THE Philippines, as one of the leading agricultural nations in Southeast Asia, will not only be advancing its agricultural and poultry sector, but also securing and supporting food security and elevating the socio-economic status of regional farmers in the country with the newly-invested world-class climate-controlled poultry farm.
The vision to provide solutions to the never-ending discussion of agri-economy was discussed by the present administration and San Miguel Foods Incorporated (SMFI) in Hagonoy, one of the 11th areas in the country and the sole municipality in Mindanao to operate the first Magnolia climate-controlled poultry megafarm projects.
The poultry megafarm projects were installed on Thursday morning, October 13, 2023 in Barangay Hagonoy Crossing, Hagonoy, Davao del Sur.
During his speech, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. emphasized the need for this kind of project as it will drive economic growth and sustainability. The project, according to him, is one way to provide better opportunities to Filipino workers and laborers, especially those under the lowest bracket or those at the bottom of the social strata.
“This facility is also expected to provide jobs to 1,000 Filipinos and general multiple opportunities for our small and medium-sized enterprises (SMSE), farmers, families, as well as other sectors in Hagonoy and other areas”
He added “Investments in infrastructure, agriculture, education, health, and transportation are crucial in driving our nation. Of the sectors I have mentioned, I put a high premium on investments in agriculture, as agribusiness is the key to combating hunger and poverty across the country,” the president said.
Marcos, who personally visited the municipality, stressed that the San Miguel facility is a testament that the Philippines is able to fight food scarcity.
“People realized that this is the way forward. We can no longer depend on the informal production of food in a way that we are dependent on for a very, very long time. We are [pushing] this very hard to make sure that in the Philippines, we are able to feed the people,” he concluded.
The Magnolia Food Group’s Poultry Megafarm Projects are large broiler farms to be set up in 11 provincial locations nationwide: These locations are geographically distributed in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. On the other hand, a total of 80 million chickens can be harvested annually or 200 million kilos in live weight, enough to serve the Mindanaoan people. The company seeks to have a fair mix of company-owned farms and dependable contract farmers, moving away from being completely dependent on contract growers.
Before the inauguration started, Marcos and Ramon Ang, owner of San Miguel Foods, toured each farmhouse. In a presentation, SMFI explained that the poultry megafarm has two following features: farm layout and house design. The latter will feature 28 modules of five farmhouses each. By keeping the younger chickens separate from the older ones at a safe distance, the modular design will enable the placement of birds of various ages on the farm. The former means that each farmhouse will have multiple levels, with enough room for the birds to move freely both vertically and horizontally.
The 1-2 sqft (0.09-0.18 sqm) animal welfare standard will be provided for each bird. The conveyor belt under each layer of these multi-tiered dwellings is a novel design element that enables daily manure cleaning, preventing ammonia build-up and flies from reproducing. DEF