A brood of fowls for farm families
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is set to implement a national program providing some two million Filipino farming families a dozen freerange chickens in a bid to lift them from poverty.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol said that the program will be implemented next year.
“What if we come up with a program wherein all our farming families will be given free chicken, it would surely be of help and will boost their income,” he said recently in an interview with Davao reporters.
He said that a total of 12 chicken will be given per family, two roosters and 10 egg-laying hens.
Pinol said he observed how ironic it is that farming families in the countryside do not have chicken and eggs enough to feed themselves.
“Demand of native free range chicken is huge nowadays, we have a lot of opportunities in the countryside that we are not able to harness,” he said.
He explained that 10 hens can produce 150 eggs in a month, of which 50 will be hatched and only 40 chicks will survive.
“Yung 40, one can sell it at P100 each after three to four months that is P4,000 every month,” Pinol said.
“If we are talking here two-million farming families multiply that by 4,000 every month, imagine how much money we are able to give to the farming families in the countryside living in poverty,” he added.
By 2017, Piñol said, the agriculture department through the Bureau of Animal Industry will implement a National Immunization and Vaccination Program targeting all the country’s chicken.
He said no chicken will be given out unless the common diseases affecting the country’s chicken will be eradicated
The nationwide immunization and vaccination program will be implemented barangay to barangay.
Two of the country’s poultry diseases are Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and Avian malaria, among many others.
Pinol said they are hiring more veterinarians, agriculture technicians, animal husbandry personnel for the program.
At present, detailed budget and project specifications has still yet to be finalized. The program is eyed to be fully implemented by 2018 after the year-long immunization and vaccination program by 2017.
Pinol shared that six years ago, he started an effort to improve the Philippine native chicken by addressing the basic problems confronting the backyard free-range chicken raisers.
Recognizing that Philippine native chicken are mongrels, very slow growers, requiring 8 to 10 months before reaching
one kilo in weight, and poor egg layers, producing only between 60 to 80 eggs a year, he developed a new strain of Philippine chicken which would grow faster, lay more eggs and most of all, be resilient to local climatic diseases and resistant to common poultry diseases. He called this the Manok Pinoy.
“I crossed the American breed which is good egg layers, brown egg layers with the indigenous Moro breed,” Pinol shared.
The Manok Pinoy, he said, grows to at least one kilo freerange in three to four months and the hens lay between 160 to 180 brown eggs every year.
Asked if this breed of chicken will be used for the planned program, Pinol was quick to add that other groups producing of almost the same breed with his Manok Pinoy will be tapped for the proposed program.
“This program is very simple, all we need to do is go back to the basics to boost our agriculture sector,” Pinol said. ASP