Omondi mints cash from pig farming venture

Nondis Farm Director Issac when we toured pig house in Machakos. (Jenipher Wachie)

 

As you approach Paul Omondi’s homestead in the afternoon sun, you are welcomed by unpleasant smell from the pigsty but to him, here is his port of making profits.

 Otieno confides that he has been in the business of pig rearing for the last seven years having started with only five piglets that were two and a half years old.

He says after a lot of careful studies and consultations regarding pig rearing from experts, he began from a small scale and today, Paul boasts more than 80 pigs at one point.

Paul, who is also a sugarcane farmer, says rearing and selling pigs has remained his favourite job ever since and has never bothered to seek employment elsewhere.

During KNA’s visit, a happy Omondi had 25 pigs left in his farm having sold over 40 pigs earlier to give him an opportunity to introduce a new breed.

“Pigs are easy to manage since they require little labour and space for rearing,” explains Paul. He says the simple nature of that form of agriculture is an added advantage.

He adds that he dedicates a lot of time for them only in the morning and evening and during those times, he cleans the pigsty and gives food to the pigs concurrently, and insists that he has followed the routine religiously. This, he says, also gives him opportunity to engage in other errands like visiting his sugarcane farm in the course of the day.

Paul explains that pigs mature faster when fed correctly and good breeds may give produce as many as fourteen piglets and that is perhaps what attracts him a good income annually. But he also points out, “Pigs require huge financial investment.”

And contrary to many people’s misconceptions, Paul explains “pigs are very tidy animals! They don’t eat and sleep in the same place they drop their waste, they do that in separate rooms.”