The AngloGold Ashanti Iduapriem Community Trust Fund has partnered the Animal Sciences Department of the University of Cape Coast to train 20 host community members on the premises of the Mine in establishing and managing piggeries as businesses. This is part of the initiatives of the Trust Fund to drive local economic interventions and to support income levels of community members.
Piggery production has been identified as one of the viable and profitable ventures that has the capability of sustaining livelihood of a farmer and his household when undertaken as a family business venture.
Selected community members were taken through an eight-day training on theory and a field visit to a model demonstration piggery farm at Ewutu Breku in the central region to enable them have hands on experience of the pigsty and better understand how to successfully maintain the piggery for improved yields as well as the construction of pigsty for the farmers.
“The training has exposed us to modern trends in pig farming and we are very optimistic about our successes after our training. We are particularly grateful to the Iduapriem Gold Mine for the intervention,” Faustina Adoko Issah, a beneficiary from Mile 7 a host community of the Mine said.
Programme Manager of the Iduapriem Community Trust Fund, Kwame Oti Awere Prempeh explained that an amount of GH 170,000.00 is expected to be invested in the piggery production project within the 2018 fiscal year.
“At the end of the training, beneficiaries will be supported with starter stalk, pigsty, and feed and vertinary services. Market linkages for farmers will be created as well as the formation of farmer groups into cooperatives”.
Closing the training session, the Assembly Member of Teberebie Electoral Area Hon. Ernest Amoateng said the piggery training has been useful to him and encouraged all participants to take it serious and invest in it as a business.
