Smart Agriculture Project
The second edition of the project Smart Agriculture started on 12th of June to end on 3rd of August. The project Smart Agriculture is an initiative of the NGO
Sustainable Agricultural Organisation and AIESEC UTM which seeks to promote agriculture among the younger generation. During one month, 9 interns from Egypt, China and Pakistan visited the various agricultural sectors in Mauritius including the pig industry, dairy industry, and poultry industry.
They had the opportunity to engage in some crop practices such as weeding and furrowing. Different stakeholders such as Medine Ltd, SKC Surat Dairy, University of Mauritius (FoA), Meaders Ltd and Lavigilante pig farm has actively supported the project.
The pig industry
China
At present, china's resources and environment become bottleneck constraints of the large-scale and intensive development in pig farming industry. The urgent needs of food safety and environmental protection of pig-raising industry promote the establishment of China's modern industrial technology system of pig. In recent years, with the rapid development of swine rising in our country; the number of large-scale pig production is increasing. The chief object of pig-breeding is to elevate the efficiency of breeding, pursue high percent of lean meat, produce high-quality and healthy pork. Along with the development of large-scale pig farms; the problem of environmental pollution is becoming increasingly conspicuous. Along with the development of large-scale pig farms, the problem of environmental pollution is becoming increasingly conspicuous. So I hope your pig farms can develop with environment.
Egypt
Egypt had one of the best pig industries in the world due to pure breeding but that was destroyed in 2009 because government official decided to kill all the pigs in the country over claims that the pigs transfer the H1N1 virus (swine flu) which wasn't true. The 350,000 pigs that were in Egypt in 2009 have become only 60,000-80,000 and these pigs are being reared unofficially because it is still illegal to have pig farms in Egypt since 2009. Our current pig farms are located above the roofs of buildings or in the basement out of the government's sight so these are open areas where all pigs mix together unlike in Mauritius where the mothers are locked in safe cages to protect the younger ones and feed them. Also, being in cages with colander floors makes it a much cleaner environment for the pigs to live in. Our only proposal to improve this sector is to provide more open areas for the pigs to live in so the mothers would be comfortable and able to feed the piglets.
Pakistan
No pigs are farmed in Pakistan for food as the majority religion, Islam, forbids the consumption of Pig meat. So there is no demand. Pigs in Pakistan are not for consumption, so only Wild boars exist in jungles and are rarely seen by the public. As we have no experience with this field, the only amendment we propose is the reduction of smell and a more hygienic facility. It was really difficult to stand in the smell
Vegetable production
Pakistan
There are plenty of vegetable farms in Pakistan and help feed the large population there. The crops featured in Pakistan are of a wider variety and of a higher quantity. Plenty of it is also exported all over the world. We eat Pakistani rice even in Mauritius and the mangoes are consumed globally. Cotton farming is also important for the functioning of the massive textile industry of Pakistan. Packaging in our country is not that modernized due to the high cost of machinery and lack of government standardizations. Factories in Pakistan are not mechanized that much. The plenty of labor makes labor supply in Pakistan too much resulting in cheap labor. Here in Mauritius there is improved machinery to polish the fruits and vegetables which look so good. In Pakistan most of the work is done manually.
Factories can sell the vegetables themselves to the general public as a wholesaler to cut the middle man hence raising margins for and efficiency for factories. Increased competition is good for consumers. Labor in Mauritius is expensive therefore more mechanization in factories will reduce the labor force and this precious labor force can be utilized somewhere else like other value added jobs.
China
China's vegetables farm is a large-scale system vegetables production under protection in greenhouses. Shouguanga, county level city is china's largest vegetable production place. The little-scale irrigation works is one of the most important infrastructures of agricultural production in china. At present the industrialization of agriculture is a inevitable trend of agricultural development. Agricultural mechanization is one of the important contents and primary symbol of agricultural modernization. So maybe agricultural system in Mauritius can be more mechanization.
Egypt
Agriculture is a crucial sector in modern Egypt as it provides us with food and the surplus is exported. We were known as one of the benchmarks for agriculture throughout history but Egypt has fallen behind recently. We have organic farms without any pesticides or hormones. Egypt has green houses to produce vegetables in all seasons. The lands in Mauritius should be inclined to one corner in order to store rain water which can be used later on and lead to less consumption of water. Green house systems can produce vegetables much faster than the four months period and need to be implemented here as this will make the vegetables grow day and night.
