Government to boost piggery sector
SHILLONG: The state government is focusing on piggery value chain to improve the livelihood of farmers.
The total consumption of pork in the North East is 3.1 lakh metric tonnes and the total supply is only 1.2 metric tonnes. There is a deficit of about 1.9 lakh metric tonnes.
According to the government, investing in piggery will improve the livelihood options of the 1.62 Lakh farming households directly engaged in rearing pigs in the State.
The total requirement for pork meat in the state annually is 41,000 metric tonnes while production is only around 31,000 metric tonnes.
An official said the government has initiated steps to lend necessary support to farmers through skill development programmes, special projects, infrastructure development besides providing training to further improve farming practices in the state.
The government is looking at agri-processing and meat processing as one sector that would see exponential growth in the region in the coming years.
The government is also working to set up an ecosystem that will provide the whole range of services needed by aspiring entrepreneurs.
The government is in the process of setting up a fund for promotion of livelihoods and nano enterprises with a corpus of Rs 10 crore. The fund will provide both small grants and soft loans thus enabling entrepreneurs to access larger sums from the formal banking system.
