Pigs are known to be highly converter of feed to meat and provide greatest return to least investment of any hoofed livestock.
This message has been drummed into students at St. Benedict’ s Agriculture Training Institute at Danip situated along the north coast of Madang Province.
And sure enough, students there are being properly trained to manage pigs so that it can be raised properly to provide good returns to investment
St Benedicts’ agriculture training institute run by the Catholic Church has over the years provided wonderful vocational skills training to school-leavers to better equip them for trade job opportunities in the future.
At St. Benedicts’ some of the skills training cover poultry, piggery as well joinery, carpentry, and welding to name a few.
One of the students, Bobson Yanawi, from Nuku in West Sepik Province in an interview said he likes it very much learning the different trade skills at Danip.
“Danip has become home away from home for me,
“We are taught to be self-reliant and also to work hard to learning new skills to better prepare us for our future lives,” he stated.
As part of skills training Bobson was working at the piggery area when this journalist caught up with him.
“Pigs have always been very important in PNG’s traditional society. In the highlands pigs are valuable possession. A person with more pigs is a big man and people look up to him with respect,” he said.
He shared his views with a team from Ramu NiCo Community Affairs department, who made a brief visit to the institution on Tuesday.
Bobson, together with his classmates have been taught that before attempting to improve pig raising it is good to investigate the traditional ways of farm management first. When you are aware of the traditional way it will be a lot easier to adapt and change pig management to a level suitable for the location you live
In PNG the main reason for raising pigs are for cash income, for traditional exchanges such as bride price, compensation and prestige through distribution of feasts and so forth and to use available land effectively as well as labour efficiency.
Pig production or farming requires management systems. The common systems used by pig farmers in PNG are extensive, semi-intensive, intensive and advanced system.
The institution at Danip is doing well in rearing pigs which are sold at affordable prices to interested clients and customers. Piglets that are old enough to be reared are also sold to customers.
Therefore, anyone in Madang town wanting to rear pigs can visit this interesting place for cash on delivery and pick up.
St. Benedict’s agriculture student, Bobson Yanawi tending pigs as part of his skills training.