A three day consultancy training programme on Scientific Pig farming for progressive pig farmers was organized by ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Old Goa from 21st to 23rd October, 2019. Total of ten progressive pig farmers from five different states viz. Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar and Karnataka, participated in the training programme. Dr. E.B. Chakurkar, Director (A) and course director of the programme opened the training session with introductory lecture on prospects of scientific pig farming and importance of artificial insemination in pigs. Dr. Gokuldas PP, Scientist (AR), ICAR-CCARI and Dr. Sanjay Kumar Udharwar, SMS, ICAR-KVK, North Goa acted as Training Coordinators. During the training, the trainees were exposed to sessions on scientific rearing of pigs including boar semen processing and artificial insemination, scientific housing, feeding, health management strategies for pig farming. Audio-visual sessions on relevant topics and field exposure visits to institute piggery units were also organized.

All the participants performed hands on sessions on artificial insemination in pigs. Dr. Chethan Kumar HB, Scientist (VPH) delivered a lecture on pig health management. Scientific method of castration in male pigs was also demonstrated during the training. All the farmer trainees showed keen interest in the programme and actively interacted with resource persons during the training. Overall, this training has contributed to capacity-building, entrepreneurship development in piggery and has also imparted much-needed knowledge on scientific pig farming to the pig farmers from across the country.