plantations that led to disruption of traditional conservation practices ..... Unless this situation changes, there is not much hope for the IFS in the Pacific islands.
Landscape Planning, 12 (1985) 251-266 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam
INTEGRATED GEORGE 18621
FARMING
257 -
Printed
in The Netherlands
SYSTEM
L. CHAN*
Gledhill
(Accepted
Street,
Northbridge,
for publication
6 March
CA 91324
(U.S.A.)
1985)
ABSTRACT Chan, G.L.,
1985.
Integrated
farming
system,
Landscape
Plann.,
12:
257-266.
The cost of food production and processing has become prohibitive in most Third World countries because of the high prices of fuel, feed and fertilizer that are usually imported from the developed countries. So the tendency is to import the food itself from the developed countries - at comparatively lower prices but still very high when the respective wage levels are taken into consideration -while the people of the Third World become more and more underemployed. It is obvious that the Third World countries can only solve their food problems if they can solve their fuel, feed and fertilizer problems. An integrated farming system is proposed as a means of reducing the cost of fuel, feed and fertilizer with the minimum capital investment.
INTRODUCTION
The Integrated Farming System (IFS) is a concept that holds promise for the people of the Pacific and those parts of the tropical world where there is plenty of sun and water, the non-polluting sources of energy for this technologically simple system. It is designed as an alternative to the highly technical systems that brought economic development to the industrialized countries, which benefited from cheap and abundant fossil fuel and raw materials from many parts of the world, or to the exploitative methods of monoculture plantations that led to disruption of traditional conservation practices and ecological damage in the developing countries. The IFS approach is based on effective management of water, energy and food systems by individual farm families on 2-4 acres of land, and involves a complete re-cycling program. Using the sun as the only external energy source - hydro-power is reserved for centralized systems - the production of food, animal feed and fertilizer is accomplished with minimal cost and without significant pollution. All the activities in the IFS are cost-effective and contribute to waste re-cycling or resources recovery processes, while producing a diversified range of products for local consumption and import substitution, to start with, and subsequently for export. A critical look at the world farming situation shows that it is now not economically viable to go into the livestock, aquaculture, agriculture or silviculture business, because none of these activities can produce by itself *Present
address:
9C Porchester
Road,
London,
W2 5DP, Gt. Britain.
258
an adequate income for a farm family on a few acres of land. Successful monoculture farming requires either big acreage with energy-intensive large-scale irrigation and cheap energy and fertilizer, mechanization, converting only a fraction of the energy input into food at the table, or heavy subsidies from the government to stabilize agricultural prices and farm incomes at unrealistic levels that distort world markets. There is no way that such conditions can ever exist in the Pacific islands or in the developing countries where land or energy resources are scarce. It is only by combining all these farming actiuities together in a symbiotic process that the small tropical farm can become a viable and economic proposition. This is what
the integrates
warming pastern is all about.
The IFS does not demand more than what is available on the land, deep under it and in the air above it, except during the initial est,ablishment of the farming and other activities. Every resource is evaluated as to its potential for sustainable growth and the technical constraints for its development. Any effort to use it must be profitable, not necessarily in terms of marketable value but on its capability to bring down the cost of production through: reduction of energy input or increase in production output of one or more activities; reduction in cost of waste disposal or pollution control; reduction in wastage of crops and crop residues by preservation or conversion; added value to primary produce by innovative manufacturing processes. The ultimate aim is to have m~imum production of high-value foods and goods with the minimum input from outside, in order to enhance the overall environment for a better quality of life on the farm. The IFS does not rely on high technology or imported fuel, feed and fertilizer - all these can only result in added costs that eliminate the profits or are passed on to the consumer. The IFS enables local products to compete favourably with imported ones, because if capitalizes on: the good climatic conditions for photosynthesis all the year round; the relevance of many tropical farming practices to the environmental and social conditions in the Pacific islands and most developing countries; the proper management of all available natural resources using appropriate technology that has been successfu1 in another part of the world ; the selection of high-yield and fastgrowing tropical fauna and flora as raw materials for industry; the diversification of activities so as not to overtax any of the available resources or natural processes; the replacement of imported fuel, feed and fertilizer - the three essential elements in successful farming - with locally produced substitutes. WATER
AND LAND
RESOURCES
A sound water-management design is necessary to maximize the use of presently wasted water resources. Water is too precious for just flushing a toilet or irrigating a crop. Storage is vital for many purposes, not only in reservoirs for irrigation or domestic use, but anywhere it can be retained or integrated with other beneficial uses, including aquaculture, recreation,
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transport and hydroelectric power production; although the latter is more suitable in centralized systems. A safe and adequate water supply to a village can be an economic proposition if it is kept simple and small, with water used not only for domestic purposes but also for livestock, aquaculture, silviculture and industry. Water is also a critical resource and there is not enough for the various activities which compete for it. So it must be used and reused many times before final disposal, and even then it should be re-charged into the ground for storage, or stored in ponds for recreational and ornamental purposes, instead of being dumped into the sea. There should not be any qualms about this practice, because everything that should not be in pure H,O is removed and utilized in the IFS. In fact, the success or failure of the IFS depends on how efficiently contaminants in the wastewater of each operation or activity can be converted into useful products and utilised. Final disposal only occurs when the water has become useless because it does not contain any more contaminants. Vast areas of land in the Pacific are non-arable, either because the soil has been depleted of its fertility through monoculture and/or exclusive use of chemical fertilizer, or because it is not properly irrigated, fertilized and managed. So land management is also important, with terracing of sloping land to stop erosion and hold water as long as necessary, simple ponding for aquaculture, and proper drainage to prevent waterlogging. Organic fertilizer, companion planting, rotation of crops and biological control of pests should be used as much as possible. Swamps should be deepened in selected areas and used for aquaculture instead of being filled or drained at great expense. The excavated earth can be used to fill the remaining area for farming and small industries. Mangrove swamps contain abundant renewable resources that can be properly managed to provide valuable plant and marine products in the tropics. They should not be polluted or reclaimed because they provide food and shelter for important marine life that extends over a large area, and from which Pacific islanders obtain a cheap and convenient source of protein. An integrated aquaculture, agriculture and silviculture development is possible and can enhance this marine environment without upsetting the ecological balance. Brackish water and sea water, which are in abundant supply, should also be used in order to save the limited supply of fresh water for essential use. Flushing of toilets can use brackish water, and there is an enormous potential for mariculture in the coastal areas. Algae and seaweed can be grown as feed for fish and shellfish culture in ponds on land or on corrals in lagoons, but they can also b,e used as raw materials for health food and ice cream industries. LIVESTOCK
AND HUMAN
RESOURCES
Anaerobic digestion of livestock and human wastes is the most important feature of the Integrated Farming System. Animals and humans have the
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unique capability of converting the solar energy stored in foods and drinks rapidIy into wastes and, unless they are constipated, deliver them daily without fail. Such a renewable resource can easily be converted back into fuel and fertilizer in a continuous process within a matter of days by means of a simple digester and a series of ponds. Their construction is a very profitable investment, which can be amortized within 2 or 3 years from the savings on fuel and fertilizer. Besides making the IFS possible, they also solve the problems of sanitation and nut&ion that plague the rural areas of the Pacific islands and most developing countries. If the pattern of urban development is modified in these places to suit the local conditions, instead of just blindly copying the urbanisation of developed countries and creating similar insurmountable social and environmental problems, the same concept can be used to replace the useless and expensive sewer system and refuse disposal as well. The quantity of fuel and fertilizer produced in an IFS unit depends on the amount of waste available and the capacity of the digester and ponds to treat this waste efficiently. The digester and ponds require capital, so by necessity their size cannot be excessive, and a properly managed system is essential to deal with a mrlximum amount of waste. As a guide to the designer, if he has to make a choice, the number of animals producing the waste should not he limited by the size of the digester and ponds, but by the availability of feed in the system. So it is very important that both the quantity and quality of feed be optimized. As for the animals, it is better to have as many kinds as possible because it is easier to handle a few of each kind in the IFS. There is no doubt that the number of humans must be controlled - they are poor waste producers anyway - but they must be properly trained to operate the integrated farm since childhood. So the school curriculum should also be modified to make it more appropriate and realistic in order to solve existing problems and make the world a better place for future generations. The difference is between being born free or being forced into servility from birth; between growing up in an independent society or becoming a beggar for foreign aid; between the reward of exporting surplus fruits of the land or the necessity of importing food at exhorbitant prices or as hand-outs. Anaerobic digestion of waste produces biogas containing two-thirds methane, which can be used directly for cooking, lighting and refrigeration, or for running engines for water pumping, flour milling or electricity generation. On cooperative farms or joint enterprises such as dairies, slaughter houses, meat or fish packing plants or distilleries, there is sufficient waste or residue to produce biogas to generate electricity to make the industry selfsufficient in energy. The animals should be housed in a building with a concrete or brick floor to facilitate washing of the waste from cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, deer, rabbits, chickens, geese, pigeons and any other livestock into the digester. Besides the livestock waste, the addition of plant materials such as algae, grass, leaves
and water hyacinth will boost the c~bon~n~trog~n ratio and increase the biogas production_ Addition of human waste will not only save the cost of building septic tanks or sewer tanks or sewer systems, but will also accelerate the anaerobic digestion process because of the potent methanogenic bacteria from human intestines, and will also improve the fertilizing quality because the human diet is, or should be, superior to that of the livestock. The digester is built entirely of bricks or concrete, with no metal gasholder, and uses a liquid displacement principle to give pressure to the biogas. This innovative design is much cheaper to build and easier to operate and maintain than the conventions gas-holder digester found in most parts of the world. It was first used in China and has now been adopted in some Pacific islands and developing countries, Its most important feature is that there is no metal gas-holder that corrodes after a few years and is very expensive to replace. AQUACULTURE
AND MARICWLTURE
Over 100 years ago, it was proved in a university laboratory that the growth of organisms in water was many times faster than in soil, but this “discovery” was ignored because there was so much land available, particularly in the new colonies, and the quantity of fresh water was limited or its location was not always convenient. Besides this, there was so much food available naturally from the lakes, rivers and seas, and over-fishing was unknown, that it was not worth while growing food in water when it was so convenient to grow it on land. In the Pacific islands, everything the people needed for food came from the forests and the sea. However, some landlocked countries, such as those around Lake Chad, had to develop their algae culture in the lake as an important source of protein, and many countries in Asia have been raising fish in ponds and streams for centuries, even going as far as fertilizing with manure and increasing the growth through polyculture, with two or more species growing in a particular zone at a specific depth and feeding on the different types of plankton, and three or four distinct zones. Today, the situation is very different, and the Pacific islanders find themselves eating tinned mackerel or tuna, fished in the Pacific region by foreign fleets, canned in some Pacific island, and in some cases labelled in an industrialized country, before it is exported to the islands and is sold, in certain cases, at a price representing a day’s wage per pound. Meanwhile, the lagoon and coastal waters are depleted of marine life because of over-fishing, use of poison or dynamite, and human activities such as pollution or blasting for harbour and other development. Attempts at culture of fish in fresh water (aquaculture) and culture of fish, shellfish and plants in sea water (mariculture) have not proved successful in some islands, mainly because the fisheries experts knew nothing about aquaculture or there was not enough commitment from the authorities. Else-
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where in Asia and in some developed countries, both aquaculture and mariculture have made much progress because of adequate funding from the government and wide involvement of the local population. In every case, feed and fertilizer, together with proper technology transfer and efficient extension services, are readily available. If aquaculture and mariculture are part of the IFS in the Pacific islands, then these activities should receive the same attention as agriculture and other activities, and the technical experts should be knowledgeable in the technology appropriate to the tropics. Aquaculture and mariculture should not be capital-, energy- and labourintensive. The fuel, feed and fertilizer used must not be imported at high cost, as is the practice in some islands, but should be produced on the spot in IFS activities. The size of ponds or corrals in an IFS unit is determined either by the amount of feed that can be produced in the section of the integrated set-up with the natural fertilizer present, or by the quantity of water that is required to deal effectively with the organic content of the incoming flow. The production costs can only increase if imported fuel and fertilizer are used, making this activity uneconomic. Algae, aquatic plants, fish and shellfish can be produced in swamps, ponds, lakes, rivers and lagoons, as well as in a variety of makeshift containers such as basins, old tyres and bamboo halves. In addition to human consumption, many of the protein-rich products can be used as livestock feed, thereby increasing the production of eggs, milk, poultry and meat on land. In the IFS, the partially treated effluent from the digester is oxidized in shallow basins through natural photosynthesis or in deep tanks with compressed air blowing into the water, to complete the treatment, converting the organic content into minerals. At the same time, selected species of algae such as spirulina are grown rapidly and used as high-protein feed for fish, shellfish or livestock. Farms that are near the coast can also grow algae in sea water. This “Blue Revolution” is the answer to the ever-increasing demand for protein in human and animal diets. It involves intensive culture with fertilization, generous feeding, alert pest control, stock manipulation, hard work from the farm family, and dedicated technical assistance from the extension officers. Fish such as carp, catfish and tilapia in fresh water ponds, or milkfish and mullet in brackish ponds or cages at sea, and shellfish such as prawn in fresh water ponds and shrimp in sea water ponds, or oyster, clam and mussel on sticks in lagoons or on rafts floating in ponds - all these are marketable much earlier than those bred in the natural state, and they also produce very high yields. Aquaculture should also include plants that grow on the surface of the water, such as water hyacinth, water chestnut, lotus and watercress, or that grow on the edges of water such as Ipoemea aquatica and many varieties of taro. Using hydroponics and aeroponics, many kinds of vegetables such as tomato, cucumber, green bean and lettuce can be grown using the mineralized effluent from the algae basins or tanks. All these represent a substantial
263
quantity of human food or animal feed in the IFS. Similarly, mariculture should include plants such as kelp and other kinds of seaweed for animal feed or production of agar-agar, with some species even being fit for human consumption. SILVICULTURE
AND AGRICULTURE
Natural forests provided edible plants and a wide variety of wildlife to feed the Pacific islanders until the recent past. Their destruction, whether caused by shifting agriculture, logging or large plantation development, has created an ecological problem and reduced the available food in most islands. This practice cannot continue because of shortage of land or because too much land has been rendered infertile. Continuous use of chemical fertilizers has also reduced the productivity of vast areas of land under monoculture, and converted some of them into useless scrub. The IFS can rehabilitate this land by planting quick-growing trees for fuel and as a sustainable source of food and other products. Many tropical fruits are not planted in the Pacific and quite a few are even unknown in most islands. The United Nations FAO has identified many useful trees and published detailed information on them to encourage their planting as a source of food and income. Some of them sound like “miracle trees”: from China there is the tea-oil, which produces seeds containing onethird edible oil, and which can live more than 100 years; from India there is the medium-size gooseberry tree, which produces a small fruit containing 300 times more vitamin C than an orange; from North Africa there is the butter tree, which produces a seed rich in fats; from the Mediterranean there is the Carob tree, which produces highprotein pods that also contain sugar; from Latin America there is the giant leucaena, which is fast-growing and produces wood as fuel and pods and leaves as animal feed, besides fixing nitrogen into the soil. Again, according to the FAO, there are many other “miracle trees” awaiting discovery in the world’s forests, which can be of great benefit to humanity. In agriculture there has been too much emphasis on tubers, such as cassava, taro and yam, as food crops in the Pacific islands. This was understandable when there was much wildlife in the forests and aquatic life in the river and sea, but today the diet has too much starch and lacks protein. More attention should be paid to cereals such as rice, corn, sorghum, buckwheat and tropical wheat, and legumes such as soya bean, mung bean, wing bean, green pea, chick pea, lentil and groundnut. Cereals and legumes, as is well known, complement each other agriculturally in terms of cropping pattern, with legumes being intercropped with cereals and fixing nitrogen into the soil, and nutritionally because a combined diet of cereals and legumes is complete without the addition of meat protein. Many cereals and legumes
264
can also be processed to produce flour, oil, sauce and other preserved foods. Besides food crops, which include roots, stems, leaves, fruits and flowers, many other plants such as cotton, aloe, flax, rape, palm, bamboo, rattan and sugarcane can be grown as raw materials for industry. Special attention should be given to mulberry for a silk industry, and to flowers for beekeeping. All these agricultural and silvicultural activities are small-scale and can be handled by a farm family but, more important still, there must be a ready market for the wide variety of produce. If the produce cannot be sold at a profitable price, then there must be facilities for preserving it as marketable products either at the farm level or in some cooperative or joint enterprise. Otherwise, it should not be grown. In the IFS, production of natural fertilizer through reclamation of minerals from the stabilized wastes can improve fertility and make possible the growing of crops and trees mentioned above with high yields. The stabilized water from the fish ponds overflows into gardens or tree plantations through subsoil bamboo or thin plastic pipes for drip irrigation to convey water and nutrients to the roots where they are needed. The subsoil is fertilized every time the animal pens are washed - two or three times a day - with nutrients that are readily available to the plants because of the complete oxidation of the organic matter in the waste into nitrate, sulphate, phosphate, etc. In this system, little space is required between the plants, which are fed regular “meals” daily. Rapid healthy growth ensues from seeds that are sown directly on the land without any transplanting or thinning of seedlings. There is no interference with the soil organisms that aerate or condition the soil for good agriculture, as no harmful chemical fertilizer is added, In addition, except for the top layer, there is no need to disturb the soil for a long period after the subsoil pipes have been laid. Thus, it is possible to plant continuously; intercropping between the plants as harvesting proceeds. Rotation of crops is essential in this system so as not to deplete the soil of certain types of plant foods. Making use of plant foods at different levels in the soil is also important, as well as allowing sufficient time for each level to recover. Because of the small-scale operations, draft animals or small farming machines are appropriate. The farm machines are biogas-operated, of course, and provision is made to transfer the animal wastes to the nearest digester because nothing can grow where the animal wastes are left to rot, and wastage of such raw material is anathema in the IFS. COTTAGE
AND JOINT INDUSTRY
In the bountiful Pacific islands there was no need to preserve any food in the past, as everything was there in nature for the picking. Although this situation has changed almost completely, there has not been much effort to
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process or preserve local produce at village or farm level. If there is a surplus after selling any produce at the market or giving it away to needy neighbours, it is just left to rot, Then, in time of scarcity, the islanders buy imported food loaded with potentially dangerous chemicals and of doubtful nutritional value. One often wonders what is left in a tin of fruit or vegetables, after removing the water and sugar or salt, and why a mass of useless fibre should cost so much. In the IFS, nothing goes to rot. At the farm level, any surplus produce is preserved using cottage industry methods such as boiling, heating, drying, smoking, salting, sugaring, pickling and fermenting - using sun and biogas as external sources of energy. Some of the products have a peculiar taste, and may or may not be consumed by the Pacific islanders. In that case, the export market can be explored or the new products can be tried in school meals. These products are certainly better, health and nutrition wise, than all the imported junk foods served at school. At the cooperative level, the farm families can have joint farms and industries that are more profitable on a larger scale. Typical examples are as follows: a dairy for milking cows and making butter, cheese, milk powder and other milk products; a slaughter house and related industries such as a freezer plant, a cannery, a tannery and a leather goods industry; a mill for flour or oil and the making of soap, biscuits and stock feed; a factory for fruit juice, soft drinks, sauces and condiments; a distillery for liquor, wine, vinegar and ethanol for operating vehicles; a factory for spinning cotton, silk and plant fibres; a factory for furniture, pulp, wax and garment making; and the making of charcoal, bricks and a broad range of other consumer goods. As with the other activities in the IFS, all processing residues are put to some use to produce the fuel, feed and fertilizer for the system. Any input from outside the system must be absolutely necessary for the viability of an industry; otherwise, that particular industry is just dropped. TRAINING
AND EXTENSION
The Integrated Farming System can only succeed if there is the political commitment to provide the necessary financial and technical resources to help the farmers p~ticipate in the national development programs, The farmers also need training in the IFS, and they should be constantly guided by the extension officers during the first few years of operation. So there must not be any lack of trained man-power in the program. Unfortunately, there are too many pen-pushers in the Pacific islands and not enough field workers. Moreover, most governments just talk about rural development and self-reliance, and then leave it to the multi-nationals or large enterprises to set up big projects that never benefit the rural communities. Unless this situation changes, there is not much hope for the IFS in the Pacific islands. The IFS is more likely to succeed in Asia, not only because of the political commitment, but also because of the public involvement. There are no hand-
266
outs in most Asian countries, and this can be a blessing because people know they have to work hard in order to eat, and they also know what they are doing. Hard work is always rewarded with high productivity, even though their integrated farming system is not as highly developed as those described in the present paper, but they are progressing fast because they cannot afford not to do so. Because these countries have a solid rural base, they do not waste their money on importing food, and the urban population can import higher technology to become more productive also. The few countries which do not have the required land area for the IFS are lucky enough to get their food from neighbouring countries at reasonable prices, so they can concentrate on other appropriate activities. This is the main reason why these countries are developing faster than those in other parts of the world. Their system of education is also something that merits consideration. Instead of trying to get everybody to college, they start training between 75 and 80% of the secondary school children in suitable vocational skills during the last two or three years of their secondary education. When they graduate and cannot go to college, they do not just wait for a government job, but they can participate without much further training in the national development programs. In the Pacific islands, hundreds of misfits are produced every year, while imported foods and consumer goods keep on increasing. With transportation costs and energy bills going up at the same time, the national deficits have started to worry some concerned leaders. Let us hope that they will do something about the IFS.
