Twansing Kharshiing is a 30-yr-old entrepreneur who resides in Laitmawpen Village of Mawphlang C&RD Block. The village depends mainly on agricultural activities for their livelihood, given the fact that there is unavailability of employment opportunities here.
Being the eldest of all siblings, he decided to take responsibility of the family’s financial burden and in the year 2010, Twansing Kharshiing along with his family decided to start a small piggery unit in their village. The whole family is currently involved in this business.
The reason they started the piggery unit was because they believed that amongst various other livestock species, piggery was emerging as one of the viable sources of livelihood. Besides taking care of the business, he also works as a daily labourer and as a construction worker in Shillong. Life was difficult for him and his family before they started the piggery business as agriculture alone was unable to fulfil the needs and requirements of the family.
They started the business with just five pigs, one boar (Rs.4000 each) and four swine (Rs.3000 each) which amounted to a total of Rs.7000. He bought the pigs from Mawlai in Shillong from a private piggery unit. The construction of the pig sheds cost the family around Rs.90,000. The mother pigs were sold after they give birth for the second time and it is usually recommended to sell the piglets after every nine months. These pigs were sold to the traders in the village or to Shillong. The piglets are sold at Rs.3000 (for boars) and Rs.2000 (for Swine) and Rs.18000 to Rs.12,000 for the pigs that were reared in the shed under his care.
He was registered in the Entrepreneur Facilitators Centre (EFC) Mawphlang C&RD Block in the year 2016. After six months of registration, he was sent for trainings in Mawsawa village for rearing and marketing of pigs. After having completed the trainings, there was a year when he reared thirty pigs in the shed and this was the highest number of pigs he ever reared. Presently, he has twenty pigs, one boar and four swine as well as fifteen piglets in the shed. Every month he spends Rs.3500 per sack for feed and in a month, he requires buying fifteen sacks of feed at Rs.60 per kg for left-over dry fish from the market. He took a loan from the bank to expand the piggery unit which was facilitated by the ERP of Mawphlang EFC.
Twansing has been facing the difficulty of getting water, especially during the dry season. Despite the fact that there is a PHE water pipe near his house, the water is not enough to meet his requirements. He has to walk fifteen minutes from his house to fetch water and also requires assistance from his siblings for fetching water. His main objectives are to expand the business and to maintain a record so that he can witness the growth of the business. Although the family’s living condition has greatly improved after the starting of the piggery unit, a lot more is yet to be achieved in terms of overcoming challenges.