MOUNTAIN PROVINCE, February 18, 2021 – Two farmers’ associations (FA) with 136 members in Mountain Province earned Php 372,000 from the Department of Agriculture-Special Area for Agricultural Development (DA-SAAD) Program’s free-range chicken (Hubbard Brown) Production Projects in 2020.

The projects, worth Php 824,900 are part of the Agriculture’s food sufficiency and livelihood development program.

The free-range Hubbard chicken production includes 925 and 924 chickens with feeds from grower to finisher was provided to the E-Lagan FA Incorporated and Bengasan-Bilig-Data-Mat-ao (BBDM) FA respectively on November 16, 2020.

The Hubbard Brown Chicken is comparable to our native chicken in terms of taste, resistance to diseases and can also be ranged in open areas to feed on naturally available food as supplement (Orillaneda, 2020). The said breed is suitable for our climatic condition and has faster time to attain slaughter weight than native chicken.

Both groups operate and record individually but their reports are consolidated by their group auditors and are updated monthly by means of monitoring assisted and not assisted by project implementers.

Most members of the said groups are mothers engaged in swine and native chicken raising as well as backyard gardening. With the SAAD livelihood interventions provided, each member reared the chicken and sold them at Php 500/head. Their earnings were used for the succeeding cycle and to sustain their basic food requirements during the pandemic.

E-Lagan FA, Inc. of Sabangan, Mountain Province

The E-Lagan Farmers Association, Inc. consists of 92 members is an existing group in Lagan, Sabangan, which was selected as a SAAD beneficiary in 2020.

Each member received 10 chicken which they reared in their backyard.

From January 24 to February 6, 2021, the group collectively earned Php 176,000 from selling 352 chickens from the 925 provided by the program.

“The intervention is very timely because it allowed us, farmers, to earn additional income to start with during the pandemic and at the same time provided us chicken meat for consumption as an alternative for pork that now has a steep price,” said Franklin Colaling, the Association President.

As a result, the project benefited the families of each member by providing them additional income, as well as fresh and safe chicken meat on-condition each member will contribute Php 400 to the association. The collection is intended for the operating expense and savings to support their plan on having a breeding business.

The record shows that the group had already saved-up Php 25,000.

“With the intervention, it has lessened our expenses in buying meat products because we already have available in our backyard. Also, we can sell the chicken despite its increase in number in the locality due to price hike in pork,” Mr. Colaling added.

The members also supplemented their chicken feeds with green leaves like tricantera, sayote, and other green plants edible and safe for the birds – which contribute to a safer and healthiest meat to the consumer.

The group is set to receive an egg incubator this year to help them develop their plan on having a breeding enterprise. The process includes then includes that each member will give two fertile eggs, incubate them, and sell them as day-old chicks.

BBDM FA of Alab Proper, Bontoc

BBDM FA with 44 members is also an existing group in Alab Proper, Bontoc, which was added as an expansion barangay of SAAD in 2020.

The group was given 924 heads with 21 heads for each member to raise. The FA has a consolidated 393 head of Hubbard brown chicken sold after two months of raising, which gave them an income of Php 196,000.

The group members have utilized their sales (as their readily income) for their everyday needs such as rice, salt, and vegetable oil due to extended lockdowns because of growth of CoVid-19 cases in the province. Also, each member contributes Php 500 for the purchase of feeds.

“We could hardly imagine how to sustain and become an enterprise in the beginning but with the continuous assistance of the program, especially that we are now in the marketing phase, we can manage our project,” said Gloria Doladol, the BBDM Secretary.

As of, February 26, the group has a savings of Php 22,000 set aside for their future chicken production business. They are also planning to offer chicken feeds – lower price for the group members and market price for the community members.

Sustainability

The program is continuously providing technical support through a series of training and monitoring activities to ensure the effectiveness of the program implementation and sustainability of the projects toward the development of community enterprises.

This year, the two groups will receive chicken and feeds under the Free Range Chicken Production Project. ###

Writer: Dinah Ay-yango, SAAD Mountain Province Information Officer
Copy Editor: Jennifer Valcobero, SAAD NPMO Public Relation and Comms Officer

Reference:

Richard Orillaneda. 2020. Batangas Free Range Chicken. Backyard Produce Quality You Choose. What is Free Range Chicken? Retrieved at https://freerangemanok.wordpress.com/what-is-bounty-fresh-hubbard-colored-chicken/