Vol. 9, Issue 3 (2020)

Author(s):
K Plavan Majunder, Ch. Harikrishna, A Sarat Chandra and M Venkateswarlu

Abstract:
A study was carried out to find out socio-economic profile of piggery farmers and various swine management practices adopted by them covering 48 respondents from 12 urban areas and 96 respondents from 24 rural areas from six districts of Telangana state. In urban and rural sectors, maximum respondents (62.50% and 53.13%) were middle aged, illiterate (62.50% and 54.17%), landless farmers (93.75% and 71.88%) with a family size of less than 5 members (87.50% and 89.58%) and majority (80.56%) belonged to Scheduled Tribes. Semi-intensive system (39.58%) of rearing method was the most adopted one followed by extensive (37.50%) and intensive (22.92%) systems in urban sector, while in rural, extensive (52.08%), semi-intensive (38.54%) and intensive (9.38%) were recorded. Supplementation of ration in the form of swill along with scavenging was the widely practiced feeding system in urban (62.50%) and rural (54.17%) areas. Swill feed was procured directly (97.22%) consisting mixture of hostel and hotel waste (91.04%), fed twice a day without measuring (94.03%) and without any processing. Majority of farmers (53.47%) reared Non-descript swine, whereas 39.58% reared Crossbreds and 6.94% reared Yorkshire breeds in both urban and rural areas and natural service was the only practice adopted. Almost all the respondents castrated their boars except the one meant for breeding. Deworming of pigs was irregular by 37.50% and never by 35.42% respondents, whereas in rural areas, 54.17% never practice deworming in pigs. Vaccination was not a practice in pigs by 100% respondents in rural sector, while only 8.33% respondents of urban sector practicing vaccination against foot and mouth disease in pigs. Most of the farmers (89.58%) will not supplement iron to the piglets and do not cut needle teeth. Majority of the farmers (80.56%) have reported a market weight of < 50 kg recorded by 5-7 months of age. The present study revealed that, the piggery sector in Telangana state has not come up well, despite of advantages, benefits and huge demand for pork in the country, hence suitable policies and capacity building of stake holders are to be framed and conducted to educate and create awareness for doubling the farmers income.