Spatial analysis and characteristics of pig farming in Thailand

Abstract

BackgroundIn Thailand, pig production intensified significantly during the last decade, with many economic, epidemiological and environmental implications. Strategies toward more sustainable future developments are currently investigated, and these could be informed by a detailed assessment of the main trends in the pig sector, and on how different production systems are geographically distributed. This study had two main objectives. First, we aimed to describe the main trends and geographic patterns of pig production systems in Thailand in terms of pig type (native, breeding, and fattening pigs), farm scales (smallholder and large-scale farming systems) and type of farming systems (farrow-to-finish, nursery, and finishing systems) based on a very detailed 2010 census. Second, we aimed to study the statistical spatial association between these different types of pig farming distribution and a set of spatial variables describing access to feed and markets.ResultsOver the last decades, pig population gradually increased, with a continuously increasing number of pigs per holder, suggesting a continuing intensification of the sector. The different pig-production systems showed very contrasted geographical distributions. The spatial distribution of large-scale pig farms corresponds with that of commercial pig breeds, and spatial analysis conducted using Random Forest distribution models indicated that these were concentrated in lowland urban or peri-urban areas, close to means of transportation, facilitating supply to major markets such as provincial capitals and the Bangkok Metropolitan region. Conversely the smallholders were distributed throughout the country, with higher densities located in highland, remote, and rural areas, where they supply local rural markets. A limitation of the study was that pig farming systems were defined from the number of animals per farm, resulting in their possible misclassification, but this should have a limited impact on the main patterns revealed by the analysis.ConclusionsThe very contrasted distribution of different pig production systems present opportunities for future regionalization of pig production. More specifically, the detailed geographical analysis of the different production systems will be used to spatially-inform planning decisions for pig farming accounting for the specific health, environment and economical implications of the different pig production systems.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-016-0849-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Point pattern simulation modelling of extensive and intensive chicken farming in Thailand: Accounting for clustering and landscape characteristics

“…As production intensifies, a segmentation of production steps occurs and each stage is located so that operating costs are minimised. In Thailand, this process of relocation of intensive production away from the most immediate peri-urban belt of Bangkok, was already observed for poultry sector between 1992 and 2000 (Thanapongtharm et al, 2016) for intensive pig sector.…”

Automated identification of intensive animal production locations from aerial photography

“…Variables derived from RS data, such as land cover and vegetation indices, have been used previously to inform modelling of the geographic distribution of livestock distribution and densities . Typically these have been applied on a gridded or pixel base . Utilisation of OBIA approaches has increased in the recent past, as RS imagery with finer spatial resolution has increasingly become available.…”

“…Other studies have used variables such as elevation, human population and vegetation indices to map intensive animal production land use. Information that may also provide additional discrimination includes infrastructure, such as roads and processing plants, and climatic variables.…”

Case Study: Productive Performance and Prediction of Operating Income of Small-Scale Contract Farming of Swine in Lampang, Thailand

“…in the swine production industry by having a private company as a partnership to support farm input, animal health service, management monitoring, marketing and operating income based on farm output [4][5][6]. In Thailand, small-scale contract farming of swine (SCFS) is relatively sustainable and quite mature, characterized by raising boar and sow or finishing pigs or piglet or combination of different phases of age with an approximate number of pigs between 50-500 head or the livestock weight between 6-60 units [2].…”

“…In Thailand, SCFS accounts only 10% of swine farms, but contributes over 60% of national pork production volume [7]. The distribution of SCFS mostly associated with the density of the human population and travel time to the provincial capital city [4]. Little information is available on factors affecting farmers' market power and income of contract pig farms [3].…”