Return on investment of using artificial insemination in pigs on three selected farms in Wakiso District Central Uganda

Abstract

In Uganda piggery farming is one of the most commonly practiced enterprises playing an important role in small-scale farming systems as a source of income and capital accumulation for use at critical times like medical treatment, paying school fees, etc. The study was conducted to determine the return on investment (ROI) of using Artificial Insemination in Pigs on three selected farms in Central Uganda. A cross-sectional study was conducted and data was collected using semi-structured interview questionnaires which were administered face-to-face with the respondents (one farm owner and two managers). The interview questionnaires assessed data regarding the financial records of AI service costs, treatment and prevention costs, feedings costs, and sources of revenue per inseminated sow per year. The data was collected from a sample of 3 farms which was then analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2016 version to obtain the ROIs of all three farms(per inseminated sow per year) which were obtained using a formula as indicated in the methodology and imported to STATA MP Version 17 for graphical analysis. On the three farms designated as farms 1, 2 & 3, the highest ROI was obtained from farm 3 (49.13%), then followed by farm 1 (21.25%), and the lowest from farm 2 (-1.98%). Farm 2 invested the least in AI services and on treatment and disease prevention and this limited veterinary visits to the farm and so it had the highest losses due to mortalities and low feeding. The study also revealed that the annual gross revenue was higher in farms 3 (UGX. 6,550,000) and 1 (UGX. 1,780,000) since they had more AI practices per year which gave a higher annual sum of piglets sold and a low AI practice in farm 2 has a low gross revenue of UGX. 1,240,000 which gave a low expected yield that resulted in low gross revenue. Therefore, AI practices bridged the gap between poor heat detection and piglets per gestation hence increasing earnings from the sale of piglets and manure. This contributed to the high gross revenue on farm 3 thus a higher total revenue than the total cost of investment. The higher the investment, the more the revenue returned, hence the higher the ROI. So, farmers investing in AI should also invest in nutritious feeds to get maximum returns from piglets. More research has to be done on the ROI of using AI in pigs, putting pig breeds, marketing strategy, and size of funding into consideration.