Participants discuss ideas and plans to improve the value chain project

Last week (14 and 15 May), key actors and stakeholders working in the smallholder pig value chain value chain met up in Kampala to review progress and set out plans and priorities.  Discussions were organized around the program’s five flagship activities.

The introductions revealed a good mix of participants from national and local government, research, academia, the private sector, extension and service delivery groups, advisory and training institutes, NGOs, slaughterhouse and processing as well as farmer organizations.

Contributing to the collective review process

A participatory self-review of the past 15 months generated a graphic representation of the program’s various activities, results and products in the past year.

Some of the highlights included:

• Implementation of the Irish Aid support ‘more pork in Uganda’ project, expanding the existing project to two new districts.
• Completion of the IFAD-supported Uganda smallholder pig value chain development project.
• Launch of a new project on silage from sweetpotato to overcome seasonal feed shortages (with the CGIAR research program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas).
• Development and production of 7 pig production training manuals (with various public and private partners).
• Animal health diagnosis and biosecurity work, especially on ASF
• Carried out feed assessments in four districts and associated forage trials.
• Published various reports and articles on the insights gained by project staff and partners.
• Supported Masaka district develop a business plan for a new slaughterhouse to be owned by local farmer associations (see a presentation).
• Set up and facilitated the operations of 3 district and one national multi-stakeholder pig platforms.
• Carried out a gender capacity assessment of local implementing partners.

Before moving into planning, outgoing ILRI country representative Danilo Pezo gave an update on the conclusions and recommendations of the external review team that visited the country last year (see presentation). No major changes of course were called for but several specific recommendations around capacity development and entrepreneurship, partner capacities and policy linkages, among others, are being addressed. Participants identified several very promising country-level developments in terms of new projects and greater attention by (local) government and research to the sector.

The planning itself took up much of the remaining time and involved all participants in a rapid ‘visioning’ of the whole program in 2023 followed by in-depth planning of the coming few years work. As the pig and pork sector grows and as the program and other partners attract attention to the sector, it is clear that several very urgent interventions need to be made to 1) ensure year-round feed-security for pigs, 2) deliver appropriate genetic support and artificial insemination services to farmers, 3) upgrade slaughter facilities, 4) address the wider pig health challenges (beyond ASF), 5) address potential health, waste and environment risks in the sector, 6) reinforce the fod security, nutritional and income generation potential of pig rearing for women, and 7) upgrade business and other capacities in the pig innovation system.

The workshop concluded with installation of a national steering committee for the pig value chain program and launch of the seven training manuals.

The steering committee members are:  Nicholas Kauta (Ministry of Agriculture), Loyce Okedi (NaLIRRI), Henry Nsereko (VEDCO), Lawrence Mayega (Masaka Local government) and Denis Mpaire (Makerere University). This team will be expected to help push the the policy agenda for the pig value chain at the national level and work hand in glove with the pig Multistakeholder platforms in elevating the visibility and voice of the pig value chain and its actors.

Finally, Brian Kawuma introduced the training modules; they are:

• Pig management: Ensuring appropriate husbandry practices for profitability
• African swine fever
• Parasite control in pigs
• Pig business planning and financial management
• Pig marketing and institutional strengthening
• Pig feeding strategies
• Village boar management

This work has been anchored around two value chain transformation projects funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (2012-2014) and Irish Aid (2014-2016), a dedicated food safety project funded by the German government and various other specialized projects looking at animal feeds and forages and animal diseases – especially African swine fever (ASF). See more updates.