P120M grant for hog farmers affected by ASF
TO HELP them recover from the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak that struck Central Visayas in March 2023, the Department of Agriculture (DA) 7 extended financial assistance worth P120 million to a group of pork producers.
DA 7 Director Angel Enriquez led the ceremonial turnover of the check to Rolando Tambago, president of the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines, at the agency’s compound in Mandaue City on Monday, Sept. 11, 2023.
Enriquez said the funds are intended to repopulate swine breeder stocks in the region, stressing the importance of Central Visayas as the second largest producer of hogs in the country.
The cash grant was funded by the DA’s Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives for Recovery and Expansion (Inspire), a recovery and repopulation program for the hog sector affected by the ASF.
The DA National Livestock Program is spearheading Inspire in collaboration with livestock attached agencies, DA regional offices, local government units, and other stakeholders, including farmers’ cooperatives and associations.
Tambago expressed his gratitude to DA 7 for the cash grant, adding that the beneficiaries of the assistance will be directed to the 12 farms under the Central Visayas Pork Producers Cooperative, a member of their federation.
He said the 12 hog farms had qualified for the program.
“Kaning nga funds, kay naa ni siya potential nga maka-produce og 5,300 ka mga baboy kada bulan, meaning 63,000 ka baboy ang madungag nato matag tuig sa atuang inbentaryo,” Tambago said.
(This fund has the potential to produce 5,300 pigs per month, which means we can add 63,000 pigs to our inventory every year.)
The country is still experiencing a shortage of hog and pork supply, and swine re-population is one of the solutions for the industry to recover from the devastation brought by ASF.
“Imagine kung atua ning i-implement sa matag probinsya sa matag rehiyon with the P7 billion nga budget sa gobyerno, this will solve the problem of shortage,” he added.
(Imagine if this is implemented in every province in every region with the P7 billion government budget, this will solve the shortage problem.)
Tambago said some of the offspring of the breeding stock will be distributed among hog farmers associations in Cebu Province to pave the way for the program’s sustainability.
ASF was first detected in Carcar City in southern Cebu on March 1. The disease was detected in 12 more local government units in the ensuing weeks, which resulted in neighboring provinces banning the importation of hogs, pork meat and pork by-products from Cebu.
The ban forced Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to pursue legal measures against the Bureau of Animal Industry’s (BAI) culling and color-coding policy, as there was no massive hog fatality detected in the province.
The Cebu Provincial Government was able to obtain a temporary restraining order from the Court of Appeals on June 30 against BAI’s policy, which allowed local hog farmers to sell outside Cebu.
ASF was detected in Negros Island in June, while Bohol reported its first case in July.