Pig farming business is the act of rearing piglets or weaners till maturity for commercial purpose.This involves getting the right piglets, vaccines and vaccination and the management of a piggery in Nigeria.

There are hundreds species of pig which include American Yorkshire, Aksai Black pied, Angeln Saddleback, Beijing Black, Bangur, Bisaro, Berkshire, wild boar, bearded pigs, and warty pigs. These species are more common in certain geographical locations than others.

In Nigeria, we basically have local breed, foreign breed and cross-breed. Local pig breed are those breed of Nigeria origin while white breeds are those breed from foreign countries.

The cross-breed are pig’s breed gotten after a foreign male pig mate with a local female pig or vice versa. 

Pigs are amenable to many different styles of farming: intensive commercial units, commercial free range enterprises, or extensive farming (being allowed to wander around a village, town or city, or tethered in a simple shelter or kept in a pen outside the owner’s house). 

Historically, pig farms were kept in small numbers and were closely associated with the residence of the owner, or in the same village or town.

They were valued as a source of meat and fat, and for their ability to convert inedible food into meat, and were often fed household food waste when kept on a homestead. Pigs have been farmed to dispose of municipal garbage on a large scale.

All these forms of pig farm are in use today. In developed nations, commercial farms house thousands of pigs in climate-controlled buildings. 

Pigs are a popular form of livestock, with more than one billion (1,000,000,000) pigs butchered each year worldwide, one hundred (100,000,000) of them in the United States of America (USA). The majority of pigs are used for human food but also supply skin, fat and other materials for use as clothing, ingredients for processed foods, cosmetics, and medical use.

In the past, many cultures considered meat a luxury that could only be enjoyed on special occasions or certain days of the week, while today it is a staple that can be found in nearly all restaurants and many kitchens all over the world. 

The market value of the processed meat is expected to rise from 714 billion U.S. dollars in 2016 to over 1.5 trillion dollars by 2022. Poultry is the most popular kind of processed meat, with a thirty-eight percent (38%) share of the global market. Red meat, which includes pork and beef, takes up about a thirty-three percent (33%) share.

Pork is the culinary name for the meat of a domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC.

Pork is not only the most popular meat in the Western world and in Central Europe, is also very popular in the Eastern and non-Muslim parts of Southeastern Asia (Indochina, Philippines, Singapore, East Timor) and in Malaysia. It is highly prized in Asian cuisines for its fat content and pleasant texture. 

Pork is particularly common as an ingredient in sausages. Many traditional European sausages are made with pork, including chorizo, fuet, Cumberland sausage and salami. Many brands of American hot dogs and most breakfast sausages are made from pork. Processing of pork into sausages and other products in France is described as charcuterie.

Ham and bacon are made from fresh pork by curing with salt (pickling) or smoking. Shoulders and legs are most commonly cured in this manner for Picnic shoulder and ham, whereas streaky and round bacon come from the side (round from the loin and streaky from the belly).

Ham and bacon are popular foods in the west, and their consumption has increased with industrialisation. Non-western cuisines also use preserved meat products. For example, salted preserved pork or red roasted pork is used in Chinese and Asian cuisine.

Bacon is defined as any of certain cuts of meat taken from the sides, belly or back that have been cured or smoked. In continental Europe, it is used primarily in cubes (lardons) as a cooking ingredient valued both as a source of fat and for its flavour.

Nigeria’s livestock resources consist of nineteen million, five hundred thousand (19,500,000) cattle, seventy-two million, five hundred thousand (72,500,000) goats, forty-one million, three hundred thousand (41,300,000) sheep, seven million, one hundred thousand (7,100,000) pigs and twenty-eight thousand (28,000) camels according to the National Agricultural Sample Survey (2011) as released by the minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh. 

Though Nigeria plays a vital role in the livestock economy of Africa, her livestock production is not enough to meet the domestic consumption requirement. The total supply of livestock products fall short of the overall demand. 

Nigeria, with a population of about two hundred million (200,000,000) people is grossly underprovided with the essential food component, which is protein. For example, data from the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) and food and agriculture organization (FAO) indicate that from cattle, less than two kilogrammes (2kg) of beef is available to an average Nigerian per year and just mere four kilogrammes (4kg) of eggs per annum is available to each Nigerian. 

In fact, milk production has been nose diving or at best has remained constant since 1994. This scenario is compounded more so when the volume of egg supply is very low, being ten point fifty six grams (10.56 g) per person per day as compared with the usual recommendation that an egg should be consumed by an adult per day. 

This recommendation would imply a crate of thirty (30) eggs per month. This story also holds for other meat products including, pork. 

Currently, the local market is handling about sixty percent (60%) cent of pigs’ production, while exporting about thirty percent (30%) live pigs worth around N3 billion out of Nigeria to neigbouring countries every year.

However, the demand for pork is rising, especially for dietary purposes of those in the elite circle of the country who are health conscious. Based on the above, Nigeria has a large, growing and sustainable market for pork hence pigs.

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