Pig marketing opportunities in Assam and Nagaland

With soaring food prices, indigenous peoples in India are going back to raising small local black pigs. With knowledge-based support, they could tap into new market opportunities and double their incomes.   This is Nagaland, one of India’s most insecure … Continue reading

Boosting pig production among India’s poor: Tata-ILRI research partnership helps farmers beat classical swine fever

A pig farmer in Nagaland, India. A Tata-ILRI partnership is helping Indian farmers beat classical swine fever to boost pig production (photo credit: ILRI/Ram Deka). A program that is supporting rural Indian farmers improve their livelihoods by helping them to … Continue reading

India’s booming livestock sector: On the cusp?–Or on a knife edge?

On 4 Nov 2012, an ILRI delegation of 28 visited the village of Araipura, in the Karnal District in the Indian state of Haryana, where they held discussions with dairy farm families. Above are ILRI’s director general Jimmy Smith (left) … Continue reading

Transformation of life and livelihood: The success story of Manpai Konyak, Indian pig farmer

Manpai Konyak with his sow in Lampongsheanghah Village, Mon District, Nagaland, India (image credit: ILRI/Ram Deka). Manpai Konyak, a 52-year-old married father of six children, attended elementary school up to class V. All his children used to go to school … Continue reading

New training manuals for improving small-scale pig production: With lessons from northeastern India

Children of a smallholder pig-farming household in Mon District, Nagaland, in the far northeastern corner of (tribal) India, which is participating in an ILRI project to help the rural poor enhance their production of pigs and pork (photo credit: ILRI/Ram … Continue reading

Research group helps pig business become bigger business in northeastern India

Pig kept in Nagaland, in northeastern India, where pig production and consumption by poor tribal peoples is commonplace (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). Small-scale pig production is the basis of livelihoods of many poor tribal people living in India’s remote northeast corner. … Continue reading

The common practice of pig-rearing in northeast India would profit from better breeding and feeding programs and greater involvement of women

A woman pig farmer in northeastern India. Pig-rearing there can benefit from better coordinated breeding and greater involvement of women in the sub-sector. (Photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann) Livestock researchers are recommending improved feeding systems, better coordinated breeding and more involvement … Continue reading