By the Editor
To the North East tribes, food without meat is incomplete, no matter how poor they may be. In Meghalaya, the favourite meats are pork and beef. Many years back, during feasts and festivals, pork was a very common item along with rice and vegetables. Beef was cheaper than pork and so people could afford it daily or more often. Chicken was quite costly then and only the rich and well-to-do bought it. History records that pigs had been living on this planet for thousands of years and which were later domesticated by humans.
Pigs are reared for different kinds of meat like ham, bacon and lard. Their droppings are very good fertilisers for the crops. Pigs are good converters of feed which means that the profit from the meat is much more than the cost of food they consume. Rearing of pigs for domestic purposes is very common and popular in rural areas. Demand for both is quite high in Meghalaya whereas production is very deficient.
Consequently, pigs are imported from outside resulting in loss of revenue to the locals. Wild pigs which were once plenty, roaming freely through the dense forests and jungles, are now a dying breed.
Pig-rearing is a profitable business since there is a good market and feeding them is not costly at all. Pigs eat anything: roots, weeds, grass, fruits, vegetables, snails, mice, lizards, etc. Sweet potato is the best since it contains 60 per cent of protein, vitamins and minerals which nourish the body. They are as susceptible to diseases as human beings do. Attention should be paid to special care if they get fever otherwise it may become endemic and spread widely affecting humans too. Sick pigs should be administered proper medicine and quarantined because the diseases are very contagious.
Once swine flu occurs, people ought to cease eating pork for preventive measures. Deworming is necessary to keep the pigs healthy and fit for human consumption. The female pig can give birth between 8 to 12 litters at a time and that too twice or thrice a year. The survival rate of the young piglets is also quite high, depending on care and attention. Consequently, pig-rearing is good business since the domestic market is also stable.
Interestingly, pigs are intelligent creatures. Their snouts are very sensitive and their faculty of smell is very strong. They are able to detect liquor, drugs, harmful chemical substances as well as weapons used for criminal activities. Some of the advanced countries in the west are taking advantage of these animals to snuff out law-breakers, smugglers and illicit dealers. In comparison with the special category of dogs used by the police squad in curbing crimes, pigs are cheaper to keep and their food consumption too is not high.
Training these types of four-footed animals does not take much time either. Over and above, the cost of such kinds of pigs is much cheaper than that of dogs.