THE rising threat of diseases, such as the African Swine Fever, is a key motivator towards concerted efforts to safeguard a country’s production base. In Saint Lucia, the government is working towards ensuring that this industry can continue to grow amidst all threats.
Through a collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, pig farmers and technicians in St Lucia have engaged in a series of comprehensive trainings launched in July 2024.
This latest training module on health and animal husbandry practices was delivered under a project of FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme on promoting competitive import substitution and export agricultural value chains in St Lucia in collaboration with the Farmers’ Organizations for Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (FO4ACP) programme. All training activities focused on ensuring the efficiency of production to meet commercial levels of supply of high-quality pork. This forms part of a medium-term strategy that was drafted with pork stakeholders to inform areas for improvement of the pig industry.
Geared towards ensuring the well-being of the livestock, participants were taught the essentials of biosecurity measures, and disease identification, prevention and management. Additional information was shared on proper nutrition and effective breeding practices.
Knowledge of the signs of illness, hygienic protocols, and vaccines available for use was also provided as a crucial aspect of reducing the risk of disease outbreaks and improving the health of the animals, which is important to farmers and consumers. These trainings on improved farming practices were intended to lead to better economic outcomes and healthier food production systems.
In addition to the in-person training, FAO also carried out field trials in Artificial Insemination. Speaking about the experience, Ms Elina Ponthonnier, an Agricultural Officer of the aforementioned Ministry said, “We are hoping to improve our breeds. Artificial Insemination is simpler than I thought it would be and it would be more profitable to use than keeping a boar on the farm because it costs more to have a boar and more trouble to control a big male pig than using AI.”
Commenting on the training, Mr Juan Cheaz Pelaez, FAO Trade and Markets Officer for the Caribbean and Lead Technical Officer for the project emphasised the relevance of continuous training and the strategy for developing the pork value chain. He noted that “improving the way farmers and technicians farm pigs for the domestic market is a key part of the plan for long-term development of the pork value chain. The science of farming is always changing, and we must ensure that our producers stay productive by applying best practices and modern techniques and keeping abreast of industry standards and best practices. The series of training focuses on different aspects of sustainable pig production and management and the idea is to share knowledge and lessons based on regional experiences of what has worked well. Animal health is perhaps one of the most important modules, given our natural vulnerability as small island developing states and everyone should be playing a role in strengthening the resilience to diseases and safeguarding the well-being of the national herd; many livelihoods are attached to this as well as the health and food security of consumers.”
Mr Kenny Daniels, a member of the National Pig Farmers’ Cooperative, who attended the session in Pointe Seraphine, Castries spoke about the importance of stakeholders working together to improve and secure the pork industry for local farmers. He added that “we are able to produce top quality pork but rather than selling sides to the butchers, we should look at producing the cuts, tenderloins, loins and belly”.
In the coming months, FAO, the National Pork Value Chain team and other stakeholders will continue to carry out activities from the upgrading strategy, including more training for farmers. Mr Jefferson Jaikissoon, FAO Agricultural Value Chain Development Specialist is coordinating the activities in Saint Lucia and along with Dr Gabrielle Young, will be organizing future trainings to improve the farm management and economics and feed and nutrition for pigs in the last quarter of 2024.