Two of our clients over the past year have chosen to keep pigs, and now many of the original sows are giving birth.

• The Mupimbishi Women have moved from four pigs to over a dozen, while the 
• JFFLS Community School is now the proud owner of over 20 piglets from an original group of five. 

Great, so what does this mean?

If we place a monetary value on each pig and piglett, then the growth of each business in a little over a year ranges from 300-400%. If the Mupimbishi women and JFFLS placed their enterprises on the stock market, they would be flooded with offers for investment at the rates of return produced by some healthy pig-love. So why are the members of many clients who choose to keep animals still struggling?

Animal husbandry is a popular, often straightforward formula for poverty alleviation. As animals reproduce, so does your product and the value of your business can increase at incredibly impressive rates. However, challenges such as disease, drought, theft, changes in the market and poaching by wild animals have the ability to bring any business dealing with livestock to its knees. Over half of CMI's client base has chosen to engage in animal husbandry from fish farming to poultry rearing to bee keeping and our beloved pigs above, however half of those members have had to close their business within 18 months due to some of the setbacks listed. 

How can we help clients like the Mupimbishi Women and JFFLS School who are motivated to increase their long term income through animal husbandry succeed? Are any of these pressing challenges avoidable, or is the business of raising animals in a developing region simply subject to a higher level of long term risk than is portrayed in the immediate numbers of growth after initial reproduction? We'll follow the 300-400% recent increase in value of the Mupimbishi women and JFFLS to find out over the next 6 months. Stay tuned.