Pig business is very profitable - Farmer

Chesi Andreas in his forties has dedicated his live to livestock farming. He has tried all sorts of animals ranging from fowls, rabbits, ‘pantalons’, quails, pigs, ducks and even geese for 11 years.

The dedicated livestock farmer says his family of more than 7 survives on his livestock business. Though in some years he finds it difficult, the farmer told TFV that he is proud to be a livestock farmer because he earns his live from it.

“I make my life from pigs and quails now, that is, livestock farming”, Chesi told TFV during a recent visit to his farm. According to this farmer pig farming is the best if you take it as a business. According to the farmers prevention of diseases in pig farming is very important because pig diseases are difficult to manage and in most cases are spread because of the poor hygienic state of some farms.

Speaking in his pig farm that has over 50 pigs last June when most farmers are wailing because pig erysipelas have cleared their farms, Chesi says it’s all perseverance. According to the dedicated livestock farmer who keeps up to 2700 quails down from close to 5000 near by, he has tried all kinds of livestock.

“At the peak of quail business, I made it, I have got an incubator that I hatch what ever amount of quails, pantalons and normal fowls; this has been my business including this pig farm”, the dedicated livestock farmer told TFV. On how he manages his time, the commercial pig farmer says ones the feed which he buys from the main supplier in Douala is stocked, he has no worries as he rattles from the quail farm to the pig farm overseeing what the hired workers are doing.

Chesi notes that the livestock activities are managed from resources generated from the farm and says two years ago, he had his best time as he had pigs all round the year to sell. “I am sure to make 2 to 3 millions a year but remember that you have to feed these animals too, especially pigs; I buy my feed in bulk from Douala”, Chesi told TFV as he prepared pork for sale in a nearly acquired business spot in Molyko, Buea.

On what prompted him to start the roadside business of roasting and selling pork, the livestock farmer says it was the way buyers thought they could treat farmers by teaming up and offering very low prices. The farmer says at one point his animals used to consume close to 18000 francs worth feed everyday.

“I recently started this business, faced a lot of difficulties with these guys who have the roasted pork businesses along the road, but I am succeeding and this will help me much is marketing my pigs”, Chesi Andreas told TFV as he rushed down to where he is roasting his pork.

Although glad that the ACEFA program sponsored his quail house near his pig fence, Chesi, like many farmers during the last regional agric show in Buea, regretted that carrying livestock to the show was a mere waste of time because of the insignificant prices and risk of the animals getting diseases.

In an interview two years ago, Chesi told this reporter that “I started with a few turkeys and discovered how lucrative livestock farming could be; I am full time into livestock farming after discovering that I can make my life out of it”.