The Suffering of North Sumatran Pig Breeder because of the African Swine Fever Terror

TRIBUNBATAM.id -  The outbreak of the African Swine Fever (ASF) or swine flu has already affected 16 City Districts in North Sumatra. This outbreak of livestock disease makes farmers in North Sumatra experience a slump.

Quoted from Kompas Daily, Sunday (1/26/2020), the death of pigs reported in a number of areas in North Sumatra has reached more than 42,000. 

The regional government cannot move because there is no emergency fund. Large scale companies are now also down because they cannot sell their livestock.

The Chairman of the North Sumatra Pig Farmers Association, Hendri Duin Sembiring, revealed that the breeders needed to explain whether they would depopulate and compensate. 

Depopulation is done to break the chain of spread of the virus, but compensation must be followed.

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"Until now, farmers didn't know what to do with the dead, infected, healthy and stable pens free from ASF. We face this alone, "he said. 

Now, the economy of pig farmers in North Sumatra has been getting worse since the ASF declaration because it was not followed by countermeasures. Pigs from North Sumatra are no longer accepted in other provinces or abroad.

Small and large breeders have worsened since the ASF declaration. The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government, for example, no longer receives pigs from North Sumatra.

In fact, 60 percent of North Sumatra's pig production is absorbed by Jakarta. The overall decline in sales reached 80 percent. 

Although not infected by ASF, company-scale of Pig Farms have fallen. The population in pigpen has increased twice, but cannot be sold.

The government also plans to issue ASF-free certificates to certain pens so that they can be sold outside the region.

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Andri Siahaan (33), a pig farmer in Sunggal District, Deli Serdang Regency, said the ASF outbreak continues to spread in pens in his village. The death of pigs continues occur at the center of pig farming. 

Pig collectors who usually go back and forth in the village are now no longer active.

"Even healthy pigs don't sell," he said.

Until now, they also have not received any treatment from the government. Most farmers even claim that they do not know what plague actually attacks their livestock.