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An innovative way to keep piggeries clean
Under the imo method, the pigs are kept clean and their waste disposed of in a way that minimises the characteristic smell of pig sties. Courtesy Photo.
What you need to know:
Pig sties are associated with foul smells but this innovation deals with that problem.
Picture a pig sty that has been not been cleaned for a day. You would do not want to visit that place. The pigs will be dirty; wallowing in their own waste, the sty will be teeming with flies, and surrounded by a stench that can be smelt far away.
This has been the predicament of most piggery owners who have nevertheless weathered these challenges to rear their animals that earn them substantial revenue.
Challenges
They usually keep the pigs at a “safe” distance, and in urban centres, their neighbours have been known to report them to authorities and they have even been forced to close their piggeries.
On top of that, Dr James Nabimanya, the veterinary doctor in charge of Goma-Mukono District, says there is a high turnover of workers.
“At most, workers spend a [short time] and they quit. The daily cleaning to remove the pigs’ smelling dung is not an easy task,” he says.
Clean and odourless
Now, imagine a pig sty which does not smell or smells less than a chicken house. Imagine having a cup of tea on a Saturday morning while stroking your clean brood of pigs. While the picture may be difficult to conjure, this kind of pig rearing is being pioneered in Mukono district by a group of farmers overseen by Dr Leonard Kawule and his colleagues.
“Unlike the traditional method of pig production, the organic way offers advantages that include: no smell, no cleaning, no squealing noise from pigs and less disease incidences. Pigs are always clean, appealing to look at, grow fast and give lean quality pork. Pigs can be reared in a small area right in your compound,” is an excerpt from a manual The Magic of the Odourless Pig Production, Dr Kawule has co-authored with Dr Richard Kirigwajjo.
This paragraph more than captures the advantages of this method.
This may sound too good to be true but a visit to four piggeries using Imo method (as it has been dubbed to stand for indigenous microorganisms) of pig rearing was convincing enough. The first one was Maj. Rubaramira Ruranga’s home in Seeta where this method has been in use since March this year. The characteristic stench that usually envelopes areas where pigs are reared is not there; the pigs are clean and they do not squeal or become anxious on seeing visitors the way it is in the traditional system.
The way the sty is built
Dr Kawule explains that in the imo method, it is in the way the sty is built. Top soil is removed to a depth of about one metre. It is deep enough for pigs not to dig and get out of the structure. Bare ground is then covered with about 30cm of dry maize stalks, rice straws or small branches.
The next 40cm are then covered in coffee husks, rice husks, or saw dust (not the fine type). These husks can last even up to two years without having to be changed.
Imo, from which this method derives its name, is a sweet smelling liquid that is sprinkled in the sty twice a day.
The sweet smell will encourage the pigs to dig, an enjoyable favourite pastime of pigs that keeps them occupied and less-stressed as compared to pigs on bare hard concrete, which are anxious due to idleness and a bare hard surface, which cold or hot depending on the weather.
Dr Kawule explains, “This liquid is made by harvesting indigenous micro-organisms from the environment. These are mixed with water and maize brand to come up with the Imo.
These microorganisms act on the husks generating heat up to 60 degrees Celsius burning the dung. Because the pigs are clean, they rarely suffer from worms saving the farmer a lot of costs.”
One person who has seen the benefits of the method is Michael Mpola, who works with the Kalangala local government and has had a traditional piggery for the last two years. Three months ago, he adopted the imo method.
“I can rear many animals in a small space and you can tell that the animals are happy sleeping on the litter compared to the concrete which leaves them stressed. The cost and the labour involved in removing the waste everyday has also gone down,” Mpola says.
At his piggery in Mukono, he has 12 pigs in a new four-metre by four-metre Imo structure. The others are still housed in the old sty where the floor is made of concrete.
The farmhand there, Wilson Munene, who previously worked in other piggeries, is also pleased with the new system. “I do not have to remove dung every day, cleaning and scrubbing. Also the animals do not fall sick.” Other than raking through the husks daily, 26-year-old Eric Muhindo, who works in Maj. Rubaramira’s piggery, says his only other duty is to feed the pigs.
Other advantages
With this method a farmer can rear 12 adult pigs in a four- by four-metre structure, which makes it easy to have as many as 100 pigs on a small plot of land.
A farmer saves the money that would have gone into buying cement. Piglets are usually affected when they sleep on cement. But not in this system since the heat from the husks keeps them warm.
To Dr Kawule, this method should help get the urban poor out of poverty since the demand for pork is very high if they will take it up.
But seeing is believing, the group of farmers and veterninary professionals have a jointly owned farm in Mukono. It is called Nyenje Agricultural Innovations Centre, where they have put this imo method into practice from where they are willing to share their discovery.
