Enhancing Livelihoods through Sustainable Piggery

The Piggery Project is a community-based initiative aimed at improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers by providing them with piglets for rearing. The project seeks to enhance food security, generate income, and promote sustainable livestock farming practices among smallholder farmers. By distributing piglets to farmers, the project will create a ripple effect of economic empowerment especially among the women, which will promote sustainable livelihoods among farmers for a better living.

Last year, we distributed 4 high-quality piglets to 2 farmers groups in Bujwahya and Mbaraara villages The piglets were handed over to 4 women of these groups who will take care of the piglets and when they produce, their off springs will be given to other members of the groups in a system known as the Pay-It-Forward System.

Now the pigs have grown up and 2 out 4 pigs have conceived, expecting to produce in June or July 2026. The sows have no interest for boars, the teats are enlarging, they have less appetite, their abdomen are enlarging and they are calm. We are hoping that the remaining 2 sows will also conceive since they started heat period last month.

We are optimic that this project is expand in a short period and farmers will benefit from it. 

The Rabbit Project has been an exciting journey towards sustainable agriculture and income generation for smallholder farmers with significant challenges. The primary challenge was high mortality rate among baby rabbits (bunnies) which created setbacks in meeting the project’s goal of expanding rabbit populations among farmers to promote sustainable benefits such as manure production and income generation.

Understanding the gravity of challenge, we have been engaging experts in rabbit rearing as well as organizing trainings for farmers in order to address the challenge. Unfortunately, in September 2025 we lost all the bunnies and rabbits which faced us change from rabbitry to piggery.

The change from rabbitry to piggery is driven the advantages of piggery over rabbitry. Piggery has high profitability, pigs have faster growth and market-ready time, efficient feed conversion and wider market appeal, making it a more attractive venture despite potential challenges like diseases and biosecurity.

We gaveout 4 piglet lets to 2 groups of smallholder farmers in Hoima and now the  pigs for 5 months. This piggery project will operate through  Pay-It-Forward System where each farmer will passes on an offspring to another person in the group. This will to promote sustainable empowerment and continuous community development.

We are grateful to your generous support in community development. Piggery shows high potential of growth and serving the purpose of enhance economic development among rural smallholder farmers of Kitoba-Hoima.