Table 1 Smallholder pig farmers’ perception of the potential impacts of adoption of improved diets for pigs: men, women in male-headed households (WMHH) and women in female-headed households (WFHH) in Central Region, Uganda

Faster pig growth

Men (3)

Our pigs are going to grow very fast as compared to the way we have been feeding our pigs

We have liked the aspect of fast growth of pigs which are fed on these diets and one can easily get money out of them

WMHH (2)

[I] am so happy about this diet because our pigs have not been growing up very well because of the way we have been feeding them. However, if we follow these ideas of the new diets, I know our yields will improve

As a family, when we use these diets, our pigs will grow very fast, sell them and get money which will solve the financial problems in our homes

WWHH (3)

Because you see here madam, if we give the pigs the diets, they will grow at fast speed and we will sell them. We have been selling them after one year after reaching weight, but now we will be selling in 4 months. This will increase our income. We will sell and replace and even increase the numbers [of pigs we keep]… You may find that in one year you have sold about 3 pigs

Another difference will be in the time taken to selling the pig. We have been rearing them for one year and not even getting 100,000 shillings (approximately $30 USD) for them, yet we have been using a lot of energy looking after them

Increased farmer income

Men

There is going to be peace in our homes because a home without money is like hell but after the profits we shall be getting from sales, peace is going to prevail in our homes

WMHH

The benefits are going to increase, because we are going to rear pigs so that they grow well for the family to benefit. Our children will go to school, they will not be sent back home for school fees, because they cannot send your child from school when you have a pig and you don’t sell it. The money will help us

WWHH

Your income would have increased…, and your [household] expenditures may change. You may have to put money where you never used to spend it on because your income has increased for example you can put your children in boarding schools. Some activities will be reduced, so you do not have to work too much, like you can use hired labor, since you can afford it

Increased pig population

Men

If we put in practice what we have learnt today, many people will join the pig industry in communities

WFHH

This type of diet is going to increase on the number of pigs we have been rearing. Because there is no more wastage like the way it has been. We have been using a lot of feeds which would end up being wasted but if we chop the tubers and vines then add in other ingredients, this will make us rear more pigs

WMHH

We have been selling them after one year after reaching [market] weight, but now we will be selling in 4 months. This will increase our income, we will sell and replace and even increase the numbers [of pigs we keep]… You may find that in one year you have sold about 3 pigs

Improved market opportunities

Men

Organized market in our community…just in case there is increase in the number of pigs kept… and this means more money

WFHH

Boosted growth will increase on the number of pigs. We shall get an organized market, improved standards of living, be able to pay school fees and meet basic needs in our homes

WMHH

The market will increase, because buyers will come looking for the pigs because of their good quality: their weight and good meat. Even the feeding [of people] at home will improve

Decreased labour requirement

Men

Mixing and feeding is easy and time saving and … [it is] easy to prepare and keep silage

The pig pens are going to be easy to clean because we shall be putting little whereby pigs will eat and finish everything as compared to the vines and other grasses which we have been putting and at the end of the day some are wasted and make the pen very dirty

WFHH

There is this other diet that is easy to prepare that I have seen here. The diet which I have seen that is quick to prepare is the one we prepared first [forage-based diet] … chopping sweet potato vines, add jack fruit, mixed with 2 cups maize bran and 1 cup mukene [sun-dried fish]. That is the feed you can quickly prepare and use

WMHH

We have even been using too much. I have been getting a bundle of sweet potato vines which you cannot lift and throw it in the pig pen. The pig eats what it can, the following day you remove and throw it away. Imagine the energy wasted

Increased labour requirement

Men

If the new diets are adopted, time is going to change and will be attached to the new activities that are associated to new diets like chopping vines, tubers, banana leaves, papaya leaves the avocados and jackfruits, mixing and combining, pounding mukene [sun-dried fish] …All the activities require a lot of time and energy, thus time must be dedicated to the new activities

It’s time consuming especially if you have many pigs and when it comes to chopping which may delay other activities. You are right if we are to use these traditional methods like the way it was today, you may take the whole day chopping

WMHH

…hard and tiresome to pound mukene [sun-dried fish]

time consuming because of the many chopping…

Extra labour is needed because one person can’t handle all the pig related activities to prepare the new pig diets we have learnt today

WWHH

We have not been chopping [the vines]. We just get them from the mound and throw it whole into the pig pen

Ok since I was used to just throwing in the feeds, I see there the work is going to increase. I have to get someone to help me…yes, you see the work will increase as it is not the same as when we have been just throwing in the feed

New on-farm employment opportunities

Men

Not mentioned

WMHH

People will get jobs because this kind of diet is associated with a lot of labour thus some farms will need to hire some employees to work on their farms

WFHH

Also we will be creating jobs for our children. How do we get jobs for our children? There are children who roam about on the village begging. You tell them to fetch for you sweet potato vine and you give them some money, may be one thousand shillings [$0.30 USD] for some quantity brought. That is to create jobs for others

Increased feed cost

Men

Mukene [sun-dried fish] is very expensive. I remember you talked about feeding pigs on mukene for the human being and that mukene is very expensive

Fruits are very expensive in times of scarcity and even if we are to plant jackfruit and avocados trees, they will take five years to mature before we can make use out of them

WMHH

There be will increase in expenditures to purchase ingredients that make complete diet. Jackfruit…avocado are very expensive and they are seasonal … it might be hard to purchase in order to make a complete diet

WFHH

The problem may be on the ingredients which we have to purchase, because currently we do not have the money. We may learn these things but fail to implement them due to the limited funds we have to buy the items. That is where I see a problem…because I may be here but I do not even have one hundred shillings ($0.003 USD) on me, but I have my pig which may be 8 months old, it has not been served but I am just feeding it

Decreased feed cost

Men

…reduce on expenditures and cuts on the costs of buying maize bran

WMHH

Reduce on expenditures on commercial feeds while not compromising on growth rates

What I have observed, the way I have been feeding my pigs has been very wasteful and I have been spending too much money, but now with God’ s mercy…[I] want to implement what I have learnt today, so that I economize on feeding and reduce expenditures

WFHH

I have benefitted a lot…so if you add on this, the local diet that has been shown to us and the time the researchers say it will take for the pig to go to the market, I see we shall be saving. We have been feeding, but feeding with a lot of pain, using a lot of money; we have been buying maize bran, most of us who do not have land for growing crops, we have been using maize bran, almost 3 kg per day. We have been feeding a pig for a year to take it to the market. When you go into calculations, you find that the costs are very high. In fact, for me I decided not to carry out cost–benefit analysis of the pig enterprise because it may stop me from going on with it. I don’t want to cost it. I have that fear

Strengths of inclusion otherwise wasted products

Men

At the community level, we are going to make money since potato vines may be sold to pig producers hence development. Because sometimes when the tubers are in plenty, we tend to leave the small ones in the gardens but now, all that we have been throwing [out] is going to be sold to pig farmers

We have learnt to economize on pig feeds because sometimes we grow potatoes and when it’s overdue for human consumption we have been disposing it away. But we have learnt that we can prepare silage out of such tubers which is a very good meal for our pigs

WMHH

We have been using a lot of feeds which would end up being wasted but if we chop the tubers and vines then add in other ingredients, this will make us rear more pigs

You are right madam because the feeds which can feed like 5 pigs, we have been using it to feed one pig but with this new technology, our projects are going to expand

WFHH

But what I have really liked and what will help us, which I want my fellow participants to buy…. you have a sweet potato garden which is ready for harvesting… you get the sweet potato vines, we have been leaving the sweet potato vines in the garden or even use it as mulch for the banana plantations, but now we are going to chop them…even we were leaving the sweet potato tubers in the garden, and the monkeys eat them. We are now going to conserve them as silage… For me I am willing to make the change. I am willing to make the best

Secondly, we have been having some of the ingredients and we did not know their value. For example jack fruit. We have it, and we eat and even throw it away. We have now learnt, we shall be eating and saying “aaa, today I have eaten this one, this one is for the pig”, because I will be expecting to get profit from it, so I preserve it for the pig

Strengths of inclusion of home-grown ingredients

Men

I have liked the fact that these diets are made from things we have in our homes and gardens

Sometimes tubers are plenty on market and traders tend to offer low prices however, we can use the tubers to prepare silage instead of selling the tubers at low prices

WMHH

The local diet is easy to mix because we have all the required ingredients in our homes

WFHH

[The ingredients] are even free; you do not have to buy them

Another way we will benefit regarding the training we have had, the ingredients we are going to use will be got from our homes. We will not have to look for them from long distances, we will be getting them from our gardens. For example sweet potato vines and sweet potato, you may be having in your garden which is even very near to where you are going to make the diets from

Challenges of inclusion of home-grown/locally available ingredients

Men

Sir these fruits are seasonal. There are seasons when there in plenty and seasons when they are scarce… don’t you think this might affect our incomes, because if it’s a season when jackfruit is not there, we may move for long distances [trying to find them] and that is also money. But still I think we shall get these fruits

WMHH

Adding on to the problems we may get…there are seasons when there are no jack fruits…even avocado. We will get problems then. This diet is not flexible because in dry seasons when some fruits are scarce, then one can’t use the diet

WFHH

Even when you have to buy [avocado], you buy when it is still on the trees. Or that which has fallen on the ground…or you go to the market…or if someone has excess. You cannot buy a basin of avocado or a bucket of avocado when the children have nothing to feed on. The main issue now is avocado is off season, even when you go to the market it is not available

New produce market opportunities

Men

For the fresh produces more suppliers will come on market due to the increase in demand

Increase income due to selling potato vines to pig producers and increase income due to selling small potatoes formerly left in [the] garden to pig farmers

WMHH

Ok we have been talking about how families would benefit and now we want to talk about how communities where we came from will benefit? Prices for agricultural products will go high

WFHH

Not mentioned

Improved manure quantity and quality

Men

Increase in the number of pigs and as a result there will be increased manure to put on our plants thus produce good yields like matooke [bananas] and coffee

WMHH

Manure got from pigs feeding on these diets will be of high class and when put on our plantations like bananas and coffee, we shall get good yield

WFHH

The manure from the pigs will also be of good quality because the pigs are fed on a balanced diet. The doodo [green leafy vegetables] …even the bananas grown with that manure will produce a lot, even the coffee. We shall reduce on expenditure because we will not be buying coffee husks, we will be using the manure from the pigs

Improved family well-being

Men

There will be peace in our homes because of profits from sales

WMHH

We will be in a position to pay school fees in time and improved standards of living in our homes. Reduce on levels of dependence from our husbands thus peace will prevail because as women, the money we get from pigs clears school dues

Boosted growth will increase on the number of pigs. We shall get an organized market, improved standards of living, able to pay school fees and meet basic needs in our homes

As a family we are going to acquire new skills of feed mixing, chopping and preparing

WFHH

I see we are going to benefit as a family because the pigs will be growing fast. [When they grow fast] we will be selling them

Your income would have increased…, and your [household] expenditures may change. You may have to put money where you never used to spend it on because your income has increased for example you can put your children in boarding schools. Some activities will be reduced, so you do not have to work too much, like you can use hired labor, since you can afford it. Family income would have increased; the family will be happy. Where there is money, nothing can fail

Improved community well-being

Men

Women are going to stop gossiping because they will be busy attending to the pigs

Poverty begins at the family level then to community, but if we [are] going to use locally available resources then the money which we have been spending on maize will be used to attend to develop our community

WMHH

Development at community level whereby we shall be referred to as the best pig farmers in the region

Our farms are going to act as demonstration farms in our communities because we have learnt the new idea of feeding pigs. And out of what we have studied, our pigs are going to look good hence attracting other farmers to come and inquire from us. And we are ready to teach fellow farmers the modern way of farming

After we have learnt the modern way of keeping pigs, pigs are going to increase in our village and we shall have an organized market thus the traders will not find it hard if they wanted to purchase in our villages like the way it has been that they have been moving from place to place looking for pigs. They will just come and pack the vehicle somewhere and buy as many pigs as they want

WFHH

The community will benefit: when you sell the pig, you buy from them, they get that money. Also instead of rumor mongering, we shall be chopping the sweet potato vines

Also to the community: our neighbors, apart from admiring and copying what we will be doing, may benefit in this way. You may be having Muslim neighbors who have a SP garden. You will have to find a way of getting the vines from them, in a way by creating friendship; you can give them some money, by buying from them