My advocacy to develop the Philippine backyard poultry industry both for food security and livelihood took a giant step yesterday with the establishment of the first-ever Philippine Free-Range Chicken Research, Breeding and Training Center in the Central Mindanao University (CMU) campus in Maramag, Bukidnon.
Backyard poultry raising is a livelihood activity which has long been ignored and overlooked because of very difficult challenges a farmer faces in raising free-range chicken.
The first challenge is the absence of a distinct Philippine free-range chicken breed leaving the farmers raising mongrels which do not have consistent genetic and phenotypic traits.
Some of the native chicken come small with very little meat in the body and do not lay enough eggs to make them profitable.
The other problem is health management. When the seasonal poultry diseases like “aratay” or New Castle Disease sweeps through farming areas, farmers would often see their chicken fallen from the roosts in the morning.
The Chicken Haven or the Mindanao Research, Breeding, Training and Genetics Center for Free-Range Poultry is intended to boost free-range chicken raising by developing a breed of chicken adaptable to the local conditions.
Once established, a breeding program to propagate the breed will be started so that the products could be shared with different farmers groups.
The Center also aims to establish a Gene Bank so that the genes of the chicken breed developed for local conditions could be passed on to the next generation of farmers.
It will also serve as a training center for farmers to teach them on proper farm and health management for backyard poultry.
The involvement of the private sector, iFresh Corporation, is to ensure farmers that their free-range chicken produce has a ready buyer.
iFresh owns 30 branches of the Ultramart Supermarket in the Visayas and is due to expand to Mindanao this year.
Yesterday, as my personal contribution to the program, I donated several breeding materials of chicken including the Manok Pinoy, a breed of chicken which I developed personally for the last 10 years.
I have also pledged to donate to the Center other Philippine breeds which I could gather so that this could be used in the research and breeding program.
Once developed, the Center will also become a tourism destination and learning center where school children could be taught the beauty and profitability of backyard chicken farming.
(The first two photos show the Manok Pinoy, a breed which I personally developed, while the other photos show the ceremonies held in the Central Mindanao University Chicken Haven Area yesterday in Maramag, Bukidnon.)
More Stories
Trump Presidency Boon To Philippine Agriculture
Mindanao Fruit Fest Scheduled Sept. 2025
DA, MinDA, LGU! MinDA Targets Tribal Areas For Highland Rice Farming