This curious pig in Kiboga District, Uganda, will be sold in about 2 months and generate between 100,000 to 150,000 Ugandan shillings (USD40) for the household (photo credit: ILRI/Kristina Rösel).

‘Uganda is the leading consumer of pork in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

‘Over 2.3 million pigs are kept by one million households in Uganda for consumption, says the institute which further indicates that the majority of pigs are kept by women in smallholder households.

‘Pig rearing has become a popular and a lucrative venture in Uganda over the last 30 years.

The institute, which works to improve food security and reduce poverty in developing countries, says the local pig population has climbed from 190,000 to over 2.3 million in the three decades. . . .

Researchers from ILRI – whose headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya – are conducting two projects in Uganda.

‘The projects are targeted at presenting more efficient ways of raising pigs, safer ways of handling and selling pork, and ways to increase access to pig markets by poor farmers.’

More information from ILRI about this project
‘Pig farming is widely practiced in all regions of Uganda with high concentrations around the Central region. Unlike other key agricultural enterprises, pig farming has experienced fundamental improvement in the number of pigs reared and households that rear at least one pig over the last three decades. This has been possible despite the limited government support to the pig subsector and the fact that pigs are not considered among the 20 priority sub-programs of the country’s Agricultural Sector Development Strategy and Investment Plan (DSIP). This notwithstanding, about 17.8% (i.e. 1.1 millions) of all households own at least one pig in Uganda. The number of pigs increased from 0.19 million in 1980 to 3.2 million in 2008.

‘The current daily consumption of pigs (pigs slaughtered per day) in Kampala city alone is estimated to be between 300 and 500. These include about 75-80 pigs that are slaughtered at the main pig abattoir of Wambizi cooperative society in Nalukolongo in Kampala city. The per capita consumption of pork is 3.4 kg/person/year, the highest in the region. This level of consumption is reported to have increased 10 times more than it used to be 30 years ago. The market for pig products along the pig value chain is however disorganized, has many value chain actors, and many service providers, whose activities are not well coordinated. . . .

‘The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) through its Kampala based office is implementing an IFAD funded Smallholder Pig Value Chains Development (SPVCD) project in Uganda. The main objective of the SPVCD project is to improve livelihoods, incomes, and assets of smallholder pig producers, particularly women. . . . This report documents potential best-bet interventions (BBI) that can be tested in pilot research areas for the SPVCD project.’— Read more in this report: Successes and failures of institutional innovations to improve access to services, input and output markets for smallholder pig production systems and value chains in Uganda, published by ILRI Aug 2013.

Read the whole news article in New Vision (Uganda): Uganda ‘top pork consumer in sub-Saharan Africa’, 29 Mar 2014.

Watch a short (2:40-minute) ILRI photofilm on its smallholder pig value chains research in Uganda: Smallholder pig farming in Uganda: A day in the life of a research for development project,

View slide presentations by Uganda-based ILRI research project manager Danilo Pezo: Smallholder pig value chains in Uganda, Jun 2013, and  Smallholder pig value chain development in Uganda, Mar 2012.