TLE 6 AGRI Practitioner of An Animal Farm

Practitioner/Owner of
an Animal/Fish Farm
INTEGRATED LIVESTOCK-FISH
PRODUCTION SYSTEM IN THE
PHILIPPINES
In the 1970's local researchers have

experimentally demonstrated that there is a
decidedly higher economic benefit from the
integration of livestock and fish production
systems than from specialized livestock or
fish farming only. Still, in spite of the
relatively well-developed poultry and swine
industries and fairly-developed inland
aquaculture in the country, integrated
livestock-fish production system has so far
been rarely practised in the Philippines either
Among the agri-business enterprises in the
Philippines that have established fishponds to
integrate livestock and fish production
systems are the Maya Farms and Yaptenco
Farm each representing a different approach
to integration. The Maya Farms utilizes
livestock manure for biogas generation and
then applying the liquid sludge as fertilizer for
its fishponds. On the other hand, the
Yaptenco Farm allows the raw pig manure to
flow directly into the fishponds. These two
farms have, so far shown to significantly
increase the yield of tilapia in the pond and
the overall profitability of the farm.
Research and Extension
Researchers at the Central Luzon State University
conducted studies to determine the fish yields in
ponds directly manured by pigs and ducks at
different livestock-fish stocking rates (Hopkins and
Cruz, 1982). They have shown that in pig-fish, or
duck-fish integration, significant increase in fish
yield over two successive 90-day cropping periods
could be obtained. Considering the amount of
dissolved oxygen that were observed in the pond
after the second 90-day growing period, the authors
concluded that the optimum stocking rate was 60–
20,000 for the pig-fish combination and 750 –
20,000 for the duck-fish combination.
Because of the nature of the
production system in livestock-fish
farming, apprehensions about public
health hazards have sometimes been
raised particularly when incidence of
diseases or death due to eating of fish
from contaminated waters were
reported. Velasquez (1980) reviewed
evidences of potential public health
hazards from some organisms that are
borne by both livestock and fish
particularly in a mixed or combined
livestock-fish farming system.
These diseases include those arising
from bacterial infection such as
erysipelas, leptospirosis salmonellosis;
protozoal infections such as
amoebiasis; helminth infections such
as schistosomiasis and
heterophydiasis; and nematode
infections such as ascaris and
angiostrogyliasis. In this review, the
author noted that the farmers'
responsibility in maintaining sanitation
and hygiene cannot be overlooked and
strong government regulations
In the meantime, she recommended
that further study on the disposal of
human and animal wastes, use of
treated manure as fertilizer or animal
feed to fish, immunization and public
health education should be further
studied in relation to the integration
of livestock and fish production
systems.
Commercial Pig-Fish Production System
Model: Yaptenco Farm
Located near the UPLB campus, the Yaptenco Farm
occupies a two-hectare land with an irrigation canal
beside the property. While its design was patterned
after the CLSU livestock-fish polyculture model, two
important operational modifications were
incorporated. The first modification is the provision
of controlled but continuously flowing water into
the pond. By tapping water from a nearby irrigation
canal and construction of a network of distribution
and drainage canals, good water quality in the
ponds is maintained even with a higher fish
stocking rate.
The second modification is the transfer of the male
fish from the manured ponds at two months old and
growing them in non-manured ponds during the last
30 days of growing. This operation, while requiring
additional labour, serves two purposes: it allows
more space for the fish to grow to the desired
market size of 200 to 300 grams and removes the
objectionable odour and taste of fish which is often
characteristic of those grown in manured ponds. Dr.
Yaptenco notes that even with the additional cost of
transferring of the fish and addition of commercial
fertilizers to non-manured ponds, it is worthy
because he is able to market larger and better
quality fish desired by the buying public.
With only about one meter deep of
water in the pond, Dr. Yaptenco claims
that he is able to stock up to about 80
fattening pigs and 50,000 fish per
hectare per 90-day cropping. At this
stocking rate and with the current
price of 72 pesos per kilo for pork and
62 pesos per kilo for tilapia, Dr.
Yaptenco claims to be making good
profit out of his operation.
Integrated pig-fish production
system: Yaptenco model.
Commercial Livestock-Biogas-Fish
Production System Model: Maya
Farms
Maya Farms is a large integrated farm
located some 40 km from the city of
Manila. It maintains some 60,000
pigs, 120,000 egg-type chickens and a
few hundred heads of cattle. Soon
after the oil embargo in 1973, Maya
Farms started experimenting on the
industrial uses of biogas generated
from the manure produced by their
livestock.
It developed systems that enabled the farm
to use methane gas from the manure as
substitute for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)
and as source of energy to run internal
combustion engines that power its deep-well
water pumps, feed-mixers and generators
and some other electric equipment in the
farm. With its success in the efficient
generation of biogas, in 1982 Maya Farms
cut off its electrical connection from the
Manila Electric Company and has since been
running the farm on self-generated power
thus saving millions of pesos annually on
electric bills.
Integrated livestock-biogas-fish
production system: Maya farms
model.
Fill up the survey form/questionaires
about the article you read, Yaptenco Farm
1. What is the Name of Farm?______________
2. Who is the Owner of the Farm?___________
3. Where it be found?_____________________
4. What is its area?_______________________
5. What is designed of the farm? Or where is
it patterned?___________________________
6. What is its two important operational
modification?
a.____________________________________
b.___________________________________
7. What is its purpose?

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Practitioner/Owner of

In the 1970's local researchers have

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