THE Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) is upbeat that organizing the poultry integrators in Negros Occidental will impact positively to the sector, its top official said Thursday.
Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena said they organized the Poultry Integrators Association and elected interim officers on Wednesday, mainly to trace and design possible partnerships in terms of biosecurity, pollution and fly control.
Decena said the eight poultry integrators in the province comprised of 168 contract growers provide support to local animal production, including broiler stocks, feeds, medicine and technology.
“Negros Occidental is a chicken-eating populace. These integrators are the provincial government’s partner in ensuring food security,” he said, adding that the newly-formed association has the capacity to produce total of 1.5 to two million heads of broiler per month.
Among the agenda discussed during their meeting was the reevaluation of the farms of all poultry integrators.
Decena said they he had already deployed eight personnel to conduct the evaluation which started last week.
Their registration can only be renewed if they follow the biosecurity, pollution and fly control techniques, Decena said.
“We will further know the real picture of the broiler industry after the evaluation in three weeks,” he added.
The PVO, during the meeting, also agreed to open the laboratory services to the integrators and involve them in various outreach activities of the province.
“Our concern is more on the production side, integrators will just compete in the marketing aspect,” Decena said as he stressed that “Negros chicken is wholesome and it is free from diseases.”
For long term impact, forming the integrators as an association is also seen to help boost production at the barangay and backyard levels.
Decena pointed out that like what they have done for the Alliance of Hog Raisers Association (Ahrano), the PVO is also trying to improve chicken production from big businesses to backyard scale.
“Broiler production is profitable for commercial level but we have to also develop the backyard scale especially in First and Sixth Districts,” he added.