Contract Growing Scheme! Mindanao Sorghum Farmers Link With Batangas Livestock Growers (Updated Post Oct. 16, 2021)

On Friday, I took the long flight from Manila to San Francisco en route to Hereford, Texas to pursue one of my major advocacies as then Chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), the production of additional feed grains to boost the region’s poultry and livestock industry.

In Texas, I will finalize the Seeds Supply Arrangement with one of America’s biggest Sorghum Seed Producers, Scott Seeds Company, a family-owned seeds production firm headed by Coby Kriegshauzer.

Scott Seeds will supply the seeds to a group of farmers in Mindanao who in turn will enter into a Sorghum Grains Supply Agreement with Batangas Livestock and Poultry Growers who also have their own feed mills.

The MinDA Sorghum Development Program will complement the country’s seasonal Corn production and ensure sufficient supply of feed grains for the livestock and poultry industry.

Since Sorghum is more drought tolerant than Corn, this could prove to be a profitable supplementary crop for Corn farmers during off-season to counter efforts to bring in imported corn at lower tariff.

I actually introduced Sorghum as a supplemental feeds grains to the country’s livestock and poultry growers and feed millers during a meeting of the Philippine Council on Agriculture and Fishers (PCAF) when I was Agriculture Secretary.

The stakeholders welcomed the introduction of Sorghum but wanted an assurance that there would be sufficient supply so that they could adjust their feed formulation.

The Sorghum Program received an allocation of P100-M in the 2019 but this was inexplicably dropped when I moved to MinDA and the budget was realigned to other programs.

I continued the program in Mindanao with MinDA initiating field trials of a Sorghum Variety 505×5 from Scott Seed Co of Hereford, Texas which showed early maturity and outstanding grains and silage yield.

Before I resigned from MinDA last month, a group of livestock and poultry raisers from Batangas through one of their officers called me up to ask if Mindanao could supply them with Sorghum.

Sabi ko madding gawin provided there is a marketing agreement that would indicate the volume of Sorghum Grains requirement of their feed mills and the buying price.

With that arrangement agreed in principle, I decided to take this trip to Texas to finalize the Sorghum Seeds Supply arrangement with Coby Kriegshauzer who had become a personal friend.

I am happy with the outcome of the Sorghum advocacy which I started because now, Mindanao farmers are given an additional source of income with the forging of the Marketing and Supply Agreement with Batangas Livestock and Poultry Growers.

Ito yong pangarap ko na set-up na kung saan ang mag magsasaka, before they indulge in any agricultural activity, are already assured of a market and a fair price for their produce.

With this set-up, we will be able to encourage our farmers and other food producers because they are protected from the manipulative trading and marketing which had made life difficult for them for so long.

#AgricultureIsCommonSense!

#FarmIsTheBestClassroom!

(This video presentation was produced by the Beauty & Bounty of Mindanao Media Team of the Mindanao Development Authority. Translation was made by Jimmy Musa of MinDA.)

https://fb.watch/aJ-YB77kUq/