Efficiency of production factors and cost of pig. The sufficiency economy philosophy in Nakhon Pathom Province

Abstract

This research aims to study general condition of pig farming using the sufficiency of local cereal to feed the pig in Nakhon Pathom Province, and to analyze the cost efficiency in feeding the pig by local cereal in Nakhon Pathom Province according to the self-efficiency economy philosophy. The research is conducted by collecting primary data through the interviews of 30 households, which run the pig farm with self-sufficiency economy philosophy in Mueang Nakhon Pathom District and Kampheang San District, Nakhon Pathong Province. The findings reveal that most of the farmers who run the pig farm are male in the working age, and have an experience in running the pig farm for 6-10 years. The farms are run independently without being under any agricultural institute by the farmer’s own capital. The farms are run in a form of self-owned business, which implies that the farmers were expertise in pig farming. Total Mixed Ration (TMR) mixed with local cereal is used to feed the pigs. It is considered that farmers have applied the self-sufficiency way by utilizing local ecology in pig farming in order to reduce production cost. They are able to reduce the cost in pig farming by feeding the pigs with local cereal to substitute the cost of animal feeds, which equals to 3,000 – 6,000 Baht per month. Mostly the number of pigs in a farm is 10-20 pigs. The average time of raising the pigs is 4 months. The pigs can be sold when they weight 91-100 kilograms. In addition, it is found that the farmers understand the self-sufficiency economy philosophy well, as it can be seen that they can apply the philosophy in their life very well causing reduced operation cost in pig farming. In addition, in term of cost efficiency, comparison between feeding the pigs with Total Mixed Ration (TMR), Broken Milled Rice, and Bran and feeding the pigs with local cereal, shows that to feed with the local cereal can save the cost by 30%. However, this way of pig feeding will cause difficulty in large-scale pig farming, as it would be difficult to harvest or procure large amount of the local cereal on time. Therefore most cost in pig farming is still the cost of broken milled rice and bran.