DAVAO ORIENTAL, March 27, 2024 – Five (5) months after the grant of layer chicken production project, the Tomoaong Livestock Agriculture Association farmers group has reported a net income of Php 132,561.00.

 

The association credits their newfound success to effective marketing of goods, backed by facilitating a stringent management of poultry, and a tight-knit community of members who adhere to the farmers association (FA) policies.

 

“Misaka amoang panginabuhian tungod sa SAAD. Among area natamnan na, ug kaning sa manok. Ok jud kaayo ang SAAD,” said Joel Ambrocio, the FA’s secretary.

 

[Our income has increased since SAAD. Our areas have been planted, plus these chickens. SAAD really is a-ok.]

 

Tomoaong Livestock Agriculture Association is a locally-organized FA in the municipality of Tarragona. The FA was the first to receive production projects of both animal- and crop-based interventions from SAAD Davao Region last year. These projects were layer chicken and corn production.

 

In the first month of their production, Mr. Ambrocio shared that the demand for eggs was virtually nonexistent. Only a few people in their immediate environs knew that there was a local FA producing fresh eggs.

 

“First namo nga strategy kay social media jud,” he related. The FA started a Facebook page for the association, then started posting about the availability of eggs to attract potential customers within their community.

 

[Our prime promotional strategy is social media.]

 

The customers came trickling in. The FA started consistently supplying several households from the barangay and neighboring ones, but at the same time, their egg production was also picking up. At peak production, the FA had harvests of 9-10 trays daily. Consequently, they needed to ramp up their customer base to keep up with production.

 

“Initiative namo nga maghimo ug gamayng display center didto sa baba, kay lugi jud mi atong una, among market maglisod jud mi.” 

 

[It was our initiative to put up a small display center on the road, just because in the first months of production, we were operating at a loss and we didn’t have the market.]

 

“Karon, sugod tung nagdisplay center mi inubanan sa posting sa FB gamay, kaning mga taga-Tarragona ug Manay, kung mangadto sila ug Mati, ibilin na lang nila ilahang tray sa amoa. Pagpauli nila, ginapickup na lang nila,” he added.

 

[Ever since we started with the display center coupled with FB posting, most people from the municipalities of Manay and Tarragona now get their eggs from us. These people who travel to the city of Mati will drop their trays on our display center then pick the eggs up on their way back.]

 

Currently, the FA is experiencing a growing demand for their produce. This means that the FA may consider to scale up their production in order to meet the needs of both their existing customers and new ones.

 

Among the best practices of the association are their foundation to their farm-fresh eggs which are healthy chickens. To achieve this, the association purposefully situated their poultry’s location away from stress inducers such as noise pollution.

 

Additionally, the association sticks to strict biosecurity measures to protect the birds. More than foot baths, only caretakers can enter the poultry house as much as possible. 

 

For caretaking, the association adopted a rotational scheme of members taking turns to man the poultry house, collect eggs, and classify them. There’s a separate house for the caretakers a few meters away from the poultry house, outfitted with a room, kitchen, and an open receiving area. 

 

“Twenty-four hours amoang duty. Gikauyonan namo sa amoang asosasyon kay para pantay ang tanan,” Lino Salan, the scheduled caretaker when SAAD Davao Region interviewed the FA, said. “Naa mi mga balaod para ma-engganyo ang mga miembro nga mu-duty. Kung dili ka muduty, nganong mahatagan man ka ug corn inputs? Muhago ka sa manokan para mahatagan ka ug mais.” 

 

[Each duty lasts 24 hours. We all agreed to it for fairness. We have policies in place to entice our members to properly do their jobs here. If you won’t take your turn to take care of the birds, why would you be eligible for corn inputs? You’ll need to do well in the poultry to be doled out with corn seeds.]

 

Aside from the operational policies in place, Ambrocio added that the FA maintains transparency in all of its financial transactions and management. The FA regularly presents their reporting of expenses, income, and production to members.

 

Finally, Ambrocio underlined part of their success to the effective implementation of the SAAD program on ground. 

 

“Dako nga tabang nga nahatagan mi ug CDO nga naa juy concern sa amoa,” he said. 

 

[The greatest help for us was that we were assigned a community development officer who really is concerned with our growth.]

 

For 2024, SAAD Davao Region targets to deliver the same project to the association as enhancement to production, with a focus on food supply support for the poultry. The association, for their part, plans to procure their own set of birds to boost production. 

 

“Ang amo karon, kay naa na mi mga customer nga mu-order ug 50 trays per week, kana amoang target nga mutaas amoang production. Kinahanglan namo ug mas daghan pa nga manok,” Mr. Ambrocio said. “Ang amoang kwarta nga naa sa banko, ginatagana namo kay mamalit jud mi ug manok pa.”

 

(What we focus on now is our customers–for example, we already have a customer who orders 50 trays per week, so that’s our target to really amp up our production. We’ll need more birds. The money that we have on the bank, we are reserving that to purchase birds.)

 

“Karong tuig, among pangandoy, makaabot mi ug isa ka libo nga manok,” Mr. Ambrocio concluded.

 

[This year, our dream is to reach 1,000 head of chickens.]

 

SAAD’s layer chicken projects consisted of 300 layer chickens with cage system, feeds, and veterinary drugs. In SAAD Davao Region’s Phase 2 of implementation, fourteen (14) FAs across four provinces of the region benefited from the project. The same associations will receive an enhancement upgrade of both birds and feeds to support production this year.

 

Due to their effective project implementation, Tomoaong Livestock Agriculture Association is primed as the pilot area for SAAD’s Marketing Assistance and Enterprise Development (MAED) rollout in Davao region.

 

The program’s MAED subunit focuses on developing and assisting community-based enterprises out of the beneficiaries. This is to ensure that the program’s doled-out projects become income-generating machines for the FAs.

 

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#DASAAD #DASAADDavaoRegion #OKKAAYO

 

Writer/Photographer: James Brian Flaga, SAAD Davao Region PRDC

Photographer: Ronell Tangonan, SAAD Davao Region PRDC

Source: DA-SAAD Davao Region