My name is John Atsu Agbolosoo and I was awarded a Field Attached Program Award (FAPA), which commenced on 12 December 2020 and ended on 29 May 2021. The main objective of this field attachment program was to train smallholder pig farmers on the development of entrepreneurial behavior skills, good farm management practices, effective feed formulation, linking pig farmers to a ready market, and provision of free agricultural consultancy services to farmers.
My entrepreneurial journey into the pig farming enterprise began at a tender age where I would assist in slaughtering pigs at Adoglovikope near Keta market and I would be given some portion of pork for consumption. This motivated me to rear pigs.
The inspiration to make this dream a reality struck me during the TAGDev orientation training for the first cohort in July, 2017 at ARC Hotel, Egerton University, Kenya. The speaker challenged all the new students to turn their talents into entrepreneurial opportunities and expand on them. He further stated that young and emerging entrepreneurs should either disrupt the system or perish in it. After making this crucial statement, I was challenged and I decided to come up with an innovative way of solving the existing problems in the pig industry. This was a new beginning for my pig farm popularly known as Pickens Enterprise whose aim is to produce high quality pigs and pig products. The enterprise offers agri consultancy services, agribusiness clinic, agri tourism, and agribusiness training to the smallholder pig farmers. Pickens Enterprise was established to reduce the high rates of unemployment through promoting agricultural entrepreneurship especially among the youths in the rural settings of Volta Region, Ghana.
The farm was started with ten pigs at Akatsi South Municipal Assembly on 30th November 2017 with the aim of reducing the unemployment rates among Ghanaian youths in Agriculture. However, after two years, the farm business started experiencing poor performance and collapsed on 26th September 2019 due to poor record keeping, lack of accountability, and poor farm management. I was very frustrated and devastated. I had lost hope, vision, and the dream of becoming the best pig farmer in the Volta Region.Nevertheless, a wise man once said; “Don’t be afraid to start over again. Start from the experience not from the scratch.”
After completing my Master of Science degree in Agri-enterprise Development at Egerton University on 30 October 2019, life becomes unbearable. I searched for jobs everywhere in Ghana in both public and private agricultural intuitions but it was like a nightmare. I was finally offered a job as a Research Assistant but unfortunately, the monthly salary was just a peanut. Thanks to the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) giving me an opportunity to do a field attachment program with smallholder pig farmers in the Volta Region. This Field Attachment Program Award (FAPA) gave me another opportunity to start from experience. The field internship program awakened my vision and desire again in venturing into the pig industry. This time around, I was very focused and determined not to repeat the same mistakes that led to the collapse of my pig business. The program commenced on 12th December 2020 and this was the beginning of another agri-entrepreneurial journey for young emerging agripreneur in Ghana. The program gave me the chance to interact with different smallholder pig farmers at Keta Municipal, Akatsi South, and Ketu South municipal. I started the business at Abutiakope under Keta Municipality with ten pigs comprising of nine gilts and one young boar that were bought during the 2020 Christmas season. The first gilt came on heat during the festive period, it was crossed with the young boar of eight months old and expected to farrow in the second week of April 2021. Four gilts were also crossed in January and they farrowed in the first and second week of May 2021, while the remaining four are yet to be crossed. Currently, three of the gilts farrowed; one with four piglets, the second one has six piglets and the last one has eight piglets. The total number of piglets in the pigsty amount to 18.
Entrepreneurial training
I was able to train about fifty-four smallholder pig farmers in different pig farming communities on the importance of entrepreneurial behavior skills, housing management, identification of good breeds, and breeding, feed formulation using locally available feed ingredients, feeding, pest and disease management, vaccination, and also linked the farmers directly to available pork market.
In the course of the training, it was noted that the major challenges encountered by the farmers were the high cost of feeding and limited market. The high cost of feeds was attributed to the high demand for the main feed ingredient known as wheat bran leading to limited supply. This forced the pig farmers to switch to other substitutes such as rice bran and cereal brans from millet and sorghum. The other problem was lack of access to the market. The farmers do not have direct access to the pork market. Most farmers sold their pigs locally and they are bought at a cheaper price and later sold at a relatively higher price when transported to the urban areas.
The other challenges include the famer groups in Akatsi South District not being well organized due to poor dissemination of information by extension officers and group leaders. In addition, most of the farmers in the district never had entrepreneurial training before. Therefore, they become reluctant to attend group meetings. Poor road network and internet connectivity in some areas are among the challenges encountered during the implementation process.
To solve the marketing issue, I tried to link the farmers to the buyers from urban areas like Accra and Kumasi. The buyers agreed to purchase from the farmers at the farm gate, however, the agreement was not successfully completed because the buyers have not met the smallholder pig farmers. I was also able to get a supplier who is willing and able to supply the feed ingredient to the farmers at a cheaper price. However, these farmers are unable to raise money for purchasing the feed.
Competitive edge
The competitive edge I employ in my farm enterprise is the effective utilization of conventional (maize, wheat bran/rice bran, fishmeal, coconut husk, groundnut cake, soybean meal), non-conventional feed ingredients (broken rice, malt, fish meal, eggshell, trace mineral premix, lysine, methionine and common salt), and agro-industrial by-products (maize bran, palm kernel cake, coconut cake, cassava meal, plantain, banana, sweet potatoes among others). The feed ingredients used in the feed formulation were wheat bran/rice bran, bean bran, fish meal, lysine, methionine, eggshell, vitamin, trace mineral premix, and common salt. Although, conventional feed ingredients are locally available to local pig farmers, it is very expensive due to its high demand. Non-conventional feed ingredients have not been traditionally used in formulating pig feed in the Keta District. At the same time, they are not commonly used in commercially produced rations for swine in the district although their usage is increasing daily due to the shortage of pig feeds in the vicinity. Interestingly, the main source of non-conventional feed originates from agricultural by-products. These agro-industrial by-products derived from agricultural processing industries such as malt production, sugar production, oil production, fruit, and vegetable processing are economically worth but not fully exploited by most pig farmers in the district. Therefore, I am championing the utilization of conventional feed ingredients as a strategy to formulate highly quality feeds for my pigs to reduce the high cost of pig production. Surprisingly, some farmers are questioning me about how my pigs look healthier and attractive compare to theirs farm animals.
Skills and experiences gained
I developed facilitation skills, good communication and listening skills through working with the farmer groups. I also gained production skills through pig farming. I can confidently say that I gained much experience in formulating feeds using conventional and non-conventional feed approach and giving the correct amount of feeds to different age categories of pigs.
Lessons learned
I learned to start small with what I have in my hands. Pig farming is a capital-intensive farm business that requires strong financial backings for a farmer to survive and succeed in the industry. One must have good entrepreneurial behavior skills such as risk-taking ability, proactiveness, innovativeness, information-seeking behavior, and decision-making skills. In addition, pig farmers must be patient, persevere, and focus on profit-making since that the rationale behind entering into the industry. During the first month of my internship period, I learned how to formulate feeds; give correct feeds to growing pigs, inspect and inject sick animals, administered de-wormers and multi-vitamins to growing pigs. Besides, I am playing a significant role in the pig value chain as the producer, middleman, and marketer via linking pig farmers to potential buyers in the region and beyond. In the first reporting period, I offered free agricultural consultancy services to farmers.
Future opportunity
Currently, there are inadequately formulated feeds in the Ghanaian market for pig farmers. Therefore, I plan take this business opportunity to formulate special feeds for swine using agro-industrial by-products, conventional and non-conventional feed ingredients.
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