BONTOC, Mountain Province – An organization of farmers in Barangay Dalican received a total of 1,400 heads of ready-to-lay (RTL) pullets and an initial 24 bags of grower feeds through the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in partnership with the Bontoc Municipal Government through the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist (OMAg) on November 5, 2020.
For easier management of the project, the members of the Channeg Farmers Association were organized into two groups comprising of 25 members each. Thus, each group received 700 heads of RTL pullets and an initial 12 bags of grower feeds.
According to Assistant Department Head Catherine Agcon of the OMAg, the remaining 186 bags of grower feeds will be equally divided between the two groups.
Before the delivery of the RTL pullets, the DA –SAAD funded the construction of the housing and provision of training to the farmer-beneficiaries. The training covered Training on Pest and Disease Management, Training on RTL Egg Production, and Capacity Building Training to include Record-keeping, Organization Development, and Management.
The project was procured under the SAAD Fiscal Year 2019 appropriation and is anticipated to capacitate marginalized farmers in Barangay Dalican to earn added income from small- scale egg production business.
Bontoc Mayor Franklin Odsey is grateful that Bontoc has been receiving numerous assistance from the national government, particularly from the Department of Agriculture.
“Farming is the main source of living of the people in Barangay Dalican and the other barangays of Bontoc. Livelihood projects by the DA-SAAD are very beneficial to our farmers in town,” the mayor remarked.
Likewise, Odsey challenged the farmer-beneficiaries to sustain the project for the organization to generate income, at the same time to strengthen the cooperation of each member as they actively do their assigned tasks in keeping their poultry ventures productive.
The counterpart of the Bontoc LGU in the realization of the project is the provision of technical assistance to the SAAD–beneficiaries to include technical assistance in the preparation and submission of project proposals to DA, and facilitates meetings and orientation of the farmer association.
To ensure the sustainability of the project, the Bontoc LGU through the OMAg in collaboration with the Office of the Provincial Veterinarian and the DA- SAAD shall conduct periodic monitoring.//
Alpine L. Killa, Bontoc LGU