Both organized and un-organized small holder pig farmers suffer due to non-availability of quality germplasm in their vicinity. Indiscriminate use of limited number of breeding male available in the region leads to decline in reproductive performance and overall productivity of the farm. Artificial insemination (AI) technique bring immense opportunities in overcoming the deficiency of breeding boar and could promote in establishment of small holder breeding unit for meeting the demand of quality pig germplasm. An attempt has been made to introduce and popularize the AI technique in pig in Nagaland under the ongoing Mega Seed Project on Pig. With this perspective, the present study has been carried out with two objectives, first to evaluate the semen quality and sexual behaviour of boars used for AI and second, to appraise the performance of AI techniques being adopted in organized farm and field condition in Nagaland. The sexual behaviour traits like reaction time (RT), ejaculation time (ET), and the semen quality parameters like volume, concentration, total sperm per ejaculate, motility and weight of gel fraction in ejaculates semen were recorded for representative collection in Large Black, Ghungroo, Hampshire and Hampshire – Ghungroo cross breed boars. Our study has revealed that about 63.64 % of boars responded in training for donating semen and the Ghungroo boar is the quickest (4 days) in getting trained and also responded with shortest RT (2.23 min) as compare to other boars. Further, the semen quality of all the boars were appeared within the permissible range and interestingly, the weight of gel fraction was recorded to be directly proportional to the ejaculation time and inversely proportional to the sperm concentrations in ejaculates. The better performances of AI in terms of conception rate (83.93% vs. 71.21%), litter size (10.09 vs. 6.12) and service per conception (1.19 vs. 1.40) were recorded in organized farm than at field condition. The knowledge of inseminator in the AI technique and use of single insemination was seemed to be the bottleneck in overall performance at field condition. From the present study, it can be concluded that the AI technique could be an effective tool in propagation of quality germplasm in farm as well as field condition provided the correct insemination protocols followed. The proper heat detection, use of double insemination protocol with properly preserved semen should be adopted in farm and field condition for better conception rate and litter size.

Keyword: Artificial insemination, Semen quality, Sexual behaviour, Reproductive efficiency, Pig,