18 JULY 2020. The Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF) is set to prepare a plan for regular monitoring and evaluation of the “Intensified Community-Based Dairy Enterprise Development” as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) finally agreed on the expansion of the newly restructured project under the US PL480 Title I program.
After a thorough review, USDA Agricultural Counselor Morgan Haas informed Agriculture Secretary William Dar in a letter that they have examined the newly restructured program that would accelerate the development of the Philippine dairy industry and agreed to expand from dairy goats to also include cattle and carabao.
“With the approval of the program, PCAF will check possible ways to conduct monitoring and evaluation without compromising the safety of its employees and its development partners. Through this, PCAF would be able to update not only to the USDA and DA, but also to our stakeholders,” said PCAF Acting Executive Director Liza Battad.
The Intensified Community-Based Dairy Enterprise Development is originally approved in 2018 as “Dairy Goat Farming: A Livelihood Opportunity for Rural Farm Families” of the National Dairy Authority (NDA).
The restructured project will be jointly implemented by NDA and the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) for four years. Aside from the dairy goat, the project will now include dairy buffalo and cattle for more milk production potentials and would involve more farmers to complement with government’s efforts in addressing poverty, hunger and malnutrition.
The NDA and PCC will utilize the US PL480 funds amounting to PhP1.567 Billion. NDA will have a share of PhP987.01 Million and PCC with PhP512 Million. The remaining PhP67.05 Million will be used by PCAF for its monitoring and evaluation activities consistent with the approved US PL480 Title I Program fund utilization guidelines.
PCAF will also utilize the PhP67 Million in a period of five years for monitoring and evaluation of the project.
Early this year, the restructuring was facilitated by PCAF, together with the officers and staff of the Department of Agriculture-National Livestock Program (NLP), National Dairy Administration (NDA) and Philippine Carabao Center (PCC).
The DA-NLP will oversee its implementation while PCAF will regularly monitor the project as the fund manager of the US PL480 Program and will ensure to providing regular updates to the USDA.
The restructuring is part of Secretary Dar’s aim to increase the improvement of the entire dairy industry by reaching higher milk sufficiency through increased dairy animal production and enhanced animal genetics.
It has been essential in DA’s implementation of its current development strategy of “New Thinking” in agriculture and the vision of a “food secure Philippines with prosperous farmers and fishers”.
The project aims to: 1) produce 27.70 million liters of milk throughout the project period; 2) increase dairy cattle inventory by 7,323 heads and dairy goat inventory by 9,611 heads through importation and expanded animal breeding programs; 3) increase dairy carabao inventory by 922 heads through importation and local procurement of purebred/crossbred buffaloes; 4) increase production of female calf by 8, 562 heads annually through expanded AI services; 5) increase average family income of dairy farmers by 20% annually through the development of carabao-based enterprises; and 6) increase the average income of dairy goat farmers by 18% and double the income of dairy cattle farmers throughout the project period with the establishment and enhancement of goat-based and cattle-based dairy enterprises.
It also involves the infusion of purebred and crossbred dairy stocks, use of advanced breeding technologies and establishment/strengthening of community-based dairy enterprises within identified impact dairy zones.
Laying down the strategies for the project, it will have the following components: a) Dairy Animal Procurement and Distribution (PhP962.23 Million); b) Expanded Artificial Insemination (PhP244.25 Million); c) Feed Production and Development (PhP16.43 Million); d) Dairy Enterprises Development (PhP93.11 Million); e) Capacity building (PhP23.14 Million); and f) Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation (PhP227.95 Million). ### JC (With reports from PMKMD-Project Development Section)
