SAMAR, September 16, 2022 – To meet the demand for poultry meat in the province, the Department of Agriculture- Special Area for Agricultural Development (DA- SAAD) delivered Php 1,108,100 worth of inputs under the Broiler Raising, Food Processing and Marketing Enterprise to seven (7) Farmer’s Associations (FAs) in Samar.

The beneficiaries are recipients of SAAD projects from previous years supporting rice production, egg layer, swine, as well vegetable production.

Prior to SAAD Program’s intervention, the FAs’ source of income were mostly backyard hog and broiler raising.

On September 14, 2022, chest freezers with automatic voltage regulator (AVR) were delivered to the FAs as initial input delivery for the FY 2022 Broiler Raising and Food Processing Project in the province.

Table 1.  Farmers Associations who received inputs for the Broiler Raising and Food Processing project

The equipment is essential for the food processing activity of the FAs as a chest freezer is an economical and effective solution for the safe storage of surplus, processed, and frozen food products for longer shelf life.

Aside from chest freezers, each association also received various farm inputs as capital for broiler raising production.

Table 2. Inputs and training received by the FAs

Prior to receiving the inputs, training on broiler management, meat handling, storage, as well as packaging, labeling, and marketing were provided to the FAs in April and May 2022. Facilitated by SAAD Samar, livestock and poultry specialists from the City Veterinary Office and Agricultural Technicians from the municipality served as resource speakers to capacitate the associations in technical and management skills required for broiler raising.

“Kami in nagpapasalamat sa DA-SAAD han waray kabutlaw ngan pirme nga suporta para ha amon nga mga parag-uma” (We are very thankful to DA-SAAD for the untiring effort and support to us farmers), shared Mr. Manuel Parco, former president and current board of director of Hinogacan Rice Farmers Association.

Travel restrictions on any poultry animals because of the Avian flu caused a delay in the delivery of the broiler stock (day-old chicks) to the FAs, however, SAAD Samar aims to deliver the remaining intervention for the project by the last quarter of 2022. ###

Writer: Cieara A. Uraga, DA-SAAD Samar Provincial Coordinator