During my field trip to Hoima in Uganda, we also went to discuss with the local governmental representative. We met directors from different departments, livestock, agriculture, environment.
We learned a lot about the local crops and the challenge of spatial planning to preserve the environment when all the GIS data is hold centrally by the government in Kampala and not shared to the regions. But what impressed me most is the vision the director for livestock, a vet by profession had.
I asked him, if i come back in 5 -7 years how do you think the pig value chain in Hoima will look like? Is there scope for smallholders in the area?
For him, there will a small amount of big pig farmers who will own around 200 pigs. These farm will shape the market and hold the power, however they won't be able to assure consistency of the market and therefore will rely on smallholders. As such the big farms will insure the market linkages and be the intermediaries for the smallholders in the area.
These big farms will mainly rely on commercial feeds that may be produced locally but also imported. It is very difficult to predict where the big farm will emerge as it depends on the entrepreneurial spirit of some individual and the location of the land they already own or can acquire. But given the high requirement for transport both for feed and the animals, it is expected that these farms will emerge near to the current big roads and near to easy access to water (perennial rivers or high groundwater tables).
I am looking forward to translate this vision into a scenario for our impact assessment model and hopefully come up with some spatial planning suggestions for the area.
We learned a lot about the local crops and the challenge of spatial planning to preserve the environment when all the GIS data is hold centrally by the government in Kampala and not shared to the regions. But what impressed me most is the vision the director for livestock, a vet by profession had.
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| The construction of the first commercial feed mill |
I asked him, if i come back in 5 -7 years how do you think the pig value chain in Hoima will look like? Is there scope for smallholders in the area?
For him, there will a small amount of big pig farmers who will own around 200 pigs. These farm will shape the market and hold the power, however they won't be able to assure consistency of the market and therefore will rely on smallholders. As such the big farms will insure the market linkages and be the intermediaries for the smallholders in the area.
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| A pig in the first commercial farm in Hoima |
I am looking forward to translate this vision into a scenario for our impact assessment model and hopefully come up with some spatial planning suggestions for the area.
I think this is an area of humanity that everyone can learn from everyone else. When I travel and see animal production in other countries, I think that the people in developing areas are actually treating the animals much better than the feed lots of the US. As society develops, I think would like to think that we keep in mind the sentient being aspect of animal production.
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