In the years that I served government as a local executive, first as Mayor and later as Governor, I have seen many flawed government interventions against poverty which were largely unsuccessful but which were continued because they were politically popular.
One of these was the Animal Dispersal Program where government, both national and local, distributed cows, carabaos, goats, sheep, chicken, ducks and others without even preparing the beneficiaries by training them on how to handle the animals, much less make money out of them.
Some of the funniest, if not infuriating, stories I heard when I was Governor came from recipients of Carabaos and Cows who, when asked how their animals were doing, would relate how a venomous snake bit the animals (what a coincidence) on the eve of the last fiesta of the village.
Of course, I know what happened to the animals. They were slaughtered.
This is what happens when the individual farmers and beneficiaries of the Animal Dispersal Program are allowed to have the final control on what to do with their animals.
Learning from this experience, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) will totally eliminate the largely unsuccessful Cattle Dispersal Program for individual farmers where government splurged hundreds of millions of pesos.
In the 5-Year National Livestock and Dairy Development Program designed by the DAF, each participating village or town will become the Community Multiplier Farms which will be owned and managed by a group of farmers.
Each Commuity Multiplier Farm will have a minimum of 100 heifers which will serve as a breeding farm, a dairy production area and a learning centre at the same time.
I have asked technical people to design a shed which will utilise solar technology to provide power and water.
Under the scheme, whatever earnings are made will be shared among the members of the Community Multiplier Farms and the income could be generated from the sale of the calves and the milk production.
To ensure market for the milk production, the DAF will collaborate with the Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare Development and the Department of Education to start a milk feeding program.
The Community Multiplier Farms will initially be established in at least 1,000 communities by 2019, especially in areas where forage and feed materials are abundant like sugarcane and corn growing provinces.
That would mean 100,000 heifers which, at an average birthing rate of 70%, would produce about 70,000 calves which would also be ready for breeding by 2021.
The 70,000 heifers which would produce calves are estimated to produce an average of 5 litres of milk each everyday for a national production of 350,000 litres.
By the year 2020, another 1,000 Community Multiplier Farms will be established and another 1,000 will be set up by 2021.
Some quarters may say that this is an overly ambitious program but I would rather be called ambitious than be labeled as an Agriculture Secretary who did nothing to change things.
Besides, with the availability of forage materials and the largely untapped woman sector in the agriculture industry, I believe the Philippines has the potential of producing enough meat for the needs of the Filipinos 10 years from 2019.
This program is also expected to reduce the country’s dependence on imported milk and dairy products which seriously drains our foreign reserves.
The Philippines has long squandered its distinct advantage of being one of the very countries in the world that does not have the dreaded Foot and Mouth Disease.
Under President Duterte, things will definitely change.
(Photos included in this post were downloaded from public websites. Last two photos show the Brazilian Girolando which could be the main breed in the Philippines Livestock and Dairy Development Program.)
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