Aim:
To study the factors affecting pig production in
Nangabo Sub-County, Wakiso District, Central
Uganda. Materials and Methods: A total of
11% (1350/12783) of all households in the Nangabo
Sub-County kept pigs. The systematic sampling
technique was used to complete the list of all pig
farming households. This was done by taking 10th
farming household until 10% of all the farming
households were sampled. A total of 135 farmers
were interviewed with semi- structured
questionnaire. Questionnaire data was entered into
Microsoft Excel worksheet and trans-ferred into
Statistical Package for Social Scientists.
Results: Results indicated that 49.6 % of the
pigs were raised in the semi-intensive system
while 31%, 12% and 8% of the farmers kept pigs on
intensive, tethering and free range rearing
systems respectively. Farmers that raised their
pigs on what is hereby referred to as
semi-intensive and intensive management systems
allowed their pigs up to five and two hours of
open foraging respectively. Ninety eight percent
of the farmers provided housing to their pigs and
the commonest pig houses were local mud houses and
a few of them were tree shades. Majority of
farmers (85.2%) watered their pigs at least once a
day. The major factors limiting pig production
were; diseases and parasites mainly helminthosis
and African swine fever (ASF). Others included;
high costs of inputs, lack of capital, unstable
availability of feed resources, inadequate
advisory services and feed price fluctuation
(maize bran, sow and weaner), lack of good quality
breeding stock, poor and unorganized marketing,
lack of enough land, high costs of veterinary
medicines and inability to keep records.
Additionally, lack of enough water and
uncontrolled pig movement grossly limited the pig
production in Wakiso district. Most Ugandans keep
their pigs in peri-urban areas of Uganda. It was
however, noted that there were important
limitations for pig production in the country. To
improve pig production and reduce animal protein
deficit, knowledge on constraints to pig
production was important to inform pig sector
promotion stakeholders. Conclusion:
Limitations to pig farming including parasites and
diseases, ASF, nutritional deficiencies, high cost
of inputs like building materials, drugs and
veterinary services, inadequate capital and
failure of farmers to access credit services,
expensive feeds among others were identified and
should be addressed to meet national animal
protein requirements.
Keywords: Factors
limiting pig production, Nangabo Sub County, Pig
breeds, Pig rearing systems
