THE Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) of Negros Occidental has extended various veterinary services to farmers associations in Silay City.

The activity held at Barangay E. Lopez yesterday includes veterinary medical mission, poultry health management seminar, value-adding training, and turnover of free-range chicken livelihood project.

For the livelihood project, PVO distributed 400 heads of two-week-old chicks to eight farmers associations.

Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena along with city and barangay officials headed by Mayor Mark Andrew Arthur Golez and personnel of the provincial and city veterinary offices led the turnover ceremony.

Decena emphasized to farmer-recipients the need to be passionate in raising livestock and poultry animals.

He also underscored the importance of knowing their responsibility as association members and beneficiaries of government programs.

“We urged raisers to organize themselves as a group so as to avail of various interventions from the government like this free-range chicken livelihood project,” Decena said, adding that associations are partners of the province in sustaining the success of its programs.

PVO said veterinary services extended, especially the livelihood project, are aimed at alleviating the economic status of the farmer-raisers in the province.

These services are hoped to also boost the marketability of their products through one, conducting training on value-adding like meat processing.

Farmers, as well as other members of the family, are engaged in these activities, it added.