To establish Punjab as top pork market of the country, the State Government has set up the international level of ‘State of Art Nucleus Farm’ at Nabha for supplying parent stock for piglet production. About 4,000 piglets are being supplied to the farmers for setting up their new pig units annually.
“To enhance the farmers’ annual income under the agricultural diversification programme, the State Government has launched several initiatives to boost productivity as well as quality of pig farms. We have increased the production of pork meat from 0.96 thousand tonnes in 2016-17 to 1.02 thousand tonnes 2017-18,” said the state Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Sunday.
Sishu, sharing the statics of pig farms in the state, said that there are around 817 organized pig farms which have 26,000 pigs. “Total population of pigs in Punjab is around 60,000 and now, department is working in the direction of scientific improvement to increase the population of pigs to meet the demand of the national as well as international market,” he said.
He added, “To enhance the productivity and quality of pigs, a Modern Seman Bank is also being established for scientific breeding at Nabha which would be proved a game changer to enhance productivity of pig farms.”
He categorically said that Punjab is at seventh position with the growth rate of 11.2 percent in the country to produce pork meat.
“large white York shire and some local breeds are used in Punjab while farmers can earn good income by exporting pig products like bacon, ham, lard, pork, sausages etc to the foreign countries. Our aim is to produce high quality and disease less pork for the consumers from all over world,” he said.
Sidhu said that to compete the country’s pork market, the Department has been imparting scientific training of pig farming to 2,569 farmers so far.