The state-of-the-art ‘nucleus farm’ will be providing high quality parent stock for piglet production, ready to transport out to one of the 817 organised pig farms in the state which, collectively, house 26,000 pigs.

The state Animal Husbandry Minister, Singh Sidhu, announced the new initiative, explaining that the intention is to maximise the annual income of farmers under the agricultural diversification programme and to produce high-quality, safe pork for consumers globally.

The state government have also launched several other initiatives to boost productivity as well as the quality of pig farms.

"The production of pork meat in the state has gone up, from 0.96 thousand tonnes (2016-17) to 1.02 thousand tonnes in 2017-18," Sidhu said in an official release.

He added that the total population of pigs in Punjab is around 60,000 and now, the department is working in the direction of scientific improvement to increase the population of pigs to meet the demand of the national as well as international markets. So far, the programme has imparted specialist swine education and training to over 2569 producers, with the aim of providing “equal opportunities for permanent earnings for small or landless farmers, unemployed or uneducated young people and women in the business of pig farming”.

"To enhance the productivity and quality of pigs, a modern semen bank is also being established for scientific breeding at Nabha which will prove to be a game changer to enhance productivity of pig farms.”

With a growth rate of 11.2 percent, Punjab is positioned 7th in the country in terms of growth, but the Sidhu wants to establish Punjab at the top of the pork market.

_{Image: International Livestock Research Institute}