BUKIDNON, May 5, 2022 – To promote poultry farming and strengthen poultry by-products availability in the community, 50 farmer-beneficiaries of Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma in Barangays Salvacion and Kibogtok, Kadingilan in Bukidnon received 250 free-range chickens. This is under the Integrated Agricultural Livelihood Project of the Department of Agriculture – Special Area for Agriculture Development (DA-SAAD) Program in Northern Mindanao.

Apart from crops and animals, some members of the group earn extra income working as tenants and laborers for big farms and construction companies. Others work as habal-habal drivers.

SAAD has given each farmer-beneficiaries five free-range chickens, one male, and four females sourced from the SAAD Chicken Multiplier Farm in the DA’s Research Center for Upland Development station of Dangcagan, Bukidnon.

This is not the first time the farmers of Kadingilan received assistance from SAAD. The municipality has been a SAAD beneficiary since 2018 and granted millions worth of agri interventions. They also underwent training on Bio-Intensive Gardening during the last quarter of 2021, and Meat Processing and Rice Value Adding training during the first quarter of 2022.

Accordingly, farmers prefer raising free-range chicken as they are easy and inexpensive to maintain since they just roam freely in their backyards. Raising free-range chicken requires less feed for them to produce eggs. Moreover, their meat is tastier than layer chicken.

The stocks are expected to lay eggs by late July or early August this year. The chicken lays eggs at around 200 to 250 pieces per year.  Apart from egg production, they are raised for meat as well.

As part of the project, DA-SAAD staff have provided more or less Php 50,000 worth of drugs and biologics.

Moreover, the program has another free-range chicken multiplier farm at the Northern Mindanao Agricultural Crops and Livestock Research Complex (NMACLRC) in Dalwangan, Malaybalay City in Bukidnon. These two multiplier farms in Bukidnon were established in 2020 in response to the Plant, Plant, Plant, Raise, Raise, Raise Program of DA as one of the agency’s measures to address food security during the height of the pandemic. It is also a part of SAAD’s sustainability efforts.

This batch of free-range chicken is a replacement for the batch delivered on June 1 and 2 after most of the chickens died. The mortalities were due to changes in weather and stress from travel. It is for this reason that the program set up a multiplier farm as this will help the farmers raise locally-born chicken which is already acclimatized to the weather conditions in the area.

Together with the agricultural technologists and technicians from the local government unit of Kadingilan, SAAD has assisted these farmers with free-range chicken raising and egg production orientation which was conducted by Doctor Kenneth Polina of the Research Center for Upland Development station.

The poultry project provided by the program will help Bukidnon farmers increase their income and provide market for chicken meat and eggs in their area. ###

Writer: Jo Ann Sablad, SAAD 10 Information Officer