Pig Farming and Business Opportunities for Financial Benefit

Pig farming is a significant component of the livestock sector and there exists demand-supply gap for pork in the country. The landscape of pig production in India is dominated by small-scale and backyard system of pig rearing. Looking into the burgeoning population, urbanization pattern and change in food habits including the quick returns from pig farming, piggery has great potential to support livelihood and nutritional security. In the recent decades, piggery sector has gained momentum and is becoming increasingly popular among agripreneurs as a viable business opportunity for financial benefit. There exists limited number of scientifically managed commercial farms, slaughterhouse, pork processing facilities, pig value chain operators and piggery-associated enterprise in India, which offers great prospect for economic turnaround. Nevertheless, issues like occurrence of transboundary emerging and re-emerging diseases of pig, which causes high mortality need to be addressed. The intensification of pig rearing system would bring in waste management and environmental issues, which need to be integrated and addressed with the piggery development schemes. Looking into the challenges and untapped potential of piggery sector in India, pig rearing can be developed as an enterprise by possible interventions at different level of pig production chain and supporting farmers on technical, financial and marketing grounds.