Over the past three decades pig production has become an increasingly important activity in Uganda, as indicated by the increase in pig population from 0.19 to 2.3 million. In 2011, Uganda had the highest per capita consumption of pork meat in Sub-Saharan Africa (3.4 kg/person/year).

Pigs in Uganda are mainly kept by women as backyard activity in smallholder households, with more than 1 million families raising pigs. Therefore, the majority of pigs are produced by a large informal subsector, with limited access to technology information and services, and the same applies to other actors of the value chain.

Several problems have been identified along the pig value chain in Uganda, such as lack of stability of feed supply and quality, frequent breakouts of diseases such as African Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth Diseases that produce significant losses of animals, poor housing infrastructure that affects animal welfare and creates conflicts with crop producers, as well as pollution; lack of sanitary control in slaughtering, processing and commercialization of pork meat, which result in food safety risks, etc. However, those problems are not unique to Uganda, and can be found in many other developing countries where informal pig production and marketing systems are present.

To address some of these challenges, in 2011 the International Fund for International Development (IFAD) approved a project ‘Catalyzing the emerging smallholder pig value chains in Uganda to increase rural incomes and assets.’

The project aims to improve livelihoods, incomes and assets of smallholder pig producers, particularly women, in a sustainable manner, through increased productivity, reduced risk, and improved market access in pig value chains.

Specific objectives are:

• To identify market opportunities for pork in Uganda, and the multiple factors preventing smallholder pig producers from exploiting those opportunities, with focus on constraints caused by animal disease threat, feed resources, and performance of markets and services.

•   To develop and pilot test a set of integrated packages for smallholder pig production and market access for specific production systems, resource profiles and market settings in Uganda.

• To document, communicate and promote appropriate evidence-based models for sustainable, pro-poor pig value chains.

The project is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). More information is available from Danilo Pezo (D.Pezo@cgiar.org) at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). V

This project is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish.