The long neglected dairy and livestock sectors will receive a boost when the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries starts a 5-year Master Plan to empower backyard hog raisers, increase the national cattle population from 2.5-million to 5 million and raise milk production from 1% to 10% of the national requirement starting 2018.
The 5-Year Road Map for Livestock and Dairy which is now being crafted by the DAF will bring together all of the agencies under the department and focus their resources on the declared targets.
On Wednesday, the 5-Year Development Road Map for Livestock and Dairy received a boost with a commitment of support from Brazil, a country of 200-million people with about 230-million cattle population.
Brazil is the fourth country to manifest support for the country’s livestock and dairy program following New Zealand, Israel and Argentina.
Brazilian State Minister for Agriculture Blairo Borges, in a bilateral meeting with the Philippine delegation, said his country is willing to share outstanding breeds of cattle, especially the proven Girolando, which is a cross-breed of the Brazilian Gyr and Holstein ideal both for milk and meat production in tropical climates.
Minister Borges also pledged technical support for the Philippines livestock program, including the development of forage.
The 5-Year Road Map for Livestock is set to start 2018 with the training of identified beneficiaries in cattle raising, forage and milk production.
The first batch of the Brazilian Girolandos for milk and meat production will arrive in 2019 and will be kept in the municipal multiplier farms which will be established all over the country.
The first batch of cattle from Brazil will be the ready-to-breed females or heifers and will be impregnated using fertilised embryos which could come from Argentina and Brazil.
The municipal multiplier farms which will be located in one compact area will also serve as the training centre for milk production.
For backyard hog raising, the 5-Year Road Map includes the training of the stakeholders, the establishment of Feed Mills using local materials, the establishment of abattoirs and meat processing plants and the organisation of the hog raisers into a viable organisation which could directly market their produce.
Along with the Livestock Road Map, the DAF has also designed a 5-Year Backyard Poultry Development Program which involves a national vaccination program, the training and distribution of upgraded free-range native chicken in the farming villages all over the country.
All of these programs are intended to realise President Rody Duterte’s commitment of Available and Affordable Food for the Filipino people.
| via DA Sec. Manny Piñol
