DA assists Cagayan hog raisers recover from ASF

FARMERS’ cooperatives and associations (FCAs), particularly those affected by the African swine fever (ASF) in Region 2 (Cagayan Valley), have undergone a workshop in market planning to help them lay out their business strategy for selling more of their products and services.

Ferdinand Cortez of the Agriculture and Fisheries Information Section of the Department of Agriculture (DA)-Region 2 office said the workshop held on January 12 was to thoroughly prepare the FCAs that are recipients of the Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives for Recovery and Expansion (Inspire) Program in the region.

Cortez explained that Inspire is a government effort implemented by the DA to revive the hog industry gravely affected by ASF.

“To date, 57 FCAs have availed of a grant equivalent to P5.5 million, for a total of P313.500 million and 36 have qualified for the P10-million grant for a sum of P360 million,” he said.

Roberto Claro Busania, DARegion 2 technical director for operations and extension, also noted that while market planning was for the Inspire recipients to learn business strategies, “this planning also serves as a way of analyzing exactly how a venture can be successful and shed marketing efforts plus what you have thus been so far.”

Bryan Sibayan, regional livestock program coordinator, said a number of the FCAs have their bio-secure structures reaching a 93-percent completion phase. “Some of them have the piglets already,” he added.

Meanwhile, Joselito Pascual, vice president of Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Ltd. of Fed Sales Department, said this is an opportunity for farmers in the region to rise from the ashes of the ASF.

Charoen Pokphand Foods is a private company of the Charoen Pokphand Group (CPG) and is a partner of the DA-Regional in its effort to revive the swine industry in Cagayan Valley.

CPG is an agro-industrial and food conglomerate headquartered in Thailand and one of the world’s largest producers of feed and shrimp, and a global top three producer of poultry and pork.

Pascual said that ASF is a highly infectious and severe hemorrhagic disease that affects pigs. It produces a wide range of clinical signs and lesions that can closely resemble those of classical swine fever.

“African swine fever virus, or ASFV, has a case fatality rate of up to 100 percent in domestic pigs and wild boar,” he said adding that “we are now more prepared with precautions and bio-secure measures.”