Successful Project! Mt. Carmel Baptist Center Breeds Top Quality Goats

Kinuskusan, Bansalan, Davao del Sur – Some of the best dairy goat lines are now being distributed to small goat farmers’ cooperatives in the Davao Region by the Mt. Carmel Baptist Rural Life Center, thanks to a very successful Goat Breeding Program initiated by the Department of Agriculture in 2018.
Among the lines bred in the MBRLC Goat Farm are the famous Six M Galaxy and Goldthwaithe Anglo Nubians and the Lucky Star and Rockin CB Lamanchas.
This is by far the best Goat Breeder Farm and the most successful ever undertaken by the DA in partnership with a Non-Government Organization involved in rural agriculture training, a far cry from the previous goat dispersal programs marked by corruption and inferior goat breeds.
In 2016, when I assumed as Secretary of Agriculture, I discovered that even the procurement of animals for the DA’s dispersal program was tainted with irregularities and corruption.
Well-entrenched livestock traders cornered the supply contracts of goats and cattle with exorbitant prices and worse, poor quality animals.
The procured animals were then distributed to individual farmers or groups who had very little training on goat raising and the end result was predictable – failure.
I initiated reforms in the Goat Dispersal Program by identifying reliable NGos to serve as Breeder Farms for DA procured imported goats whose offsprings would be dispersed to small farmers organizations.
The MBRLC, established by American Southern Baptist Missionaries decades ago, was the first Breeder Farm which I personally identified.
Being a goat breeder myself, I knew which dairy goat breeds were outstanding and I helped in identifying the sources of these breeding materials in the U.S.
The DA allocated P10-M for the project which was downloaded to the municipal government of Bansalan which in turn conducted the bidding for the purchase of the breeders.
Over 100 does and four bucks arrived at the MBRLC which were bred on the condition that the center will pay back the DA with the offsprings.
Yesterday, on the way back to Kidapawan City from Davao City, I dropped by the MBRLC Goat Farm and I was pleased to see very healthy goats with many offsprings.
I also met some of the leaders of farmers’ groups around the Center who received the offsprings of the imported breeders.
With outstanding and good quality breeding materials, farmers are now producing 2 to 3 liters of milk from their milking does everyday.
This is an example of a livelihood project of the DA that was successful simply because it was not marred by corruption.
#KungGustoMaramingParaan!
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!