DAGUPAN CITY – The Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office 1 (DA-RFO1) awarded P77 million to the United Association of Pangasinan Swine Grower, Inc. (UAPSG) from San Fabian town on May 9 at the Capitol Resort Hotel in Lingayen, Pangasinan.
The assistance is under the Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives for Recovery and Expansion (INSPIRE), which is the recovery and repopulation program of the Department for the hog sector, directly responding to the needs of the industry, given the African swine fever (ASF) problem.
DA-RFO1 regional executive director (RED) Annie Bares expressed optimism that the project will provide a good opportunity for the hog raisers to genuinely move on from the ill-effects of ASF in Ilocos Region.
“Ituloy tuloy na natin ang pag-unlad ng swine industry. Not only in Pangasinan, but also in the whole Region 1,” said RED Bares.
Karen Paningbatan, DA-RFO1’s Livestock Banner Program focal person, thanked the UAPSG for being persistent in meeting all of the needed paperwork requirements in order to disburse the INSPIRE project’s P77 million financial allocation.
“Hindi pa po nagtatapos dito ang partnership natin since ang INSPIRE project, it is a consolidation and clustering strategy. So after ng production, sa post-harvest naman po tayo magve-venture,” Paningbatan said.
Fourteen sites, ranging from Pangasinan Districts 2 to District 6, were identified as recipients of the allocation.
Each site has a P5.5 million allocation for the provision of piglets, feeds, and other inputs. BY: APRIL M. MONTES-BRAVO
