A one-day ‘On Campus Awareness on Hands on Training on Pig Farming’’ was organised by ICAR- AICRP on Pig, Nagaland Centre, Department of Livestock Production Management, at Nagaland University, School of Agricultural Sciences, Medziphema campus on Saturday.
Speaking as the resource person, Dr Joshua Kath emphasized on the ‘Common Diseases in Pig in Context to NE States and Particularly in Nagaland’. Dr Kath explained on the need to understand the diseases and prevent them in all possible ways. While highlighting diseases such as Diamond Skin Disease, Swine Fever, African Swine Fever, Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, he lamented that in Nagaland, mass culling is not practised even if massive number of livestock are infected. Dr Kath said that this sometimes give way to further contamination.
Download Nagaland Tribune app on Google Play
He also stressed that with the mode of transmission being through direct contact with infected pigs, secretions, excretions and through contaminated food products, segregating the infected pigs, proper disposal of carcasses, and enforcing biosecurity protocols on farms were necessary and critical steps to curbing diseases resurgence, and biosecurity maintenance at pig farms to prevent the introduction of infectious disease like African Swine Fever.
Further, Dr Kath also spoke on the topics of prevention and control of pig diseases and farm practical demonstration.
In the second session of the ICAR-AICRP organised training, resource person Dr V Rutsa spoke on ‘Piggery in North Eastern Region and Economics of Pig Production’ including the various government schemes which could be availed for practising pig farming.
Dr Rutsa emphasised the promising scope of piggery in the NE states. He stated that the requirement of pork and pork products in the NE states was 1232.27 (TMT) thousand metric tonnes with value of 36,968 crore, however, the availability was only 80.75 TMT and value of 2,250 crore. He added that 715 million people were involved in agriculture with the addition of 850 million working in the process from production to the table product.
Dr Rutsa informed that as per the latest livestock census, there was about 9.06 million livestock in the country, with state of Assam leading (2.1 million), Meghalaya (0.7 million), Nagaland (0.4 million) and Mizoram (0.29 million).
The welcome address was as delivered by training in-charge, Indian Agricultural Research Institute-All India Coordinated Research Project (ICAR-AICRP) on pig, Dr M. Catherine and exhortation by Head of Department, Professor, Dr Nizamuddin.
At the training, the participants were imparted hands-on training on scientific pig farming including housing management, nutrition management, disease management, biosecurity and waste management etc.
