THE PIG/PORK industry is in urgent need of restructuring, declared Agriculture Minister, Roger Clarke, at the recently convened National Consultation on the country's industry conducted by the Inter-American Institute For Co-operation on Agriculture. "The pig/pork industry needs to be restructured to solve the problem of instability in the sector", he said. This restructuring, he pointed out, should entails a focus on feed production, the supply of pedigreed stock, processing, marketing and distribution. The Government would continue to deliver research development support, sow multiplication and improvement, performance testing and the regulatory framework to enhance food safety and the development of a value-added expansion within the system.
But ironically, the main engine of research development, pig multiplication, performance testing, and which is the pulsating heart of the local pig industry, the Ministry's own Pig Research Unit at Bodles, Old Harbour, remains in critical conditions associated with systematic under-funding. Two decades ago the unit had an inventory of over 400 sows of the Large White, Landrace, Duroc, Hampshire and F2 cross breed that supply fatteners to Orange River growing out station. Even into the 1990s, Bodles was Jamaica's primary source of quality breed stock and fattener pigs. The unit, under Jack Muschette, the island's leading pig production and management specialist, established local standard practice, strengthen breed characteristics, established backfat measuring, conducted feed trials, and produce hybrid fatteners. The farmers would come from the length and breadth of the island to view and purchase pigs.
With the sow population now under 50 and the Hampshire breed all but extinct, the Bodles Pig Research unit is but a poor representative of its past and all for want of what the Minister told the meeting the Government continues to deliver. Lack of financial resources was clearly in evidence when Farmers Weekly visited the research unit recently. The plant is disgracefully rundown, and what remains of the animal population showed signs of being inadequately fed.
The pig population is so small that it will not be long before inbreeding sets in to weaken the genetic base of the remaining three breeds. It is understood that a few farmers are now bringing in new bloodline. That is good, but will they be willing to undertake the meticulous and demanding nature of a properly structured breeding programme? This is doubtful. Speaking to Farmers Weekly after addressing the Hague Agricultural Show, Minister Clarke admitted that Bodles must be central in the resuscitation of the estimated $4.1 billion pig/pork industry, which is said to affect the livelihood of some 8,000 persons. Consequently, Government should move swiftly to restore the research unit to facilitate any new efforts to restructure the pig/pork industry.
Government should immediately provide funding for the Bodles Research Unit as its lead in "addressing the problem of instability and [to] thwart this 10 year decline in the industry", which the Minister said was not a good sign for any sector.
