Pork is ranked second with 21% share just below the milk with 22% share of total global livestock products value of $1.5 trillion (APHCA, 2011). In 2013, out of 308.3 million tonnes of meat production, 115 million tonnes was pork. Asia contributed approximately 60% of total pork production dominated by China which produces approximately 50% of global pork and India less than 2%. Unlike China, pork production is not intensive and commercially organized in India. Rather  pig rearing is a vital livelihood and nutritional security means for trial and rural populations. As per 19th Livestock census, 2,549,608 households and household enterprises produce pig out of which 2,243,655 belong to marginal and small farmers. 70% of pigs are managed by small and marginal livestock keepers with very low inputs. As per recent census (2012) pig population in India is 10.29 million with a 7.54% decrease from 11.13 million pig populations in 2007. This decline in population is mainly due to indigenous pig population (-10.96%) on the contrary male and total exotic/crossbred pigs have grown by 6.12% and 2.8% respectively in the same duration. Though pig rearing and farming is dominated in north-eastern and eastern parts of India by poor and tribal livestock keepers but as per recent change budding entrepreneurs from Punjab, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Goa enter in commercial pig farming. Import of pork has grown with 11% annual growth rate during 2010-15. These factors demand more attention from all stakeholders in pig farming in India. In spite of many advantageous features like high fecundity rate, good feed conversion efficiency and short generation interval, tribal and rural communities are getting only a part of the benefits from pigs farming due to many challenges and ignorance from input providers.

Challenge 1: Ignorance from Animal health and nutrition industry

In 2015, 28% growth in import of pork in registered in India from organized pork producing nations like Belgium, Spain, Italy and Netherland. The pig farmers are supported well by healthcare and nutrition industries in developed part of world. The productivity in India is very low (average meat yield of about 39 kg/ animal) compared to the world average (79 kg/animal). Ironically, there is no pig specific therapeutic and nutritional product from national or multinational organizations in animal healthcare and nutritional industry in India. Reason is simple; majority of unorganized smallholder pig farmers generally have less paying capacity. Surprisingly, ruminant nutritional products in different dosage are suggested by commercial organizations, in spite of different nutritional requirements for fast growing pigs. Furthermore, these nutritional supplements are in bulk packs, generally of 25 kg packs, which are not suitable for unorganized smallholder pig farmers. In addition to this, pig farmers struggle for feeding as it requires grains and India being a concentrate feed deficient nation need to develop low cost unconventional pig feed. Only government institutions are working in this dimension. None of the organizations of the entire Indian animal health industry has pig specific therapeutic products. Only anthelmintic, ectoparasiticides and herbal respiratory ayurvedic products are available in therapeutic range for pig farmers.

As per current situation, the potential of pig healthcare market in India is estimated approximately INR 517 million with approximately 6% annual growth. The untapped Pig nutritional supplement market potential is estimated approximately as INR 12.35 billion.

Challenge 2: Genetics

There are 6 indigenous breed of pigs in India contributing 76% of total population. Scarcity of breeder farmers of good quality pigs is the biggest challenge. Genetic improvement of indigenous pigs through conventional and molecular method must be undertaken on priority for production of superior germplasm. In 2008, under the coordination of National Research Centre on Pig (NRC-Pig), a mega-seed project on pig was launched in following organizations by the Government of India for regular supply of good quality pig germplasm.

·       Assam Agricultural University, Khanapara

·       Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi

·       ICAR RC for NEH, Nagaland Centre, Medziphema

·       State Veterinary Department, Aizawl, Mizoram

·       State Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department, Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh

·       Kerala Veterinary and Animal Science University, Pookode, Kerala

·       Animal Resource Development Department, Govt. of Tripura, Agartala, Tripura

·       Chhattisgarh Kamdhenu Vishwavidyalaya, Durg, Chhattisgarh

NRC-Pig also coordinated All India Coordinated Research Project in 15 research institutions/ universities.

Challenge 3: Marketing

The value chain analysis of pork reveals that there are 2 different types of consumers falling on extreme ends of financial status. One type of consumers in tribal and rural areas demand economical meat in local market while other types of consumers belongs to elite class demanding processed pork in cities and hotels. Growing imports clearly indicate the needs of good quality value added pork production in India. Considering the untapped potential of pig farming, innovative marketing model need to be developed by creating entrepreneurial ecosystem in pig farming and processing. Low cost pig production at smallholder with cooperative model may be explored by connecting these cooperative with processing centre for value added product development. The potential of Organic pork production in tribal areas need to be explored by government and non-government organizations. Commercial pig farms are growing in Punjab, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and western part of Uttar Pradesh.

Challenge 4: Inter-state Policy

The distribution of pig is different from other livestock in India, predominantly in eastern and north-eastern part. Top five states produce 50% of pig namely Assam (15.89%), Uttar Pradesh (12.96%), Jharkhand (9.35%), Bihar (6.31%) and West Bengal (6.3%). Seven states of north-east regions produce approximately 4.5 million pigs and have good policies to support pig husbandry. Lack of synergy in inter-state policies poses different types of challenge. For example, Uttar Pradesh produces 1.35 million pigs, has no concrete policy for pig health, nutrition, farming and marketing which leads to poor quality pig production at very low cost. These poor quality unhealthy pigs are usually marketed to high demanding areas like north-eastern states. Government agencies at north-eastern Indian states are struggling for poor imports from different states. Therefore appropriate policies are required to produce good quality pork.

Conclusion:

Improved germplasm, productivity enhancement with good healthcare and nutritional management, strengthening market linkage and supportive policies are the need of hour to ensure livelihood security to smallholder pig farmers and quality pork to consumers.