ILOILO CITY, August 3, 2022 – To support long-term financial security of its beneficiaries, the Department of Agriculture – Special Area for Agricultural Development (DA-SAAD) Program trained 60 members of three farmers’ associations (FAs) in Negros Occidental and Antique for value-addition of pork and poultry products.
Thirty (30) raisers of native chicken from Purok Locsin Farmers and Farmworkers’ Association (PLOFFA) in Salvador Benedicto, Negros Occidental joined the training on homemade tocino and longganisa-making on July 20. Fifteen (15) hog raisers each of Pangalcagan Farmers’ Association (PFA) and Talisay Rice Farmers Association (RFA) trained on pork-based food production such as siomai and embutido in Bugasong, Antique on July 29.
Poultry processing, value-addition
Ms. Angela Jane Labrador from the DA-Negros Occidental Research Outreach Station led the onsite training for PLOFFA with the assistance of Area Coordinator Ivy Italia.
PLOFFA has 54 registered members, 30 of whom are active members coming from 30 households in Barangay Igmaya-an. Majority of these locals are small-scale sugarcane, corn, and backyard vegetable producers. Due to inaccessibility or absence of farm-to-market roads, the group seldom receives assistance from government programs. The municipal government also identified the said community as an End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) area.
They became a recipient of SAAD’s FY 2019 Native Chicken Production Project worth Php 101,000. This livelihood package included 60 native chicken, 13 bags of chicken feeds, 1 set of drugs and biologics, housing, and fencing materials.
From 60 native chickens, PLOFFA was able to increase their stocks to 200 on their 180-square meter communal farm. To sustain the project, the association agreed to follow a rotational shift on the schedule of monitoring among its members. Financially, part of their project policy is a 65:35 profit sharing where 65% goes to the association, and the rest is shared by the members.
Yielding positive results from their communal chicken farm, SAAD granted additional support project for the PLOFFA farmers worth Php 451,000 this year to help the group establish a community-based enterprise. Last July, the group received the initial inputs such as 100 native chicken, 6 sets of drugs and biologics, and one unit of weighing scale. This August, equipment for their enterprise development which include a chest freezer, incubator with hatcher, stainless kitchen table, and charcoal chicken grill shall also be distributed.
Value addition training
During the poultry value-adding training, Ms. Labrador shared ways on how to launch and sustain enterprises through food processing as well as craft specific and comprehensive plans tailored to each group’s entrepreneurial needs. She emphasized that processing farmers’ raw agricultural produce expands opportunities for earning, maximizing the potential of farm products.
Among the products made during the training were homemade native chicken longganisa and tocino. Most of the raw materials for the products such as native chicken flesh were freshly sourced out from the poultry project of the SAAD farmers.
Swine production and by-products
With the entire Visayas Region classified as a green zone (PhilStar, 2022), locally-sourced stocks mean safe and ASF-free meat for consumption. Providing farmers with swine production project does not only provide alternative livelihood but also is a strategic biosecurity measure of the region.
In this light, the DA-SAAD Program then granted the Pangalcagan Farmers’ Association (PFA) and Talisay Farmers’ Association, both from the municipality of Bugasong in the province of Antique, 30 piglets each, worth Php 174,000 on May 17, 2022 under the FY 2022 Hog Fattening Enterprise with Vegetable Production Project.
Complementary to the said project, to capacitate local swine raisers toward the establishment of community-based enterprises, 15 members of the PFA and 15 from the TFA underwent meat processing, preservation, sanitation, and marketing training.
Ms. Margrette S. Gerzon, Value-Adding Coordinator of the Provincial Veterinary Office of Negros Occidental, shared her expertise on making pork by-products such as longganisa, tocino, siomai, and embutido.
In her discussion, she emphasized three salient points that could prevent cross-contamination during processing: observing disease control, wearing prescribed attire, and practicing proper sanitation habits.
TFA BOD Liezl Noble shared in an interview, “Ang natun-an ko sa amo ja nga training paano magpreserve kang meat kay tungod nagasagud kami kang baboy. Kabahul guid ang bulig ni SAAD tungod sa aid nga ila gintugro, halin sa pagsagud kang baboy, hasta sa marketing kag team-building. Duro-duro guid ang naman-an ka mga pumuluyo paagi sa mga training at the same time grateful man kami sa mga ayuda nga gintugro kanamon.”
(I learned in this training to preserve meat, given the fact that we raise hogs. The aid granted by SAAD helped us in big ways, from swine raising to marketing and team-building. People in my community learned a lot through the training, at the same time, grateful for the interventions provided to us.)
To note, Bugasong is a newly-identified priority area in 2022 following Valderrama, Luau-an, and San Remigio in the province of Antique.
SAAD Western Visayas continues to provide agricultural support to aid farmers in their journey towards establishing self-sustained agri-communities – each managing their own enterprises. ###
Writers: Christ John Gamarcha and Cedie Bataga, DA-SAAD 6 Information Officers
Reference:
The Philippine Star. (2022). Western Visayas still ASF-free retrieved from https://www.philstar.com/nation/2022/07/08/2193804/western-visayas-central-visayas-barmm-still-asf-free.
