Piggery Farming in Nigeria – Guide on How to Start & Benefits

Piggery Farming in Nigeria

Piggery farming in nigeria is not just farming, it’s serious business and should be taken as such. Most people think pig farming is all about building pig pens, buying pigs and then employing workers that will manage it and start making money after some months. If it were that easy everybody would have had a pig farm lol, but just like every farming business pig farming requires a lot of sacrifice, work, patience, a right mindset and a lot of time before you start seeing actual results.

How to Start Piggery Farming in Nigeria

As we all know pork meat is widely consumed in nigeria, people go to restaurant, joints to buy pork meat, the demand for pork meat in nigeria is high and people go as far as paying high sums just to get pork meat. With the high demand you’ll agree with me that pig farming is a very lucrative business in nigeria tapped by a few people.
Below are the  detailed steps to starting a pig farming business in nigeria.

1. Location

   The first step to take in starting your pig business is to get a good location. Have you being to a pig farm before? if yes, I’m sure you must have noticed the kind of smell and odour that comes out from that place. That’s why it’s important when choosing a location to choose a place far from residential areas in order not to cause discomfort to people living within that area. Look for a land in rural areas as that will also be less expensive for you.

2.  Build a pen

   Your pen should be constructed in such a way that the pigs will feel comfortable and safe in the pen. Pigs can also be allowed to move freely occasionally around their farm and they will still survive. Building a pen will also allow you to monitor your pigs and keep them safe. The pen should have a good compartment for each pig with good water supply and food with a general contained wallow because pigs love to wallow in order to stay warm.

3. Buy your piglets

   When buying your piglets it’s advisable to buy a small quantity for a start as new person in pig business. This will help you get familiar, learn more about the business and have enough experience before moving to a larger scale.
   Also in buying your pigs make enough research about the particular breed you’ll be dealing with, we have the wild breed, local breed and cross breed. It’s important you know their pros and cons before buying them. Don’t make the mistake of buying breeds you’re not familiar with and end up spending more money on vaccines at the end of the day. So great caution has to be taken when buying your piglets and make sure they are healthy.

4. Hire workers

   One of the steps in starting your pig farming in nigeria is to hire workers. These are people that will help nurture and take care of your piglets till they mature enough for selling. When hiring your workers endeavour to hire workers that are well experienced in this field, make sure to ask questions and get enough satisfactory feedback before hiring your workers. Also have a good knowledge of running a pig farm to ensure everything runs smoothly.

5. Feeding your pigs

   You need to understand how to manage your pig feeds as 70% of your expenses goes to feeding. Know the feeding method that works best for them either you’re giving them foreign feed or local feed but you have to master how to go local as foreign feeds are usually more expensive.

6. Taking care of your pigs

   This requires feeding them, giving them water, keeping them clean and vaccinating them when necessary. Keeping your pigs clean involves keeping your environment clean also as dirty environment attracts insects and pests that might infect the pigs. Also endeavour to get a veterinary doctor that will help keep them in check from time to time against any unknown infection or disease.

CHECKOUT:  11 Most Profitable Farming Business

Benefits/Advantages of Piggery Farming in Nigeria

• Feeding

  The cost of running your pig farming business in terms of feeding is relatively low compared to other farm animals. Unlike other farm animals, pig is a very good converter of food. It lives essentially on waste. You can go to industries or companies like bakery and pick their chaff or leftover, palm kernel extraction companies etc.

You can get all these, soak them and mix. This will allow you run you pig business on a reasonably low capital unlike poultry where you need to buy a standard feed for your chicks which will cost you more expenses.
But in pig farming you can get waste from your kitchen like yam peels, leftover vegetables, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber and feed them to your pigs, thereby saving you a lot of cost and expenses on foreign feed. This is what I also refer to as local feeding, it’s important you learn how to feed your pigs locally.

•  Fast production

  One of the benefits of pig farming is that pigs multiply very fast compared to other livestock. A pig can deliver upto 12 – 14 piglets at a time. The gestation period of pigs in terms of crossing is usually about 4 months from the time of crossing to the time of delivery. After delivering you feed for four weeks to avoid the mother looking unhealthy after feeding upto 14 new piglets 10 times in a day.

• Growing market

  Despite the segregation of pork meat by some religious belief. The market of pork meat has being on the increase especially in nigeria. Places like akwa ibom, abia, rivers, bayelsa mostly use pork meat in their occasion, and when you travel within this places 70% of the meat you see on the road side is pork meat. That is to show you how fast and profitable the market has grown.

• Low expenses

  Like I said earlier pigs eats almost everything. I’m not saying you should always feed them this but in extreme emergency you can get them some from you farm or kitchen to sustain them within that period.

CHECKOUT: Commercial Snail Farming in Nigeria – Make 800k Monthly

Watch