Abstract:
The popularity of integrated farming has become more and more wide-spread now-adays due to the fact that such system can be the answer to several problems facing the farmers, such as, fluctuations in prices of farm produce, changes in climate which effect the harvest and the ever increasing cost of production. These are factors that have been causing hardship to farmers whose farm operation relies on just one single crop. The government, in its attempt to help farmers, have been trying to find new ways and means to minimize such hardship by introducing new farming system to farmers. This thesis is a study on integrated farming, the patterns of operation, cost and benefit, as well as certain related problems. The integrated farm of Khirikhun Company Limited which runs an inter complementary operation of pig and fish was selected for the study. The pig manure can be converted into feed for fish as well as used in the production of methane gas for energy, while at the same time the problem of pollution is solved. However the profit and loss account of the Company during the period between August 1,1981 to July 31, 1982 suffered loss of 315,023.83 Baht. This is due to the fact the during such period, the Company was at the stage of reformation and expansion, so the production efficiency was not up to the set standard. Further more the price of live pigs was so low during that time which worsened the situation. However, with the present integrated system, it is found that the cost of pig production of the integrated pig-fish farm is 0.843 Baht per kilogram lower than that of the sole pig farm operation. Thus, the total sale of 942,290 kilogram per year will save the company some 794,319.22 Baht of cost of production. In addition, there are some problems concerning integrated farming, such as the problems of water pollution and problems of pig disease etc. Such problems can be reduced when the number of pig is in good ratio with the number of fish or in other words, the size of pig pen VS. the size of fish pond should be in the proportion. As for problems concerning marketing, it is found that the price of live pig does not correspond fairly with the pork price in the retailed market. In order to strengthen the bargaining power of farmers establishment of pig farmers co-operative or association of the sort is considered important.