Young entrepreneurs, who had left cushy jobs in metros to take up pig farming back home in Assam, are now facing a threat to their livelihood due to a new virus that has reached the north-east from China These days, Runa Rafique, a pig breeder in Guwahati, is fielding a barrage of calls from other pig farmers from Dhemaji, Namrup, Tezpur, and more. “They call up and ask, ‘Baidew, what do we do?’," shares Rafique.
She has no answers for them. “I feel equally helpless." The reason? African Swine Fever, or ASF, which is killing pigs and threatening the livelihood of the state's growing commercial pig farming industry.
Cases have been reported earlier from Africa, the Caribbean and South America. But this is a first for India. P.N. Konwar from