Imtijungshi Pongen along with his son at their piggery farm at Aliba village. Imtijungshi Pongen, a former PHED work-charged employee left his job to start the piggery. Today his farm investment stands at lakhs of rupees. (Photo by Taliakum Pongen)
Morung Express Feature
Mokokchung | March 1
For 67-year-old Imtijungshi Pongen, life is a blissful sojourn as he rears his prized pigs at a farm some 25 kilometers away from Mokokchung town in Aliba village jurisdiction.
A former government employee, Imtijungshi Pongen was a work-charged employee in the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department for 27 years. Life was hard then, with the government failing to release salaries on time even as he had to look after his four sons and wife.
“I worked as a president of the department employees’ association. During that time, I fought with the authorities for timely release of salaries. I created a lot of enmity with the higher ups in the department,” said Imtijungshi. So, he left the government job and started his farm. And, fortune smiled on him.
In 2011, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) approached him to open a piggery at his farm. They gave him 10 piglets and constructed a small pigsty. The next year, his piggery increased to thirty pigs; and the next (2013) to 50 pigs. He enlarged the pigsty and after six years of hard work the piggery has more than 105 pigs during the peak season. Today, he has ten sows that have given birth or are pregnant. This year alone, that is, in the last two months, he disclosed he has sold more than seventy piglets.
“Leaving the government job was a blessing in disguise. If I was still employed in PHE department, then I would be receiving a salary of Rs. 6000, which would be released only once in three months,” he said. Now he earns more than Rs. 6 lakhs annually. His investment in the one hectare farm has grown to more than Rs. 12 lakhs. He also trains prospective pig farmers and earns Rs. 2000 per day during such trainings.
Not only that, Imtijungshi is more than satisfied that there are lots of people who have taken to piggery. His piglets are bought by people from neighbouring villages. Just a few kilometers away from his farm is another businessman, whose pigsty is teeming with mature pigs ready for market. Buyers are plenty; the market favourable in the pork-loving Naga society.
“My aim and objective is to make the Mokokchung market to give up dependence on imported meat. I am very sure that within the next five years, our meat demands will be sufficed from the farms in our State,” said Imtijungshi. He hopes to increase his piglets’ sale to 500 this year. Each piglet costs Rs 3000.
The Veterinary department had not visited his farm even once. And more interestingly, his piggery had never witnessed any disease outbreak during the past six years, while in other parts there were reported cases of swine disease outbreak in the past. He said that he appeared for an interview last year to get some ‘subsidy’ for pig farmers from the government, but was rejected and failed to get any subsidy.
Nonetheless, Imtijungshi Pongen asserted that unless the people go back to their lands, there is no way to solve the present economic problem in the society. He said that in other societies, if one had land then he is considered as rich; however, in Naga society, despite the abundance of land and the inherent wealth thereof, people aspire for government jobs or the like. He said that the younger generation should explore their land and be self sufficient which will in turn make the society a progressive one.
