‘Dispersal’ won’t work! BARMM CATTLE PROGRAM: LEARNING FROM MISTAKES

BARMM CATTLE PROGRAM:

LEARNING FROM MISTAKES

The Bangsamoro Cattle Industry Development Program which will be presented by a Technical Working Group to BARMM Chief Minister Ahod “Murad” Ebrahim next week will be a departure from the traditional “cattle dispersal” program of government which had ended in dismal failure.

Instead, the BARMM Cattle Program which aims to produce Halal Beef and create livelihood and small industries in the nascent autonomous region will build community undertakings where everyone has a stake and ownership is common.

At the risk of being called immodest, I have to state that the Bangsamoro Cattle Industry Development Program is the result of my years of experiences in poverty alleviation interventions which were sincere attempts by government to lift up the poor but which failed because the realities on the ground were not considered.

Thousands of carabaos, cattle and goats had been given out by government in decades of dispersal programs but the cattle population of the Philippines had remained at a pathetic 2.5-million heads and rural poverty is still a major challenge.

I was one of those who believed in the Animal Dispersal Program thinking that by giving out carabaos to farmers, they would be able to till their land and become productive.

The success rate of the program, however, was less than 10% because the reality was in times of difficulties when the farmer could not pay for his child’s tuition fees or if a family member was hospitalized, the first property to be sacrificed was be the carabao or the cow.

The situation was worse in the conflict areas, especially in the Bangsamoro Region, where when conflict erupted, the families evacuated to a safer place and the animals were sold to survive.

More often than not, the animals which were sold were the same animals procured by government and redistributed in another round of animal dispersal program.

With these lessons in mind, the Bangsamoro Cattle Industry Development Program will propose community-owned Cattle Breeding and Cattle Fattening Facilities.

This is the same concept which I introduced when I was Secretary of Agriculture which some regional offices of the DA are implementing now.

Under this scheme, a herd of 100 Cattle in a Breeding Lot is owned by everybody and the income derived from the sale of the offsprings is equally divided among the stakeholders.

The steers will be sold direct to the Cattle Fattening Facility while the Heifers would be retained to expand the breeding program thus increasing the income of the stakeholders.

The proposed Bangsamoro Cattle Industry Development Program, when implemented is expected to turn the region into the prime production area for Halal Beef with allied industries benefitting the residents.

#LearningFromMistakes!

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!