Income Generation Through Scientific Pig Farming
03 July 2024, New Delhi: Profitable pig farming can foster entrepreneurship among unemployed youth, particularly women farmers. However, farmers face challenges such as lack of knowledge, high feed costs, vaccine shortages, and emerging diseases, leading to significant financial losses in the coastal region. Farmers face challenges in improving crossbred piglets and accessing adult elite germplasms.
Mrs. Pobrinha Carvalho, a scheduled tribe farm woman from Diwar Island, Tiswadi, initiated a backyard pig farming venture under the Scheduled Tribe Component of All India Coordinated Research Projects on Pig, ICAR- Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Goa. While farming, she faced challenges like weak progeny, low productivity, unorganized rearing, an unhygienic environment, and piglet mortality.
Mrs. Carvalho attended training under AICRP on Pig at ICAR-CCARI, receiving improved piglets, feed, weighing balance, storage drums, and medicinal supplements under the Scheduled Tribe Component scheme. She also received vaccinations, during field visits, and maintained the farm by following biosecurity measures, feeding bakery products and hotel waste, and using boar semen doses.
The Pig Farmer previously earned Rs. 1,40,000 by selling pigs, but with the Institute’s technical support and over 85 adult pigs, she now generates a net income of Rs. 3,50,000.
Another Pig Farmer, Mr. Hubert Cazy Moniz, an unemployed youth from Verna, Salcete taluka, South Goa, started a small-scale pig unit to recycle food waste. He initially faced challenges like the non-availability of quality germplasm, high piglet mortality, sow breeding difficulties, and incomplete knowledge of scientific pig farming.
He received training from ICAR-CCARI and purchased 10 crossbred piglets to increase his breeding stock. During the field visit, he learned about standard practices for piglet health and preventant pre-weaning mortality. The institute provided him with herd health control measures, including vaccination for Classical Swine Fever and regular deworming. Medicinal supplements and mineral mixtures were also distributed under the AICRP Pig project. Estrus synchronization and artificial insemination were conducted for the breeding herd.
The farmer achieved satisfactory growth rates through his pig farms, with a current stock of 55 adult pigs. Scientific practices reduced disease incidence and piglet mortality, saving him Rs. 80,000 annually. He currently earns Rs. 2,95,000 annually and is interested in expanding his enterprise by building more sheds and increasing breeding stock to supply piglets to farmers and finisher pigs for pork production in the region.
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