The “Hogstel” Community Hog Raising Facility is a concept which I designed as early as the days when I was still Governor of North Cotabato and which I carried over to the Department of Agriculture when I was Secretary.
Somehow, the situation then was not ripe for the implementation of a common facility where all the hogs in the village raised by “backyard farmers” are kept in one place, supervised by animal health experts and nourished with locally processed feeds, butchered in a community abattoir and then delivered to the market.
It took a devastating hog disease called “African Swine Fever” which has killed an estimated 5.5-million hogs in the Philippines for the concept to be relevant.
The “Hogstel” Concept will revolutionize the Backyard Piggery Industry where most farmers keep a few heads in a makeshift stall.
The hogs are fed with whatever kitchen wastes they could gather, a practice identified as the culprit behind the spread of the ASF.
When implemented in the 20 ASF-free Pilot Villages in North Cotabato, all backyard hog farmers will raise the same breed, feed their pigs with locally processed feeds or at least a specific brand and follow quarantine protocols set by animal health experts who will manage the facilities.
The “Hogstel” Concept will totally erase that familiar sight of hogs with leash around the neck tied to a tree or kept in the decrepit “Tangkal.”
Each farmer will be given a space in the Hogstel where he will raise either a breeder or a fattener which he could access by going through the proper sanitary and biosecurity protocols.
For the first 20 ASF-Free Pilot Villages for the Islands of Hope Hogstel Program, 200 breeders in each facility will be raised by at least 100 families.
Q-Pigs Corporation of South Cotabato which breeds the famous Topigs Norsvin of Norway had been tapped to supply the 4,000 breeders needed for the first 20 Hogstels.
Q-Pigs President Joaquin “Jake” Lu said that the while the breeder requirement is huge, his company could deliver all the materials in a period of 5 months.
On Thursday, a MinDA technical team will meet with Jake Lu to determine the costing of the project, including the ideal design of furrowing and fattening facilities for the “Hogstel” Project.
Piglets produced by the 20 Pilot Farms will be distributed to the community Hogstel Fattening Facilities to be established in other ASF-Free communities in North Cotabato.
For the North Cotabato “Hogstel” Project, the Development Bank of the Philippines will be tapped to finance either the barangay government, municipal government and farmers associations which will undertake the project.
The Islands of Hope Hogstel Project will later be replicated in other parts of Mindanao to boost hog production for the national requirements.
The establishment of village-level community hog raising facilities is also expected to boost the production of feed materials like corn, Sorghum, rice bran, copra meal and others.
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(Photos of Topigs breeding materials were downloaded from Norsvin website.)
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