An assessment of pig feed diversity amongst smallholder pig farmers in Northern Uganda

Abstract

Pig production has a high potential for increasing household incomes of both rural and urban smallholder farmers. However, this opportunity is constrained by the high cost of feeds and its scarcity. As such, farmers usually feed pigs on multiple feed resources within their reach. Although the diversity of pig feeds is important in overcoming the challenges, there is limited information on how this can be achieved, and the factors influencing it. Using a cross-section of 240 pig farming households, this study assessed how socio-demographic, technical and institutional factors influenced household pig feed diversity. Statistical analysis was performed at p < 0.1, p < 0.05 and p < 0.01), respectively. Results showed that marital status (p = 0.012), household size (p = 0.085), number of crop (p = 0.008) and other livestock enterprises (p = 0.055), ownership of mobile phone (p = 0.091), buying feeds (p = 0.005), and use of radio (p = 0.032) and friend as sources (p = 0.002) of agricultural information had a positive significant influence on household pig feed diversity. Additionally, age (p = 0.042), land size owned (p = 0.085) and breed [rearing local (p = 0.009) and crosses (p = 0.000) as opposed to exotic breeds] had a negative significant influence on household pig feed diversity.The study recommends that focus should be placed on improving access to farm inputs, agricultural and market information for smallholder pig farmers so as to

Distribution and relative abundance of pig breeds in South-Western Agro-ecological Zone, Uganda: Status of locally adapted pigs

“…There were few farms that had more than nine pigs and these kept crosses and or exotic breeds and the owners were better-off in terms of resource availability. In livestock production, the breed chosen and numbers kept by a farmer is a strong indicator of the farmer's market orientation and resource endowment (Okello et al, 2021). Tendency to keep low numbers of the locally adapted pigs is meant to match with available feed resources (Mosweu et al, 2020) which are always limited.…”

“…There was a wide range of feeds used among the studied districts but most farms used a mixture of green plants and leftover food wastes. The feeds used depended on the location of the source of the feeds and how easy it was (in terms of cost and availability) to obtain the respective feed resource for feeding their pigs (Okello et al, 2021). Farmers with more crop enterprise diversity had more pig feed diversity; the diversification of feed sources is highlighted by Okello et al (2021) as a way of addressing the food challenge by resource constrained farmers who cannot afford the commercial feeds.…”

“…The feeds used depended on the location of the source of the feeds and how easy it was (in terms of cost and availability) to obtain the respective feed resource for feeding their pigs (Okello et al, 2021). Farmers with more crop enterprise diversity had more pig feed diversity; the diversification of feed sources is highlighted by Okello et al (2021) as a way of addressing the food challenge by resource constrained farmers who cannot afford the commercial feeds. The pig diet is closely similar to that of people and therefore a reliable, cheap local feed source is particularly important (Chanamuto and Hall, 2015).…”

“…Most studies on pigs in Uganda have looked at different issues about pig production which include welfare (Dione et al, 2022); heat stress (Mutua et al, 2020;Zaake, 2019), diseases (Thompson, 2017;Atherstone et al, 2020), pig value chain (Tatwangire, 2014;Ouma et al, 2015;Ouma et al, 2017;Thompson, 2017); production systems (Muhanguzi et al, 2012;Nantima et al, 2015), pig feed diversity (Okello et al, 2021); trading networks Source: (Extracted by Jackline Kampire (author) using ArchGIS 10.5) (Atherstone et al, 2018), knowledge and attitudes (Roesel et al, 2019;Mutambo et al, 2019;Dione et al, 2020). Information on breed distribution and population structure is not only limited but is also not clear; reports showing increase in pig numbers as per annual statistical abstracts of Uganda Bureau of Standards (UBOS) do not normally differentiate the numbers into respective breeds.…”

The Status of Pig Welfare in Selected Districts of Uganda: Implications for Health and Productivity Interventions

“…Most pigs across all production classes were "skinny" which reflects the existing suboptimal feeding regime which cannot meet the physiological needs of the pigs. Feeding is one of the main constraints for pig productivity in Uganda (Carter et al, 2017(Carter et al, , 2018Okello et al, 2021). The problem is linked to the high cost of feeds and its scarcity which forces farmers to leave their pigs to feed free range or to feed their pigs whatever is available in the area regardless of the quality.…”