Status of Pig Farming Practices in India

According to the 20th livestock census of India, the country’s pig population is 9.06 million in comparison to the world population of about 900 million. Majority of pig population of the world is in China (~48%) followed by United States of America (~6.5%), Brazil (~4%), Germany (~2.8%) and Vietnam (~2.7%). The position of India in pig production within Asia is also below the top five viz. China, Vietnam, Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia. India’s contribution to the total pig production in Asia is about 1%, while China alone contributes more than 80%. The pig population in India had a positive trend over all the duration till the year 2000, except during 1960s. However, during the past 15 years, the growth rate in pig population in India was found to be negative. The reasons might be multi-faceted, but the major ones are surely the socio-cultural inhibition and inadequate financial availabilities. Therefore, the challenge is to reverse the declining growth trend through the application of latest science, technology and innovation, and institution of development measures.

Pig is widely distributed in all the eco-regions of the country and is an important occupation of the rural society especially the tribal masses. People of certain ethnic groups in the country prefer to keep pigs, especially the black-coloured ones, for festivals and ceremonial purposes. The highest pig population is observed in eastern and north eastern (NE) states, followed by the northern, southern, central and western India. The highest population is in Assam (2.10 million), succeeded by Jharkhand (1.28 million), Meghalaya (0.71 million) and West Bengal (0.54 million). The northeastern regions house about 40% of the pig population of the country. Indigenous non-descript pigs (79.03%) mainly cornerstone the pork production in India followed by crossbreds and exotic germplasm (20.97%).

Current structure of pig farming in India 

Besides differing farm types (backyard, commercial), there are two basic sets of pig farm structures in India. The first set consists of government-operated breeder farms that supply pigs to local farms. The State governments operate considerable number of breeder farms, which then supply pigs to smaller local producers.  These government breeder farms typically operate on a single-site farrow-to-finish farm system and are usually run at a 10-50 sow unit capacity. A wide range of exotic pig breeds from the Europe and the United States have been introduced in these government farms in the past decades. The production farms supplied from government pig breeder farms are typically small commercial or backyard farms consisting of 2 to 5 sows with on-site finishing capacity. The germplasm supplied includes the crossbreds of Landrace, Large White, Hampshire, and Duroc breeds.   The on-farm data from the producers’ field indicates that pig growth rates, sow fertility, meat quality and feed conversion ratio of these cross breds were not comparable to original performances of these breeds in their home track. Besides these State government run pig farms, there exist over 20 numbers of pig farms under All India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRP) on Pig in different agro-climatic conditions of the country. The performance of these units is monitored and evaluated by ICAR-National Research Centre on Pig. These AICRP units, through their work, have developed 10 crossbred varieties, using locally adaptable pig germplasm with exotic breeds viz. Landrace, Hamphshire, Yorkshire, etc, for further propagation in the respective agro-climatic zones. 

The second type of pig farm structure in India is that of private or semi-private farms. The numbers of such farms are still low in most parts of the country, but emergence of private farms is inevitable for consolidation of pig farming. Larger farms are considered more resilient to transient costs and price issues. Currently, the private farms are mostly concentrated on such locations having proximity to lean-pork markets and / or to the major cereal crop production areas. Despite the ever-existing demand for local pork, there is a growing demand for leaner pork. The new cross-bred lines/varieties developed from crossing of indigenous and exotic breeds have proved more popular locally, because of improved weight, reduced back-fat and improved lean carcass percentage. The widespread backyard farm segment in India tends to produce many fatty local-breed pigs, sold to local markets, especially in more rural areas. However, these native pig breeds have generally not formed part of expansion / consolidations by the commercial private farms, probably due to their slower growth rates and low feed conversion efficiencies.

In general, there are three types of pig farms in India based on the numbers of pigs produced on the farm; small (including backyard farms, <10 head), medium (50-200 head), and large (> 200 head). With urbanization and production efficiency, Indian pig and pork production is slowly shifting from backyard and small farms to specialized household (or local community) farms as well as modern intensive farms, especially in the urban areas close to cities.

Small size pig farm: In India, the small size pig farms including the backyard pig farms are most popular. A small size pig farm has an average herd’s size of less than 10 pigs; a backyard farm may have only a few pigs. Even though, backyard farms accounts for about 65% of the nationwide pig production, it is estimated that over 90% of the pig producers exist in rural household having an average of 3-5 head per household. In general, pigs housed in small farms are usually indigenous breeds or hardy crossbreds and reared under low-inputs. Pork production is low, mostly used for home consumption or supplied predominantly in rural markets (local community) with limited competition. The traditional pig farming practices followed in these units lay little emphasis on quality and efficiency of pork production. The pigs reared in the traditional farms are usually fed with little grains and large amounts of locally available green roughage (water plants, grass, vegetable leaves, tubers, carrots, pumpkins, fruits, and various crop stalks). This diet lacks essential nutrients, especially protein, resulting in a low feed efficiency. It is a low-cost production system taking over 300 days for pigs to reach slaughter weight, and hence generating low net income.

In traditional rural farming system, the management and welfare of pigs are largely dependent on their economic status, animal-related experiences, religion, education, etc. The small pig farmers are usually unable to cope up the issues arising from associated social, economic and environmental factors. To overcome these problems and to meet consumers’ demand for lean and “healthful” meat, pig production in India need to move towards specialization by adopting more modern management practices to improve feed efficiency for enhanced pork production.

Medium size pig farm: The second type is the medium size pig farm that raises herds from 50 to 200. Currently, this production system houses approximately 30% of the total pigs in India. There was a substantial increase in the medium size pig farms in India during the past 10 years (approximately >250%). Taking advantage of increased demand for pork and pork products in local markets, many educated youths as well as rural households have shifted their focus to increasing the herd size for better economic returns. Now, the aim of farming is shifted to capital gain by providing balanced production ration for improved feed efficiency and reduced time to reach slaughter weight.

In order to increase the pork production, the farmers’ focus is upon improving the welfare of pigs by controlling and reducing management associated stressors. Such stressors include stock densities, housing environments, disease incidence and climate conditions. In this case, the farmers, and specially trained stock-keepers, play critical roles in maintaining the health and welfare of the pigs based on their experiences, economical status, education and religion.

Modern intensive pig farm: The third farm type is the modern intensive pig farm (also called ‘industrialized’ farm) with 200 and more pigs. It is important to note that compared to the previously discussed systems that focus mostly on providing animal products for farm families and the local community, the modern intensive pig farms are specialized economic enterprises with higher herd strength. Also, the production of pork mainly relies on grain-based feed and management skills as well as modern technological advances. In the modern intensive farm, pigs are kept purely as a commercial venture by a firm. The pigs are reared intensively under strictly regulated conditions and are usually provided with all essential inputs, some of which include improved technologies for transportation, preservation of food, prevention of disease, feed efficiency and improved management technology. It is worthy to note that with the emergence of modern pig farming practices, there exists a clear trend in the swine sector in India to simplify the production practices with an ability to grow more pigs in less space. It is very much essential that India’s pig development policies shall focus and encourage the development of modern swine farms to meet the rising demand for meat consumption as well as to meet the objective of doubling farmers’ income.

Currently, modern intensive pig farms account for less than 5% of the total pig production in India. It is well understood that with the rising demand for pork and pork products, the modern intensive production system will develop continuously and will be the dominant contributor in the pork market in the country. These developments will help to translate the Indian piggery into a more organized pig rearing sector in the future. At present, the large-scale pork production enterprises in the country are generally located around big metropolitan cities (high density of population), to serve the growing demand of urban consumers. However, it is important to note that similar to the pig farms in other countries, the modern pig farms in India will also face several major pig welfare and environmental issues, which include housing condition, stock density, herd size, air quality i.e. odor and ammonia production, climate conditions, increased incidence of diseases , food safety, environmental contamination, labour availability and safety. One way to overcome some of these challenges will be to establish the large production units out of the cities, away from the areas with dense populations.