Farmers lose millions as Swine Fever ravages Oke-aro pig farm

 

BY KAZIE UKO

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Pig farmers in Oke-aro, a border community in Ogun State have called on the Lagos State Government to come to their aid, following huge losses running into millions of Naira incurred by operators.

The Oke-aro Pig Farm Settlement, a Lagos State-owned project even though located in Oke-aro, Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, has been ravaged by African Swine Fever (ASF), a virus that mortally attacks pigs.

Information out of the settlement, reputed to be the largest of such animal husbandry in West Africa, reveals a tale of woes by farmers who have suffered huge financial losses and some others who have lost lives or come under severe health challenge as a result of material loss.

The ASF outbreak chose a very inauspicious time to attack; a time the whole world is consumed in the war against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and Lagos being the epicentre of the infectious disease battle at the Nigerian end.

Some of the pig farmers who spoke to RELIABLESOURCENG.COM recounted tales of complete helplessness.

“Please if you know any farmer in Oke-aro this is a time to rally round and encourage them. It’s been a traumatic time for farmers there. Please reach out to farmers you know there, it’s a disaster.

“I spoke to a few friends and they have lost all their animals in 100’s, some in 200’s. It’s really sad. Lives have been lost as a result of shock of loss.

“For my own, I lost 56 animals of different categories. From the calculation I did, that would be about N945,000, close to one million Naira. I however had to sell others at forced sale price. So, putting the financial loss together, it would be about N1.5 million. This however does not include loss of expected revenue aside from what cannot be quantified,” one of the farmers, a woman, who gave her name simply as Iya Bisola narrated to us.

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She added: “The disease has ravaged the whole of new site and has entered the old site now. Many farmers in the old site are quickly selling off to avoid total loss that happened in the new site. The lockdown of Lagos also was not helpful because many farmers could not get buyers while the restrictions were on and even now that there are inter-state lockdowns.

“However, thank God for life. I’m indeed grateful for the lives of everyone around me. What is lost can be replaced and I believe God to restore my losses in multiple folds in Jesus name.”

Another farmer who gave his name as Kudit said he lost about 300 animals to the virus. “It was terrible sir. I have lost over 300 animals so far – close to N7 million,” he said.

Yet another farmer, a middle-aged man, who also works as a civil servant said he had resorted to fate for comfort. “My brother, mine is still minimal compared to some others. I personally lost almost 60 animals, almost 600,000 thousand Naira. A lot of farmers lost huge money from pig farming this year. So pathetic. I give thanks to God for everything,” he said.

But if Federal and Lagos State Government response to the crisis at Oke-aro is anything to go by, there appears to be no respite in sight, at least for now, for the farmers. First, is that governments at both centre and the state, are currently focussed on the more critical issue of managing the COVID-19 situation which has long been classified as a global pandemic. Second, is what is seen as recalcitrant attitude of the farmers themselves in the way they conduct their trade.

A joint report of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), National Veterinary and Research Institute (NVRI) and Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture sighted by RELIABLESOURCENG.COM gives credence to this belief.

An excerpt from the report reads: “The ASF outbreak at Oke-aro is quite challenging to contain and control. We (FMARD, NVRI and MOA) have been on it for close to two months now. Here are the challenges: There is no vaccine or treatment for the disease. The only way to go about it is to cull the pigs and shut the pig estate for about 6 months while decontaminating the pig settlement.

“However, there is no compensation for this. So, this measure isn’t possible. We are only left with managing the situation by educating the farmers on good hygienic practices: this practice is quite difficult for them to imbibe because they do not understand the principles or they think it’s too simple to prevent or contain the outbreak.

“The biggest challenge is the disposal of carcasses. The pig farmers dispose carcasses in canals because they do not have space to dig and do proper burial disposal system. Their poor disposal system and lack of biosecurity measures is indeed hampering our decontamination activity and the control of the disease. We do a weekly decontamination of the pig settlement premises but this is not enough to control the disease.

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“Hence, we are thinking of conducting a workshop with farmers after the pandemic to train farmers on ASF, the mode of transmission and good hygienic practices, SOPs to help prevent the virus from ravaging their pig farms. The MOA has a lot of work in having to restructure the pig settlement regarding institution of SOPs and proper disposal system. This is the point where we are.”

The President of the Pig Farmers Association of Nigeria (PFAN), Prof Akin Adesehinwa, confirmed the outbreak of the disease in the farm and the various losses that farmers had suffered. He also confirmed that a joint group from FMARD, NVRI and MoA Lagos State had visited the settlement to ascertain the level of devastation.

He said he had reached out to the authorities at both the FMARD and Lagos State MoA, with a view to arresting the situation as well as compensating the farmers for their losses and that government had asked that the farmers compile their losses.

Prof Adesehinwa described the ASF issue at Oke-aro as a complex one. “You know the farm belongs to Lagos State Government but it is situated in Ogun State. The community lacks basic amenities, such as water and waste disposal, necessary to operate in that environment. This has often hampered proper sanitary condition in the farm. There are other issues that have to do with the farmers themselves and we are always working at educating them on best practices,” he said.

However, he said there was little government can do for farmers now until the issue of coronavirus is out of the way.