Barito Kuala is SPFS project sites is located in South Kalimantan which is categorized as a swampy area. One of the SPFS activity which has started in the beginning 2003 is duck intensification. Through FGDP (Farmer’s Group Development Plan) Duck intensification was perceived as appropriate farming activities consider the environment in the Barito Kuala (Figure 1). These adaptable creatures thrive in hot, humid climates. Moreover, they are well adapted to rivers, lakes, ponds, marshes and other aquatic areas.
There are 900 Alabio ducks (Anas platyrhun-chos borneo) which provided by SPFS (Figure 2). Alabio duck is a common duck breeds in Indonesia which originally come from South Kalimantan and categorized as egg laying duck. This kind of ducks usually is set free in wet, swampy, and boggy place. In Barito Kuala, breeding Alabio duck is quite simple because they can look after themselves and find much of their food such as small fish, snails and slugs.
Moreover, they also can be kept in the small barn. A small barn (Figure 3) can be established at low cost.
Alabio duck may lay 330 eggs in a year if they get good food. They lay most their eggs during the night or in the very early morning, not during the day. Although Alabio duck is classified as egg laying duck, they do not hatch their own eggs. There are special treatments in hatching the Alabio’s eggs. If using an incubator, the eggs must be turned each day and sprinkled with water to keep the eggs moist.
Besides Alabio ducks there are also other duck species which also common to bred in Barito Kuala. The Muscovy ducks (Carlina Moschata) (Figure 4) is distinctly different genetically from common ducks. This breed is believed to have originated in South America, although ancient records of this or a similar breed have been found in Egypt. Muscovies are suitable for use almost anywhere that chicken can be kept. Their tropical ancestry and inherent robustness give them an advantage in hot and humid climates.
From the beginning of the year 2004, the farmer groups in Barito Kuala started to do natural crossbreeding between male Alabio and female Muscovie which result in high quality meet breed duck. In Barito Kuala they are well known as Kisar or Tiktok duck (Figure 5). There are some superiorities of Kisar duck compare to the other duck.
1.The Kisar duck selling price is much higher than Alabio and Muscovy duck. For the selling price of male Kisar duck is around 25.000 IDR- 30.000 IDR and for the Female Kisar is about 10.000 IDR E15.000 IDR. The female Kisar duck is cheaper than the male one because of its smaller size.
2.The size of Kisar duck is bigger than Alabio and Muscovy duck.
3.The Kisar duck is more diseases resistant.
4.The best meat quality.
Generally, male Alabio duck is unable/ afraid to mate with female Muscovy. One of the ways to make male Alabio brave enough to mate naturally with the female Muscovy, first, Alabio eggs must be hatched by the female Muscovy duck (Figure 6). When they have grown up, they will mate easily with Muscovy duck.
Muscovy duck is known as best hatching duck. If given good soft nests they will often go broody easily. It takes 28 days for duck eggs to hatch. If the Muscovy duck will not sit for this length of time put the eggs under another sitting duck. Reducing the amount of protein in the food makes ducks stay broody.
If Muscovy duck starts to lay her own eggs, she may go broody and sit on them. If this happens, wait for the time that the duck leaves the nest and goes to the water. Then her eggs can be lifted and the other eggs put into her nest. A duck can usually sit on 20 or even 30 eggs, but it must be a large duck and she must cover the eggs properly when sitting on them.
Furthermore, the crossbreeding also can be done by artificial insemination. To get the male duck sperm, male duck is stimulated to produce sperm by keeping and mating the male duck and female duck in the same small barn. When the sperm is just to come out, prepare a storage tube and keep the sperm in the tube. There is about 2mm E3mm sperm can be produced by one male Alabio duck and it can be used to impregnate about 40 female ducks. This artificial insemination is not yet applied in Barito Kuala to breed the Kisar duck because higher skill is required.
-Impact of the Technology-
Through SPFS activities, Barito Kuala now has successfully enabled to do duck breeding. With the simple technology of the natural crossbreeding between Muscovy and Alabio duck, the farmers in Barito Kuala can get extra income by selling Kisar duck which is famous with its superior meat.
