This is exactly what one pig farmer revealed to me as I sweet-talked her trying to get a pig feeding formula out of her. Well, this is what I’ve been upto since the beginning of February, immediately I finished putting up a pig house. I’ve been going around my area talking to farmers trying to learn as much as I can about pig management, and different things they were doing in their farms. And I was particularly interested in their feeding formulas, and on this I had to coax some into letting me in.
And I tell you you will be surprised if you saw what farmers are feeding their pigs out there. Some would make you give up on eating pork, bacon and other pig products. Some farmers have left theirs to roam the village, scavenging in dumps in the name of free range.
So I’ve gathered enough, and before those piglets come in, I’m sure I would have a cheap working formula to start experimenting on. I want to compare notes, that was the aim of my wandering around.
But this one particular farmer just left me flabbergasted, and disgusted at what he told me. This farmer, a fat single mother of one only recently moved into the neighborhood from Kakamega County, and when I learned she too keeps pigs, I decided to call on her.
She had a knew, quite decent structure housing two beasts and a sow with about a dozen piglets tied with ribbons and pieces of clothes — the ones already booked — in the front porch of her brick house(that was strange). So after the usual chitchat, fluttering, she felt like she could trust me. So leaning towards me she whispered which was unnecessary since it was just us and her child, a KCPE candidate who had just come home and still in her uniform.
“But kijana kama unataka your pigs to fatten and grow big quickly, zilishe tembe moja ya RV.” She said.
I didn’t get what she meant by “RV”,at first thinking it was some feeding formula. Her daughter, standing by the main door must have read the confusion on my face because before I could ask she quickly replied.
“ARVs,” she smiled. “For HIV.”
“Ee, izo dawa za watu wa HIV.” Her mother reiterated.
That’s when it dawned on me what the lady meant. To be honest, it took me a whole lot of strength to keep myself from throwing up at those piglets that were playfully sniffing and licking my boots. I had no words for the lady and her nefarious farming practices.
“No!” I said staring outside at some lady burning stuff in her farm nearby to hide my disappointment. “Don’t you think that’s a little too far?”
“I was only letting you in on a secret,” she smiled wickedly. “But I see you don’t have the heart.”
And as I left her home, I couldn’t think of anything else. I wanted to share with my family but thought against it. It’s quite a sensitive issue and I couldn’t have the lady blaming me for anything bad happening to her and her farm. So I went on the internet to research on the stuff, and unfortunately it’s not a knew phenomenon. Detrimental farmers have been doing it for some time now, mixing arvs with feeds to feed to their pigs and chicken.
But it’s a bad practice that should not be encouraged. Those drugs have been made specifically for HIV patients not to fatten pigs, and who knows what they contain. Pigs fed on such drugs could be harmful and unfit for human consumption.
But honestly, how far can people go for profits? Maybe I’m the naive one here, and it’s the norm out there. I don’t know. But if you’ve heard of any such things, or have any comment, please share with us.