Rico Ecunar was almost persuaded to follow his family’s tradition of becoming medical nurses. Still, he saw the potential to improve the swine production business that his parents had already started.
Ecunar is the 20 year-old owner of Pork and Greens, a sustainable swine production farm in Candelaria, Zambales. His parents started their backyard swine-raising business in 2010, stopping when African Swine Fever hit Central Luzon in 2020, when all swine raisers in Zambales were forced to sell their pigs at lower prices and stop their production until further notice from the local government unit .
Ecunar seeks to improve the method of his parents’ swine production through a different technological and sustainable approach. because it combines swine production, rice, sorghum, and vegetable farming. Furthermore, it aspires to be greener and more sustainable by converting waste into valuable materials. Planting additional feeding forages for pigs is also practiced to minimize the cost of commercial feeds.
Methane is a natural biogas by-product of animal waste. It is produced through the natural process of anaerobic bacterial fermentation and decomposition inside the septic tanks. Accumulated methane inside the septic tank is collected by installing a low-cost biogas digester above the septic tank. Because of the increasing cost of rice hulls and the limited sources of bio activators, Ecunar adopted a system of odorless swine raising without the need for bio activators and lessened the use of rice hulls. This can be achieved by installing a septic tank for waste collection and with a biogas digester that stores the methane gas.
Sorghum is one of the forage crops planted for supplementary feeding to the pigs. “Sorghum can be ratooned for three cropping seasons. Sorghum has a similar protein content to corn. But unlike corn, sorghum is more drought tolerant. It also requires less labor,” Ecunar said.
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