Pig rearing has been mentioned as one of the profitable activities that Gatundu sub county farmers can engage in to substitute their tea income.
Gatundu North sub-county Livestock Production Officer John Gikinya has said that they will roll out a program that will involve sensitizing farmers on the need to diversify their farming in order to have various source of income rather than just relying on a specific source of income.
Gikinya who was speaking in his office on Thursday at Kanjuku said that pig farming will be one of the areas that they will be educating the area farmers on saying that there was an increasing demand for pork products.
"Our main aim of the program will be to discourage farmers from relying on either tea or coffee as the main sources of livelihood. There is more to tea and coffee. Pig farming is becoming a profitable venture because there is a ready market for pork products," said Gikinya.
The livestock officer added that many farmers in the area used to rear pigs in the past before they did away with them for lack of market but things have since changed.
"We are living in a very dynamic and fast-changing society. The fact that pig rearing led farmers to incur losses ten years ago doesn't mean that if they revisited the farming it will have a similar outcome," said Gikinya.
He also noted that pigs have good manure that can be used to enrich farms and in turn help boost food security in the sub-county.