Purposes, Problems and Prospects of Piggery Development in West Jaintia Hills District of Meghalaya, India

Pigs are prolific and fast growing livestock that are early converter of feed and food waste to valuable products and its rearing among the tribes of the North-East Region (NER) is prevailing since time immemorial. A study was taken up in the West Jaintia Hills District, Meghalaya to understand the purposes, problems and prospects of Piggery Development in the state of Meghalaya where pork is one of the best preferred meats for all sections of the population. A structured, pre-tested, reliable and valid interview schedule was used to interview 100 randomly selected pig farmers from two Development Blocks namely, Laskein and Thadlaskein blocks where pig farming was in higher concentration. Areas such asrecycling waste food (100.00%), additional income (99.00%), mark of insurance (97.00%), profit in short time (96.00%) and primary income (50.00%) were identified as the purposes of pig rearing. Problems of concentrate feed (99.00%), medicines and vaccines (97.00%), input supply (95.00%), economic problem (94.00%), non-availability of feed and fodder (93.00%), transportation (93.00%), access to market (88.00%), absence of cooperatives/self-help groups (SHGs) (85.00%), market place (76.00%) and bank linkages (58.00%) were the major concerns. Making provisions of feed, water, treatment, linkages and marketing could be able to make the piggery sector prosper in the state. The results issued that interdisciplinary approaches could do well with farming, marketing, linkage, convergence and other related issues.