RADA partners with JSIF to strengthen biosecurity practices for pig farmers

The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), with support from the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), is working to strengthen farmer biosecurity practices, targeting 23 pig farmers per parish.

In the context of agriculture, biosecurity practices involve measures taken to protect farms from the entry of disease-causing agents and/or pests, that can wipe out livestock and crops.

While JSIF has provided farmers with key inputs, such as chicken and feed, which are geared towards increasing production, this aspect of the partnership improves how farms are sustainably managed.

Senior livestock officer with RADA, Maxine Brown, says the provision of equipment and gear to farmers continues.

“Under the first project, we were able to give farmers defeathering machines. They also got inputs in terms of feeders, and they were also introduced to a scalder to help them to be more efficient from a food safety perspective,” she told JIS News in a recent interview.

“After that programme, which was quite successful, they decided to continue to give us support for the broiler farmers. We also wanted to do something for pig farmers … to secure their farms against any sort of virus or bacteria that they may come in contact with,” she said.

Brown said, especially with the African swine fever and bird flu affecting other countries, tightening biosecurity measures is crucial now more than ever.

“We don’t want to be reactive. We want to ensure that farmers understand that biosecurity measures are something that should be a normal part of good agricultural practices. We had asked JSIF if they could work with us to do biosecurity intervention for pig farmers because we know pig farmers tend to have a lot of waste,” she said.

Pigs tend to breed rapidly and can be more susceptible to some diseases than other kinds of livestock.

Brown said that, through the programme, items such as water tanks, push brooms and sanitising materials were provided.

“We wanted to ensure that they are now putting in these minor things, because it’s an introduction and we don’t want to overwhelm them with everything all at once. I am hoping that, after this intervention, maybe we could continue working with JSIF to expand the programme to incorporate more farmers,” she added.

For details on the programme and how pig farmers can access biosecurity support, persons can visit rada.gov.jm.