Laurentine – Passionate about pig farming
23rd January 2020
Laurentine is passionate about pig farming – her mother says she looks at the pigs as if they are her babies. Laurentine and her mother live in Sedhiou, in southern Senegal, and have been struggling for survival. Now that Laurentine is using the new farming methods she learnt on the Ampa Awangna training camp, funded by Y Care International, they feel the future is brighter.
“I want to continue to do pig farming, get a bigger piece of land and start real production.
I now have 40 pigs and hope in the next 10 years to grow this to a farm where I have 200 or 300 pigs.
“Before the Ampa Awagna training camp I used traditional methods. Now I know the pigs don’t need to get out all the time – the modern way is to keep them in the shelter as when they wander around they can bring back diseases.
“If you feed a pig well and it fattens up in 18 months, you can sell a big pig for its meat for 35,000 – 50,000 CFA [£54 – £76], but if you don’t feed it well it can take 2 years to get to this size.
“So for us the challenge is finding food for the pigs and then selling the meat – there is really good money this way. I also have ambitions to sell my pigs as far as Ziguinchor to get a better price.
“I know it will be difficult to get more land but we will challenge ourselves. No matter how difficult it is we will do it. I am passionate and happy – I love being a pig farmer.”
Her mother, Colette, said: “She will succeed, I have no doubt. I am very positive about the future.”
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All images credited: Paddy Dowling/Y CARE International