Artificial Insemination technology in pig empowered the tribal farmer of Nagaland Mahak Singh, R.Talimoa Mollier, Ebibeni Ngullie, Ph.Roman Sharma and D.J.Rajkhowa
Aomeren Langu, aged 51, from Diphupar village, Dimapur, has been rearing pigs in the traditional way for many years. He is a church chowkidar and rears pig as a source of side income. He was rearing the breeding boar for providing natural service to the sow of fellow farmers of his village. After hearing about artificial insemination (AI) in pig, he himself requested and attended a three days training at ICAR Jharnapani in the year 2016. He learned scientific management of piggery including castration, proper heat detection, artificial insemination and pig manure utilization. After the training he started doing AI in his own sows and thereafter for other farmers in his village. He is getting high success rate in his work and AI is becoming more popular than natural service in Diphupar village as evidenced by the increasing number of farmers coming for procurement of liquid boar semen from ICAR Nagaland centre. In the year 2017-18 he has carried out 68 inseminations of which 42 has farrowed and farrowing is awaited in the rest . He is charging 500-1000 rupees per AI depending on the distance to be covered. He also keeps breeding sows and has himself has sold off more than 50 piglets of his own born through AI. He is carrying out the inseminations with liquid boar semen from Mega Seed Project-Pig along with technical aid from experts at ICAR Nagaland Centre, Medziphema. With a total farrowing of over 386 piglets, litter size varying from 2-16 piglets, Aomeren has successfully established the advantages of doing AI in Diphupar village. He says that people are more favourable towards AI as the advantages of AI are too high as compared to natural service. He particularly emphasized on the cost, availability and ease of doing AI by the farmers itself and also now there is no need to take the sow to boar for breeding purpose. Aomeren states that liquid boar semen should be made available at all times, even on holidays and Sundays so that none of the pigs that come into heat will miss a service. This is an encouraging example to both the scientific community as well as the farmers in general in which the small farmer in semi-urban Nagaland has become a service provider on an entrepreneurial level with good improvement in income through the use of technology.
