The feeding component in rural and peri-urban smallholder pig systems in Uganda

In the last 30 years, Uganda has had a massive growth in pig population, from 190,000in the late 90’s to 3.2 million pigs in 2008, and currently has the highest per capita consumptionof pork in East Africa (3.4 kg year). The majority of Uganda’s pig farmersare smallholders (1.2 million households raise pigs), practicing low input/ low outputsystems. In the three districts of Kamuli, Masaka and Mukono, where the study wascarried out, results of focus group discussions conducted in 35 villages showed thatregardless of the setting, whether rural or peri-urban, the smallholder pig productionsystems are typical crop-livestock system, with high dependence on crop residues, i.e.sweet potato vines, cassava leaves, yam leaves, and Amaranth spp. for pig feeding.However, the relative contribution of those crop residues is strongly affected by rainfallseasonality, which in turn influences crop production. The bulk (>95 %) of cropresidues used for feeding pigs is produced on farm. Trading of crop residues is minimalhence comprising only <2% hence they can be obtained from farms for free.Women and children are mostly responsible for pig feeding and management, as wellas for collecting crop residues for pigs (85.8 and 78.6% of farms in rural and periurbansettings, respectively). Kitchen leftovers, including banana peelings, provide18–20% of the total ration, whereas forages (i.e., Napier grass) represented 20–28 %,and compounded feeds (commercial and home-mixed) 25–27 %, with maize bran asthe main ingredient. The main feeding constraints identified by farmers are: dry seasonfodder shortages (crop residues and forages); risk of parasite infestation throughforages, either grazed or cut and carried. In the case of concentrates, constraints includehigh cost of commercial feeds, price fluctuation of feed ingredients, and poorquality of purchased feeds. There is a need for enhancing knowledge on feedingstrategies and fodder conservation among farmers, but also on proper feed formulationfor farmers and feed stockists. The implementation of quality control of feedsavailable in the market is urgently needed.