Livestock farming has a great potential in Manipur when it comes to economic viability as almost cent per cent in the state and the Northeast region consume meat, said head of department of Animal Sciences of COA, CAU, Imphal Dr Th Ranadhir Singh.
Singh was delivering his speech during the inaugural of the three-day training programme on “Self-Employment and Scientific Piggery” on Thursday at Keithellakpam Piggery Farm located at Luker Mamang Leikai in Imphal West.
Ranadhir informed that the population of the state is nearly 35 lakh but only 70-80,000 are government employees while around seven to eight lakh are job seekers.
Pointing out that the opportunity of government jobs is limited, he said that the means to economic security in a state like Manipur is self-employment.
Considering the geographical location of Manipur, agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries can provide facilities of economic viability and technical feasibility if the required scientific processes are followed properly, said Ranadhir.
With regards to pig farming, he said that the states like Nagaland and Mizoram import pigs from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh as the demand is very high, adding that if Manipur can produce quality pork, it will automatically improve the economy of the famers.
Informing on the practice of the scientific procedure in running a piggery farm, he said, “If we do follow the scientific procedure properly it will be easy in preventing any challenges such as disease, climate changes and mutations.”
Proprietor of Keithellakpam Piggery Firm, Pipi Keithellakpam, while speaking on the sideline of the programme said that the training programme was organised as a part of “Pink Revolution” to educate piggery farmers on the scientific ways of rearing pigs in such a way that the production rate will be high as well as hygienic.
Informing on the differences of giving kitchen wastes and live feeds to the pigs, she said that a pig took almost a whole year to grow if given kitchen wastes. When it is fed with live feeds it takes only six months to grow, she said.
Moreover, pigs fed with live feeds can be easily protected from various diseases while pigs fed with kitchen wastes are easily vulnerable to disease, she added.
The programme was attended by around 50 piggery farmers from across the seven districts of Manipur, including from hill districts of Ukhrul, Senapati, Kangpokpi and Churachandpur.
