Pig farming in the fight against poverty, hunger and school dropout

Location: Mbogora - Burundi

Project leadtime: 28 months

Requestor:  vzw Girakazoza - Mbogora PB 118 Gitega Burundi

Description of the project:

This project provides the growing of pigs by the pupils of the secondary school, coming from poor 1-parent-families, to fight poverty, hunger and school dropout. We’ll work with groups of 5 pupils, every time in 3 phases.

Phase 1: The group is responsible for 1 pig in the training centre of Mbogora, before each gets a piglet for his/her family. The centre provides pedagogic education before starting pig growing at home. The challenge is to successfully complete the education in pig growing. Therefore the training is foreseen.
The pupils take an active role in feeding and taking care of the animals. The family of each pupil offers a small piece of land to allow growing food for the pigs.

Phase 2: After the pitch and weaning every pupil gets a piglet. He/she will grow it at home. The centre will help in building a small pigpen to avoid the pig to run away or to catch diseases. The centre will give soy sprouts (source of proteins). The group will support each other in building the pigpens and food cultivation.

Phase 3: Once the obtained pig gets piglets the pupil will return 8 piglets (i.e. the value of the invested money) to the trainingscentre, being 3 piglets from pitch 1, 3 piglets from pitch 2 and 2 piglets from the 3rd pitch.This approach makes the project self-supporting.
 
After every suckling period one start with a new group according to the same rules.

More than 23% of the inhabitants of Burundi lives in a state of “food shortage”.
Burundi is the country “most starving” in comparison to other countries in the East African Union, being Kenia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and South Soudan.
The people are taking food rich in carbohydrates and too less proteins. The consequence is an unbalanced food culture; at least 50% of the Burundese population is chronically malnourished. The growing of pigs is an answer to that.

Objectives:

1) Fight against poverty and malnourishment
2) Recovery of the pig livestock in the Kirimiro-region (central Burundi)
3) bBetter harvest due to better soil fertilization
4) Well-balanced nourishment due to protein consumption
5) Provide the necessary income to cover school fees to avoid school drop-out

Beneficiaries:

1) Poor, 1-parent-families in the Kirimiro-region
2) The pupils of the secondary school coming from 1-parent-families in Kirimiro

Budget:

€ 1.691

Risks:

1) Insufficient food for the pigs 
2) Diseases amongst the pigs

Attached documents:

Budget + scheme pigfarm

Top

Follow-up of the project

Date: August 2016

General status:

Progress since last status report:

Mid of August the roof was finalized by putting the roof tiles, doors were placed en the feed and drinking troughs were partly constructed. In a few days these will be finalized.

3 fields were cultivated, once it starts raining we’ll plant soy, sweet potatoes,….as feed for the pigs. There are 2 other fields still to be cultivated. Every family donated a field. I’m impressed by the good organisation and the quality of the work, thanks to Elie and the effort of some of the participating youngsters.

Financial status:

Problems/concerns:

Attached documents (pictures, reçu’s,…): pictures

Top

Follow-up october 2016

General status:

The 3 stables for the pigs, each 3m on 3m, were constructed in wood and the roof is covered with tiles.

Progress since last status report:

To obtain pig feed, 5 fields were cultivated to produce soy, sweet potatoes and corn during season A. The rainy season started in October so we started to seed.
The growing of the pigs will start once the yield of the fields is in, which means in January.

Financial status:

So far the total of expenditures is 1.006.700 BuFr. So the balance is 3.277.450 BuFr
(4.284.150 BuFr – 1.006.700 BuFr).

Problems/concerns:

The project goes well, without specific problems.
It is hard to get receipt as they are not commonly used in Burundi, except for purchases in department stores!

Attached documents (pictures, reçu’s,…):

Pictures of the stables
Financial report of September

Top

January 2017

Date: January 11th 2017
 
Name project: Project 65 – Mbogora – Piggery project

General status:

The stable, consisting of 3 blocks of 3m by 3m, are constructed in wood. The roof is covered with tiles (cfr. the pictures of October 2016). We have been sowing 4 fields to get food for the pigs.
 
Progress since last status report:

Currently we’re cultivating 4 fields: 1 with sweet potatoes and 3 others with soy.
The growing of pigs will start once we have sufficient food i.e. after the harvest in March 2017

Financial status:

So far the total of expenditures are 1.081.800 BuFr. So the balance is 4.284.150 BuFr – 1.081.800 BuFr = 3.202.350 BuFr.

Problems/concerns:

The project evolves well. We didn’t cultivate the 5th field because of a lack of rain and the related aridity of the soil.
It is hard to get receipt as they are not commonly used in Burundi, except for purchases in department stores (and this also not always)!

Attached documents (pictures, reçu’s,…):

Pictures of the sweet potatoes and soy
Financial report of January 2017

Top

April 2017

Date: April 13th 2017
 
Name project: Project 65 – Mbogora – Piggery project

General status:

The stable, consisting of 3 blocks of 3m by 3m, are constructed in wood. The roof is covered with tiles (cfr. the pictures of October 2016). We have been sowing 4 fields with different cultures to get food for the pigs (sweet potatoes, soy and cabbage)
 
Progress since last status report:

The harvest of soy was done and the sweet potatoes are fully grown, so we could purchase the sow end of March 2017. We expect piglets in July 2017. We have planted cabbage and bought peel rice to improve the food for the pig.

Financial status:

So far the total of expenditures are 1.401.300 BuFr.
So the balance is 4.284.150 BuFr – 1.401.300 BuFr = 2.882.850 BuFr.

Problems/concerns:

The project evolves without any problems.

Attached documents (pictures, reçu’s,…):

Expenditures since report of January 2017
Pictures of the sow and cabbage field

Top

Follow-up August 2017

General status:

The stable, consisting of 3 blocks of 3m by 3m, are constructed in wood. The roof is covered with tiles (cfr. the pictures of October 2016). We have been sowing fields with different cultures (sweet potatoes, soy and cabbage) to get food for the pigs.

Progress since last status report:

The harvest of soy was done and the sweet potatoes are fully grown, so we could purchase the sow end of March 2017. We expect piglets in July 2017. We have planted cabbage and bought peel rice to improve the food for the pig.

The harvest of soy was done. The sweet potatoes are growing and we bought a female pig. She got 6 piglets which made the students, who got these piglets, very happy.

Financial status:

Since the last report we have spent 178.000 BuFr, between April and August 2017. The remaining balance is 2.704.850 BuFr.

Problems/concerns:

The project evolves without any problems.

Attached documents (pictures, reçu’s,…):

Expenditures since the report of April 2017. Pictures of the female pig and piglets

Top

Follow-up november 2017

General status:

The centre where the pigs are distributed has 2 female pigs now. An addition adult female pig has been purchased.

Progress since last status report:

The youngsters (part 1) all got a piglet to take home and to get it growing up. Another group of youngsters takes over the work soon we hope te distribute piglets over the whole region. To increase the cultivation of drops we rented a field to grow soy, the only protein source in the region.
We purchased a second female pig, which got fertilized yesterday. So we expect piglets soon.

Financial status:

The expenditures of the project so far are 1.301.000 BuFr. The current balance is 1.403.850 BuFr. These funds will be used for the feeding of the pigs.

Problems/concerns:

The project runs smooth without issues. We are satisfied despite the big price increases of products in Burundi, including the feed for the pigs.

Attached documents (pictures, reçu’s,…):

Report of expenses since August 2017.
Picture of the new female pig.

Top

Images

Clic on the image to see the whole album

Top