Polish Landrace Swine for Ryglice Swine Producers
No. 27-0639-01

The Ryglice community is located in sub-mountain region of Małpolska (Southeastern Poland) and consists of eight villages. Private farming is exercised on the 80% of the land. The average size of the farm is only 4 ha of land. As much as 76% of the soil is of poor quality and most of the fields are located on hillsides, making land cultivation difficult.

In the region of Malopolska, 47% of the inhabitants lives in rural areas, which is definitely higher percentage if compared with other regions of Poland. Other then agriculture job opportunities are very limited in there due to collapse of many local enterprises as well as lack of education and low mobility of the farmers.

HPI started cooperation with the farmers of Ryglice community in 2000 through providing 120 sows of Landrace breed to 40 selected families. The aim of the first phase of this project was to increase pork production, to better nutrition of the family members, and to improve genetic quality of swine in the area. The project has achieved all of its goals, which was proven by independent audit completed in 2003. Some of the farmers, however, were really determined to continue developing the swine production to make long term living for their families. Their enthusiasm and strong believe in success, created a solid base for the development of the second phase of the project. It is to include limited number of farmers who would like to make swine production sustainable source of income for their families and employment place for all the family members. To achieve this goals HPI will provide 40 Polish Landrace sows and 2 boars for the 20 families from this area.

The project is conducted with the Association for Economic Development of Ryglice.

Back