Mangaluru: The COVID-19 lockdown in the Dakshina Kannada district has hit the pig farming industry here pretty hard.
The pig farming industry has never witnessed this type of lockdown in the district ever before. The pig farmers say they have witnessed one or two days of district bundhs over the years, however, these had no impact on piggeries.
The pig farmers in the Dakshina Kannada district are completely dependent upon the functioning of hotel, hostels and the catering business. Since the 21-day complete lockdown in the entire country has put a stop to all of these activities, the industry has been dealt a serious blow.
Food wastage from hotels and hostels has also completely stopped. Those who depend on piggeries for their livelihood are now finding it very difficult to run the business as they don’t get leftovers from hotels or hostels to feed the pigs. In the absence of food leftovers, they have to buy rice or wheat to feed the pigs, which is much costlier than the leftovers from hotels and hostels.
Those who have 250 to 300 pigs in their shed, need to spend nearly Rs 3 lakh on rice or wheat, in the absence of leftovers (which costs only Rs 1 lakh per month).
The district has over 400 pig farmers who are finding it very difficult to run their business. As the non-veg hotels, bars and restaurants are closed, the demand for pork is also very less. This has also added to the woes of the piggery business.
Santhosh D’Costa, a resident of Neermarga who runs a piggery told newskarnataka.com that he had taken loans from local money lenders to start his business two years ago. “During the two years, I did not make any profits. When my piggery business was just about to start yielding profits, the lockdown was announced and it hit my business badly. If the lockdown continues, then my business will definitely incur heavy losses,” he lamented.
The lockdown, although necessary to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), has come as a major blow to many businesses that have already been struggling over the past few months.
