THE Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) of Negros Occidental is working on enabling livestock and poultry animal raisers in the province to become entrepreneurs, its top official said.
Provincial Veterinarian Renante Decena said local farmer-raisers have already “mastered” the breeding aspect of livestock and poultry production whether hogs and chicken, among others.
Decena said raisers should venture entrepreneurship so they can put additional value to their products through one, processing their excess produce.
“Aside from providing theme marketing support like post-harvest facilities, we also link them to other agencies like the Department of Trade and Industry for product development including packaging and branding,” he added.
The PVO, through its Marketing Support and Post-Harvest Facilities Project, turned over P5 million worth of equipment to seven livestock associations and six local government units (LGUs) in the province.
The associations received value-adding equipment like meat grinders, meat slicers, bone saw cutters, digital weighing scales, glass top chest freezers, upright chillers with freezer and vacuum packaging machines.
LGUs, on the other hand, availed livestock weighing scales for cattle and detachable animal holding pens.
The project is mainly aimed at enhancing the capabilities of livestock associations and LGUs as active partners of the provincial government toward economic development.
Decena said through these post-harvest facilities, they hope to help farmer-raisers to develop their products.
“Product development will enable them make their product become more competitive in the market through one, having better packaging,” he said.
The provincial veterinarian pointed out that most local farmer-raisers are not yet used to selling their products. What they know is only to raise animals in their backyard.
So through these marketing support and post-harvest facilities, “we teach them to sell and manage their own enterprise.”