By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff Reporter
Batac
City—The Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) here
has intensified their campaign to conserve native water buffalos by increasing their
genetic potential and promote it as a source of alternative livelihood among
rural farming villages.
Threatened by the apparent
decline of land available for cultivation due to a dramatic increase of
infrastructure developments such as construction of commercial buildings and
houses, the PCC recognizes the need to intensify crop-livestock integration,
eyeing improved breeds of water buffalo as a great source of meat, milk and
draft.
Grace Marjorie Recta, PCC regional
center director, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture based in
Batac City, said every year they are targeting about 5,000 artificial
insemination services to water buffaloes in Ilocos Norte’s rural farming
villages mostly in Marcos and San Nicolas towns.
With highly-skilled private
technicians the PCC trained to perform artificial insemination (AI), Ms. Recta
hopes that the Philippines no longer need to import to improve the quality of
native water buffaloes here.
With a success rate of 25 to
30 percent, the PCC reported that they have produced at least 800 mestizos in
2013.
At present, the PCC still
provides free semen to beneficiaries but the actual conduct of AI performed by
private technicians now has a standard fee of at least P500 for water buffalo
and P600 for cow.
Ms. Recta added that riverine
breeds produce more milk and doubles farmer’s income through organized
crossbreeding of swamp and riverine buffaloes.
For example, the income derived
from milk of crossbreed in comparable with that derived from 1 hectare of rice.
Income from fresh milk increases with the increase milk yield resulting from
backcrossing with dairy breeds.
In Marcos and San Nicolas
towns, Ms. Recta said the PCC has assisted several farmer-beneficiaries there
to improve the breed of their carabao. At least two of the farmer-beneficiaries
have successfully produced crossbreeds for their local milk supply and some
being shared to neighbors after they were trained on milk processing.
Classified as a swamp-type
buffalo, the native carabao plays an important role in rural farming
communities particularly among small time farmers.
In 2010, the volume of meat
production from this sector reached 148,000 metric tons valued at P10.05
billion, based on the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics. Meanwhile, milk
production from Carabao is estimated at 5.4 million liters in 2009 valued at
P248.4 million.
The Philippines however
remains dependent on imported milk as 99 percent of the demand for fresh milk
come from milk-producing countries notably from New Zealand.
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