CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The Department of Agriculture (DA) is set to launch starting 2018 a 10-year livestock and dairy development program which aims to increase the country's cattle population from 2.5 million to 5 million, according to DA Secretary Emmanuel Pinol.
This is also aimed to raise milk production from one percent to 10 percent of the national requirements and strengthen the backyard hog industry with the establishment of community feed mills using local feed materials.
"The program will be backed by a P3.7-billion fund included in the budget proposal for 2018, P1-billion from the Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP) I-Reap Project and P209-million fund under the PL-480 fund provided by the U.S. Government. The Livestock Development Program will be anchored mainly on the plan to import 10,000 heads of the dual-purpose Girolando heifers from Brazil and 100,000 heads per year thereafter from 2019 to 2022," the DA said.
Pinol said that the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) has been provided with an additional funding of P1-billion for 2018 for the purchase of 10,000 heifers while the PRDP will earmark an estimated P1-billion for the cattle sheds and other facilities needed for the program.
"Unlike the failed cattle development program in the past where imported animals were turned over individually to farmers which eventually were either sold or slaughtered, the livestock and dairy program under the administration of President Rody Duterte will implement the ‘multiplier farm concept’ where breeding and dairy farms with 100 heads each will be established as a community project and managed by groups of farmers. Using modern technology, the Girolando heifers will be impregnated using embryos, the sex of which has been pre-determined in the laboratory," Pinol said.
For 2018, a total of 100 multiplier farms will be established initially in Batangas, the Cordillera Region and in two other areas in Visayas and Mindanao where the malnutrition rate is very high, Pinol said.
Milk produced from the multiplier farms will be used in a milk feeding program which would target children in communities with very high malnutrition rate.
This would assure a ready market for the milk produced by the multiplier farms while at the same time addressing malnutrition. The dairy goat development program will be financed using available funds from the United States government's PL480 program amounting to about P200-million and local funds of about P30-million, according to Pinol.