| American Samoa Water Quality Projects |
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A $1,000 grant which will be used for a demonstration portable piggery to be constructed at the CNR extension plots. |
Introduction:
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| Runoff from swine facilities has been identified as a major source of land-based pollution in American Samoa. |
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| Not only does swine waste contain pathogens that are harmful to human health, but the excess nutrient load causes eutrophication that threatens the health of American Samoa’s coral reefs. The ASCC Agriculture Extension Service, as a member agency of the Inter-agency Piggery Management Council, has spearheaded efforts for the last four years to seek alternatives to the current widespread practice of dumping raw swine waste into cesspools and /or directly into streams. |
| One promising type of practice that has emerged in the Pacific Basin is that of the Portable Pig Pen. This system offers a low-cost method of management to the farmer that also provides a beneficial use system, i.e. the swine waste is “composted” directly by the pigs themselves, and can be applied to crops as fertilizers. However, though several farmers have adopted this technology in American Samoa, the general public remains skeptical about the ease of use of this system. |
| Furthermore, there is virtually no data on the application rates and benefits of this compost in local conditions. This poses a dilemma when attempting to make science-based recommendations to farmers. This project aims to establish a demonstration pigpen that would be highly visible to the general public, which will also be an extension research project that will provide information on nutrient production and uptake that will be useful throughout the Pacific Basin. |
| Project Description: |
| The project involves the construction of two 8’x 8’ portable pigpens that will be stocked with two weaner (approx. eight-10 weeks of age) pigs and six weaner pigs, respectively. The pens will be side-by-side within the vegetable demonstration plots at the ASCC Division of Community and Natural Resources. The pens will remain in place for three months, and will then be moved forward to an adjacent plot. This will be repeated again at six months and nine months. |
| A half-time extension assistant will be responsible for collecting data on feed given and carbon material added to the pens on a daily basis. She will also measure the growth of the pigs on a weekly basis, and will twice weekly monitor the temperature of the “compost” material within the pigpens. After the pens have been moved, the assistant will measure the total product remaining in the pens. The compost will then be placed on small vegetable demonstration plots at different application rates. Non-leafy vegetables, e.g. eggplants and cucumbers will be grown. |
| The assistant will also measure the amount of organic carbon present in the soil at various depths in the area where the pigpens are located, both at the start of the project and after removal of the compost. This will allow for extrapolation about the leaching of soil nutrients. More extensive data collection about nutrient content of the compost and the underlying soil, as well as vegetable uptake of nutrient will be done in a separate project. |
