DA-SAAD NorMin rolls out animal care drive to sustain MisOr farmers’ agri livelihood projects

 

The Department of Agriculture Special Area for Agricultural Development Program – Northern Mindanao (DA-SAAD NorMin) recently rolled out animal care drive as a support mechanism to expand and sustain the agricultural livelihood projects of SAAD-assisted farmers in Misamis Oriental.

Together with personnel of the Municipal Agriculture Office, DA-SAAD NorMin staff trained in animal care administered deworming drugs and vitamin supplements to the goat raised by the SAAD Kalitian Farmers Association (SKFA) of Kinoguitan town, and free-range chicken grown by the Mapua Farmers Agri-Ventures Association (MAFAVA) of Balingoan town. The team also administered Newcastle Disease vaccine for the free-range chicken.

The MAFAVA was previously granted 350 head free-range chicken as a start-up multiplier project by DA-SAAD NorMin while the SKFA received 30 head start-up goat multiplier projects after undergoing Beneficiary Needs Assessment (BNA) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA).

The grant of such projects hinges on the farmers’ interest, capacity, and resources to operate the project as an added source of livelihood.

To date, the MAFAVA has hatched 136 chicks out of the parent stock while the SKFA managed to reproduce 5 head goat offspring out of the start-up herd.

With the animal care assistance, it is hoped that the SKFA and MAFAVA will be able to guard against and come around the poultry and livestock diseases that can potentially stall their projects’ sustainability and expansion.

The DA-SAAD NorMin’s capacitation support is geared toward the end goal of helping the members of the SKFA and MAFAVA to establish a community-based agricultural enterprise producing and marketing chicken and goat as live animals and as meat.

This is consistent with SAAD’s mandate to abate the impact of poverty among the marginal farmers in low-income, isolated and conflict-stricken outskirts of the country.#