Bodo council plans India’s first pig schools

The Bodoland Territorial Council is scheduled to ink a deal with the Danish government for setting up India’s first pig school in Assam

Pigs are literally hogging the limelight in what could be an economic turnaround across Assam’s Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).

The Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), which rules the 8,970 sq. km region comprising four Bhutan-bordering districts of the State, is scheduled to ink a deal with the Danish government for setting up India’s first pig schools, preferably with a centralised academy.

Such institutions would be modelled on the Danish Pig Academy, located at Herning in Denmark’s Jutland peninsula, offering three-year courses on “efficient solutions for pig production”.

“But the courses based on European expertise would be tweaked to suit local conditions and needs with the incorporation of traditional knowledge about pig-rearing,” BTC’s chief executive member Pramod Boro told The Hindu.

Animal husbandry and piggery experts have also been trying to design shorter courses that would provide local farmers with the technical know-how and knowledge about biosecurity — a crucial component given the outbreak of African swine fever in Assam and elsewhere in the northeast over the past couple of years.

“A few months ago, we sent a team to study the Danish model. A team from the Danish Consortium of Academic Craftsmanship also visited BTR to study the feasibility of pig schools for training farmers and entrepreneurs,” Mr. Boro said.

“We are now sending 50 farmers to Denmark to learn various aspects of piggery from rearing to making pork products,” he said, adding that work on the schools would start soon after the BTC and the Danish government sign a memorandum of understanding.