Pig farmers in the Ikangba/Agoro axis of Odogbolu Local Government Area, Ogun State, have lamented losses estimated at over N5bn after outbreaks of African Swine Fever, calling on the federal and state governments to provide compensation, soft loans and other forms of assistance to revive their businesses.
The farmers, under the aegis of the Ikangba/Agoro Pig Farmers' Association, made the appeal during a protest organised alongside the Food and Farmers' Rights Campaign in Ikangba Town on Wednesday.
Ikangba/Agoro pig farmers protesting the loss of over N5bn to African Swine Fever on Wednesday. Photo: The PUNCH.
The protesters carried placards calling on President Bola Tinubu and Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun to intervene, with messages including "President Bola Tinubu, Gov Dapo Abiodun, please come to our aid; African swine fever has destroyed our means of livelihood."
Other placards read "African swine fever virus is not a spirit; government should find a cure to this deadly virus" and "Over N5bn lost to African Swine Fever, we are now jobless and depressed."
Speaking for the group, Bolu Owotomo said, "For several weeks running, we pig farmers within the Ikangba/Agoro axis in Odogbolu Local Government, numbering over 2,000, have lost tens of thousands of pigs worth over N5bn, and the losses are still counting, to the outbreaks of the rampaging, highly contagious, but non-zoonotic African Swine Fever virus."
He explained that the outbreak had forced more than 99 per cent of farms in the affected axis to shut down, throwing thousands of farm workers and their dependants out of work, and plunging families that depended on the business into hardship.
Another farmer, John Eko, said the losses had devastated households and left many farmers unable to repay loans taken to expand their piggeries, appealing to banks to grant a moratorium on the facilities.
The farmers urged the Ogun State Government to urgently constitute a veterinary response team, deploy vaccination and biosecurity support to contain the spread, and work with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to declare a state of emergency on the outbreak in the axis.
They also demanded that the state government provide relief materials for affected families and a rehabilitation fund to help restock farms once the outbreak is contained, warning that continued inaction could push pork prices higher across the South-West.
African Swine Fever does not infect humans, but it is highly lethal to pigs, and outbreaks in Nigeria have repeatedly wiped out farm stocks with no approved vaccine widely available to commercial farmers in the country.
Credit: The PUNCH.
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