Unlike the rest of the country, Assam has been battling two ‘alien’ viruses — one that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic to fell humans and the other responsible for the African swine fever (ASF) to kill pigs. As State’s Minister for Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Atul Bora has had his hands full addressing the impact of the lockdown on farmers and checking the spread of ASF to minimise the loss in the piggery business, one of the mainstays of the rural economy. Excerpts from an interview with Mr. Bora, who is also the president of the regional Asom Gana Parishad.
How did ASF strike in Assam?
The haemorrhagic viral disease detected for the first time in India could have come from carcasses dumped in rivers upstream of Assam. The first case of death due to ASF, initially thought to be the familiar and similar classical swine fever, was reported from Dhemaji district’s Jonai in adjoining Arunachal Pradesh where some pig deaths were reported first. Our labs detected an exotic virus which was confirmed recently as ASF by the National Institute of High-Security Diseases Laboratory in Bhopal. Some rivers flow down from China where ASF outbreak was confirmed in mid-2018 and in September 2019. Humans may also have passed on the virus.
How dangerous is ASF for humans?
Our experts including scientists at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s National Research Centre for Pigs at Rani (30 km from Guwahati) said ASF is not a threat to humans but they can be a threat to uninfected pigs as carriers. We have a confirmed case of such transfer from a farm in Dhemaji district where 230 pigs died. The virus came from an employee whose free-ranging pigs had died of ASF a few days before. This was why we asked all villagers to confine their pigs to sties, stopped transport of livestock, restricted pork sale, identified containment zones within one km radius of affected areas and surveillance zones within a 10-km radius.
How has ASF impacted during the lockdown?
The lockdown, in fact, was beneficial since it restricted the movement of people and checked the ASF virus from spreading. We have thus decided not to go for culling like China and some South-East Asian nations have done. The task forces formed at the State and district levels have advised pig farmers who are now sticking to the guidelines of burying dead pigs 6 ft underground with bleaching powder and salt. The local administration, police, veterinary and forest officials have been ensuring people do not dump carcasses in the rivers, and this is evident from the death figure remaining more or less constant over the last 48 hours. The involvement of forest officials is crucial because Assam has the very rare pygmy hog and more than 800 wild boars that at times mingle with domestic pigs reared near the jungles.
What about the rural economy to which piggery is a major contributor?
Lockdown restrictions and retrieval and proper disposal of carcasses from river systems helped restrict ASF to six districts. Moreover, most of the organised farms have been spared because of confining the pigs. Nevertheless, some unorganised pig farmers have and we are assessing their loss for compensation. Pigs are susceptible to many diseases but ASF is worrying because the piggery business has been booming in Assam over the last two years. Officially, 7 lakh farmers rear 21 lakh pigs that are supplied to markets beyond Assam for business worth a few thousand crores annually. What is also of concern is that the ASF virus is long-lasting. It can be active up to 30 months and can get into the human system through a slab of pork. This is why I have asked Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to coordinate with his counterparts in the other north-eastern States where pork consumption is high.
Apart from pig farmers, how has the lockdown affected agriculture-dependent Assam?
We cannot deny that lockdown has hit the farm sector hard. According to our assessment, commercial farmers have suffered a loss of ₹40.8 crore on perishables but small farmers have by and large benefited selling fruits and vegetables worth ₹113 crore locally. Last year, our farmers earned more than ₹300 crore by selling their produce to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and other States. We have already transferred to their accounts ₹478 crore during the lockdown as relief, though there are allegations of anomalies in some areas which we are looking into. We are working on a compensation plan through the Disaster Management Department for farmers on the basis of the area cropped and average yield. The lockdown also taught us a marketing strategy by eliminating middlemen and letting the farmers handle the selling part too. Since March 25, we formed more than 5,000 farmer-vendors for home delivery of fruits, vegetables and other local produce besides selling to retailers. We intend to continue with this system.
Are there any farm plans for the youth, mostly from rural areas, who face joblessness after returning from other states due to lockdown?
The Finance Minister (Himanta Biswa Sarma) said more than 5,00,000 youth who work outside bring ₹4,000 crore annually for their families and the State. The unprecedented lockdown has forced many of them to return, some unlikely to get their jobs back. We are targeting such youth for various schemes that need very little investment.
