Sarria et al., 1990. Livest. Res. Rural Dev., 2 (2): 92-100

The principal limitation to the development of pig production in tropical countries is the feed supply, since conventional systems based on cereal grains are neither feasible economically nor sustainable because of their dependence on imports. The challenge is to design technologies which use locally available feed resources for all the stages of production. Sugar cane is one of the most productive tropical crops in terms of total biomass and this, together with the ease of separating the highly digestible juice from the residual fibre (the bagasse and leaves), has led to it being described as the maize of the tropics.

A series of on-farm trials was carried out in different regions of Colombia to validate the pig fattening system based on sugar cane juice first developed in México and the Dominican Republic. As well as fresh cane juice, cachaza (the scums from panela manufacture comprising a mixture of juice and coagulated proteins and minerals) and melote (made by concentrating the scums to about 50% soluble solids) were also evaluated. It was shown that protein levels (derived principally from soybean meal) could be restricted to a maximum of 200 g/animal/day without reducing performance and that this made the system economically viable in Colombian conditions, and especially appropriate at the level of the small and medium scale producer, for whom cereal-based feeding systems are not profitable.