Punjab Animal Husbandry Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike on Sunday said that the State Government has provided various services to encourage the youth to adopt piggery or pig farming as an alternative venture.
The Minister said that with the persistent efforts of the Department, there are about 234 pig farmers in the state and 50,000 pigs in Punjab. During the year 2014-15 the state has produced about 76000 tons of pork, said the Minister.
He said that that to extend every kind of assistance to the farmers, the Government has also set up 4 pig farms in the state at Kharar, Gurdaspur, Nabha and Ferozepur. Besides this, Punjab Government is going to ink a MoU with the British Pig Association in the coming days to ensure more advanced and scientific techniques in this venture.
Giving details about the Pig farming in the state, Ranike said that the state run advanced Pig Farms have the breeding facility where large Yorkshire species of pigs was being produced. The Punjab Government is paying special attention to cultivate this variety of pigs and was providing the piglets of this variety at reasonably affordable rates to the pig farmers, he said
The Minister also said that the a 15-day advanced certificate training course has been planned for the pig farmers in the pig farms where they have been given advanced latest technical knowledge of the field. A loan was also being provided under RKVY scheme. As many as 110 Pig Farmers availed this loan facility during the years of 2009-2014.
In another significant decision, the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has given approval to set up a meat processing plant at ludhiana with a cost of `50 crore. The goats, sheep and pigs’ meat would be processed here in this Processing Unit, added the Minister.