Pork is highly digestible: 97 percent of meat proteins and 96 percent of meat fats are digested. Although fatter than other meats, pork fat is well-utilized by the human body.

A small farmer who puts up a piggery project in his backyard can earn a steady income from it. With a ready market for pork and its by-products, backyard swine projects could be highly profitable in a very short time.

"If you raise swine," says Roy C. Alimoane, a livestock specialist and current director of the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) Foundation, Inc. in Kinuskusan, Bansalan, Davao del Sur, "remember that feeds constitute almost 80 percent of the total production cost."

Alimoane adds that feedstuffs differ in feed value due to variations in their nutrient content, their physical and chemical properties, and the way they are prepared for feeding.