Piggeries Shut as Demand Falls Due to H1N1 Scare
GHANA - Due to dwindling fortunes in the pig industry, many farmers in the Ashanti Region are being forced to either cease production or convert their farms to produce poultry.
According to The Mail, the farmers attribute the downturn to high cost of feed meal and poor patronage resulting from unguarded media statements on the recent outbreak of the pandemic H1N1 influenza previously known as swine flu.
Kwaku Adjei Mensah has been in the piggery business for the past seven years and says until recently production and sales trends were good.
Mr. Mensah started with 500 animals at his farm located at Ejisu Besease near Kumasi but about 200 pigs are now being tended on the farm.
He told Luv FM's Kofi Adu Domfe he was worried the situation could get worse.
"In fact, production has gone down; our market and system is very poor because of the swine flu," he said.
He chided the media for poorly handling reports on the pandemic as most, according to him, erroneously presented the disease as originating from pigs.
