Pig production & Marketing Uganda Limited
www.pigfarmers.co.ug
E-mail: admin@pigfarmers.co.ug
Mission Statement: To ensure effective and efficient production distribution and marketing of Pork/live pigs at affordable prices in East Africa.
Vision Statement: To provide top quality Pork for healthy living of people all over the world and fighting rural household poverty through piggery in Uganda.
ABOUT PPM LTD
Pig production and marketing Uganda limited is a company registered in the republic of Uganda. The company deals in production and marketing of pork and live pigs. We work closely with rural farmers helping them produce and availing market for their produce. Together with development partners, PPM also fights rural household poverty through its project Fighting Rural Household Poverty through Piggery (FRHPP).
PRODUCTION
Background
Over the past two decades pig production has become an increasingly important activity in Uganda. In the last 30 years the pig population has increased from 0.19 to 2.3 million, and there are more than 1 million households raising pigs. In 2011, Uganda had the highest per capita consumption of pork in sub-Saharan Africa (3.4 kg/person per year). The majority of pigs are kept by women in smallholder households, as part of the large informal sub sector, with limited access to technology information and services.
According to recent FAO statistics, pork is second only to beef in terms of meat production in Uganda (see Table Below) since imports and exports of meat products are negligible; this ranking also reflects the relative importance currently of pork in terms of meat consumption.
Meat production in Uganda
Why Pigs?
Pigs have a number of advantages that suit rural citizens making it one of the best way to run to in order to solve the issue of poverty.
The pig has highest feed conversion efficiency i.e. they produce more live weight gain from a given weight of feed than any other class of meat producing animals except broilers.
The pig can utilize wide variety of feed stuffs viz. Grains, forages, damaged feeds and garbage and convert them into valuable nutritious meat. Feeding of damaged grains, garbage and other home wastes reduce the stress of buying food stuffs hence spending less or no money on food.
They are prolific with shorter generation interval. A sow can be bred as early as 8-9 months of age and can farrow twice in a year. They produce 6-12 piglets in each farrowing.
Pig farming requires small investment on buildings and equipments.
Pigs are known for their meat yield, which in terms of dressing percentage ranges from 65-80 in comparison to other livestock species whose dressing yields may not exceed 65%.
Pork is most nutritious with high fat and low water content and has got better energy value than that of other meats. It is rich in vitamins like thiamine, Niacin and riboflavin. So this practice also fights Malnutrition.
Pig manure is widely used as fertilizer for agriculture farms and fishponds.
Pigs store fat rapidly for which there is an increasing demand from poultry feed, soap, paints and other chemical industries.
Company Strategies to help rural poor pig farmers:
Through our program (Fighting Rural Household Poverty through Piggery), we support poor households with training in production (breeding stock selection, housing and veterinary services, feeding and waste management, pigs). This is done with support from our developmental partners (Planet Changer – USA, Mwanamke Afrika – France, Mission Africa – UK, individual well-wishers from within and outside the country and recent Africa Rural Connect – USA).
We also construct, manage and operate pig multiplication and demonstration farms. These are used as training grounds for farmers.
They also provide piglets that are given to rural households to start their own piggeries.
Research in breeding, housing, marketing Feeding etc.
PPM aims at increasing the production of pigs through rural households; we empower them to produce as they fight poverty.
Growth and Market Opportunities in Uganda Pig industry:
The following Table shows the top five sub-Saharan African countries according to size of pig population.
Of these, Uganda has high consumption per capita, and appears to be experiencing the most rapid growth in production.
Rapidly increasing production and consumption of pork within the country, driven not only by population growth, but also by a combination of rising incomes and changing preferences associated with urbanization and changing production systems.
Growing demand for processed products as street food and for supermarkets, and emergence of formal-sector enterprises (e.g. Fresh Cuts, Quality Cuts, My Choice) must give capable farmers and NGOs a reason to start investing in pig farming as an income generation activity and tool to fighting poverty.
MARKETING
PPM offers marketing solutions to all pig farmers across the country. The company purchase and transport pigs, slaughter and market pork. The company aims at producing hygienic pork safe for human consumption. The slaughtering condition for pigs has been appealing, poor hygienic conditions and slaughtering methods has been a big concern. We are currently producing our pork from Wambizzi cooperative abattoir however efforts are being made to construct a company abattoir in Watubba along Bombo road.
We buy Piglets starting from 2 Months from farmers; these must be of Landlace, Large white, Cambrough, Hampshire, Duroc and others excluding our local breed. These piglets are re-sold/donated to farmers willing to start their pig farms.
We also buy Porkers and other pigs at slaughtering weight/age, these are slaughtered to produce pork.
Our current districts of operation are Wakiso, Nakaseke,Luwero and Masaka with only Wakiso benefiting from our developmental projects. Other districts receive marketing services. The recent success achieved by PPM Production Manager, Mr. Christopher Mulindwa and PPM’s Marketing Manager, Mr. Alex Kyeyune from Africa Rural Connect (ARC) together with the recent confirmation of Planet changer to work on the construction of pig demonstration will enable the company extend the project (FRHPP) to other districts.
PPM Market Services to Enter Kamuli District – Uganda
STATUS OF PIG FARMING IN KAMULI DISTRICT.
Introduction
Most of the pigs in Kamuli district are reared by small scale farmers in the rural community (over 90%). These pigs contribute subsententially to the well being of these families’ interms of income from their sales, food and manure.
They are used as storage of wealth and guarantee of food security in times of crop failure. Pigs are small and relatively cheap and (in comparison to other livestock) require relatively small space and can eat grass and other types of plant. These factors make them an ideal first onset of a young family. The pigs also offer a valuable source of proteins (Vital for those ones suffering from HIV/AIDS) therefore any attempt to alleviate the constraint of their marketing is very crucial.
The livestock census of 2009 puts the pig population at 25,303 pigs, the highest sub county being Namwendwa with 6183 and the lowest Kamuli Town Council with 52 pigs.
Pig Marketing in Kamuli
There is considerable but un systematic and exploitative market for pigs in Kamuli due to the increasing number of pork consumers.
Traders under estimate the pigs and the final prices to consumers are also relatively small compared to other districts. The price of pork per kilogram to consumers in Kamuli town council is 5000 Uganda Shilling, there is no standard price for pigs from farmers to traders.
During a consultative meeting, it was discovered farmers are sometimes given as low as 2000 Uganda Shillings per kilogram of total estimated number of kilograms.
Consultative meetings with Farmers in Isingo A and B with ILRI
Problems as Result of Poor Pig Markets in Kamuli District.
1. Farmers cannot adopt better pig management methods that are highly profitable.
2. Pig farming remains a backyard activity hence preventing its development in the district.
3. Farmers have no ability to acquire good breeds.
4. Piggery is not taken as a job; people practice it as a supplement to their incomes.
5. Pigs are now related to the spread of giggers, Kamuli Chief Accounting Officer had a suggestion to burn pig production in the district.
PPM Extension of Marketing services to Kamuli District.
In the year 2013 the month of March, PPM Limited plans to extend its marketing sevices to Kamuli district as part of its strategies to develop pig production in poor districts of Uganda.
Prices for pigs from farmers will rise from 2,000 Uganda shillings to 5,000 Uganda shilling. PPM also plans to give back 20% of its profit per year for a period of 5 years to Kamuli farmers to help develop the sector in the district.
The money will help PPM organize farmers into producer organizations, technical support to develop and disseminate improved breeds and farming systems for pig production and management. To equip farmers with knowledge and skills in disease prevention and control practices, feeding, proper management practices for pigs and also improved pig farm products and waste utilization for example extending the biogas technology to Kamuli farmers.
PPM Development Approach and Methods
Development;
Mobilization, sensitization, and organization of communities into farmer groups.
Selection of farmer group beneficiaries of the project, support to farmers; structures, training, seeds, pigs, feeds, monitoring and follow up, monitoring of sharing out of proceeds, vaccination and drugs. All development activities will be executed through PPM’s developmental project Fighting Rural Household Poverty Through Piggery.
We have planned two sub counties for the initial work; Namwendwa and Bugulubya sub counties. The first priority will be given to Namwendwa because it has the highest pig population in the district.
Marketing
Our contacts and source of information for PPM initial work in Kamuli will be the district Veterinary officer, sub county veterinary officers, village leaders, NGOs (VEDCO) and existing farmer group leaders. We have already linked up with these people.
Pig weight will be determined by live weight estimation because there is no standard measure for live pigs in Uganda. NB; The International Livestock Research institute is working on availing measures for live pig weight determination. PPM hopes to implement the measure as soon as it is available. The estimation will be done fairly with no intentions of cheating farmers by under estimating their pigs.
PPM will use hired transport to transport pigs from kamuli to Kampala. Part of the pork will be sold to PPM customers including fresh cut and the rest sold to Wambizzi Cooperative Abattoir.
This article was published on April7th: World Health Day in Global Education Magazine.
