Agriculture
Scavenging Pigs, Unwholesome For Human Consumption – Director
Members of the public have been warned to refrain from patronising inappropriately bred livestock products, especially pork from pigs as they constitute a wide range of health hazards.
A director in the livestock and veterinary services dept in the Rivers State Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Allswell Emejuru, who gave the charge in his office in an exclusive interview said pigs were the main culprit and should be kept in a clean and hygienic environment.
He said pigs are well known scavengers and should be housed in well built pig pens with concrete walls and enough water to enable them have a clean skin and overall good health.
According to him, in such a situation, “the pig on their own know where to defecate, they will drink water at designated points and wallow in water when they feel hot”, he said.
Dr. Emejuru who is also the Head of the Department said the proper thing to do was to keep the pigs in pens partitioned into different groups which include the weaners, the pregnant, nursery and littering among others.
He frowned at situations were people allow their animals, especially pigs to roam about in the streets scavenging which leads to lack of control of their feeding habits which puts a big question mark on their health condition and unwholesome for human consumption.
He explained that in such a case the animals pick up many diseases apart from the ones they are known to be carriers like round worm, hook worm and tape worm among other harmful diseases.
He further warned against patronising pork meat that were not properly handled because the diseases so picked up by these animals are a good source of transmission to human beings.
On efforts to check the menace of these scavenging animals which roam about without care, Dr. Emejuru explained that though such animals constitute environmental hazards, it was not the duty of the Agriculture Ministry to check the trend.
He, therefore, advised government environmental agencies saddled with responsibilities of checking environmental pollution in the society to take appropriate action.
“There are government agencies that are involved in environmental management so they should take appropriate measures to check the pathetic situation”, he advised.
Federal Government and the Ogun State Government, on Wednesday, distributed farm inputs to farmers as part of effort to address food security challenge.
The State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Toyin Ayo-Ajayi, during the flag-off ceremony of Inputs Redemption Under The National Agricultural Growth Scheme-Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP), in Ogun State, disclosed that beneficiaries of the gesture were primarily rice, maize and cassava farmers across the State.
Ayo-Ajayi commended the Ogun State Government for partnering with the government at the centre for the effort in supporting farmers with inputs that would bring about yieldings for local consumption and likely exportation.
She noted that government is supporting rice, cassava and maize farmers with inputs worth N212,000; N189,000 and N186,000 respectively.
The Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Kehinde Jokotoye, who represented the Commissioner in the Ministry, Bolu Owotomo, stated that traditional farmers are critical in food production, hence the need to encourage and support them with inputs that would bring about desired results during harvesting.
Owotomo said: “Let us make good use of this opportunity, so that the success of this phase will make farmers benefit more from the state and federal governments of Nigeria.”
Earlier, State Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Oluwatoyin Ayo-Ajayi, appreciated the present administration for partnering with the federal government for the initiative, adding that the programme is designed to support farmers at the grassroots level in cassava, rice and maize with inputs such as, seeds, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, to boost their production and enhance their livelihood.