Pig farming holds high stake in tackling unemployment

Pig rearing as a business has high stakes in Ghana’s quest to tackle youth unemployment, Vincent Pomary, the Assistant Headmaster of the Adidome Farm Institute, has said.

He was speaking to the GNA on the sidelines of a skills update programme for members of the Norvisi Animal Farmers Association, an association of pig farmers in the Hohoe Municipal area.

“Pig farming perhaps holds the magic wand, because of its dynamics of low capital startup and swift turnovers,” Mr Pomary said.

He said the “pig is a robust animal rather amenable to diverse conditions and with the maximum care, could put the farmer way above the bottom-line”.

Mr Pomary proposed a scheme under which young people with interest in pig farming would be trained and then dashed an impregnated sow as startup.

He said “that sow would farrow rpt farrow after four months to as many as 10 or more, that is being conservative.”

Mr Pomary said two of the young pigs would be taken back to the training institution to be raised as startup gifts for other trainees.

Emmanuel Tsorhe, Chairman of the Association, said all 60 members in the chain, from rearing, through slaughtering, processing to marketing, would take part in the training sponsored under the SDF/COTVET, skill upgrading programme for trade groups.

He said areas to be tackled include infrastructure improvement, breed management, feed formulation, farm- management and farmer business.

Mr Tsorhe said 70 per cent of the training would be hands-on and 30 per cent theory.

He said expectation were that the training would improve quantity and quality of live pigs and pig products to meet market demands.