Pig management practices as assessed by smallholders in the uplands of northern Vietnam

In the uplands of northern Vietnam, traditional pig production plays a vital role in supporting farmers' livelihoods as well as in their cultural life. Despite the rapid development of the pig production most pigs are still kept in traditional livestock husbandry systems. A detailed analysis of actual management practices may contribute to the improvement of extension services for farmers to help smallholders to improve the pig husbandry of specific breeds. This book seeks to systematically examine smallholder pig keepers' management practices as well as their underlying knowledge backgrounds and knowledge networks. The present study combined qualitative and semiqualitative data collection methods in order to examine pig husbandry management practices and to determine smallholder pig keepers' underlying rules from the farmers' point of view. The study is part of a research subproject entitled Community-driven breeding and management programmes building on local resources, local knowledge and organisation opportunities at village, regional and national level' embedded in the Thai Vietnamese German Collaborative Research program Sustainable land use and rural development in mountainous regions of Southeast Asia project, known as the Uplands Program (SFB 564), funded by the German Research Council (DFG).