 57.8 57.0 56.3 56.6
Philippines 53.8 53.9 58.4 58.8 58.3
China 64.0 65.9 65.6 65.5 65.9
Viet Nam 70.9 71.5 72.0 72.2 71.5
Sources: FAO GLIPHA (2006); Riethmuller et al. (2002).
PIG PRODUCTION:
ITS ROLE IN ECONOMIC GROWTH
AND AS A DEVELOPMENT PATHWAY
The countries we selected for study, namely, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, and Vietnam share similarities in terms of the characteristics of pig production and its role as a development pathway in their respective economies (Cameron 2000). In this section and the next, we discuss these features, focusing on the similarities among the subjects of our study, as well as the peculiar characteristics for each country (please see the Annex for more background information on each country as well as details on the respective status of the industry). We start below with the role of pig production in the economy.
Before 1999, pork consumption in the region was very erratic (Riethmuller et al. 2002). However, except for Laos which registered a decline of 8%, pork consumption from 1999 to the present has increased per year at 0.1% in Cambodia, and 0.7% in Vietnam (Table 1 and Figure 1). The increase in pork consumption has led to an increase in the pig population of Laos (by 4.5%), and Vietnam (by 4.6%) (Food Agricultural Organization [FAO] 2006). The increase in pig headsin the areasstudied is partly traceable to the low slaughter weight which averages around 60 kg (MARD 2006) (See Figure 2).
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