March 16, 2007

 

Philippine dairy self-sufficiency seen with US$76-million investment
 

 

The Philippines doesn't need to depend on yearly dairy imports worth P27.5 billion (US$563.46 million) if only it invests P3.67 billion or US$75.81 million for 25,000 purebred dairy buffaloes to achieve self-sufficiency in 10 years.

 

The Philippine Carabao Centre (PCC) told the Manila Bulletin of its plan that will generate numerous multiplier effect, most notable of which is the creation of a huge workforce of 1.75 million from the poorest of the poor.

 

The problem, as usual, is financing and maybe even more difficult to hurdle due to its political implications is the displacement of middlemen engaged in importing and processing dairy products, according to Dr Libertado Cruz, PCC executive director.

 

The budget involves the purchase of 25,000 heads of buffalo cow at P75,000 (US$1,536) each including transport and a separate P1.8 billion (US$36.88 million) for capability building. The stocks can be bought from disease-free regions in Brazil.

 

An infusion of 1,000 heads of buffalo cow will produce 380 heads when the cows are bred with locally-existing carabaos.

 

Such number will yield 6.48 million litres of milk (LME) on the fourth year, 16.58 million litres on the sixth year, 26.67 million litres on the eight year, and 36.77 million litres on the tenth year. With 25,000 heads, that will produce 919 million litres which will make the country dairy self-sufficient, given consumption stays at present levels.

 

Crucial to this plan, Cruz said is the mobilisation of private technicians learned in conducting artificial insemination (AI), a modern technique of implanting the bull's semen on the female to produce offspring.

 

He said the agency's target is to develop 2,000 private technicians in the Philippines which will ease the financial burden on government to its few public technicians who cannot immediately respond to the requirement.

 

The AI business, which is not very complicated, can be lucrative since one offspring produced costs P500, and producing 500 in a year generates an income of P250,000 to a farmer who doesn't have to be college-educated.

 

The country imports 1.8 billion litres in liquid milk equivalent (LME, in cow's milk) of dairy products yearly. Converted to buffalo milk which has higher milk fat of seven to eight percent compared to milk fat of cow's (cattle) milk at only three to four percent, this is only equivalent to 900 million litres in LME, a unit used for conversion of all dairy products including skim milk or butter.

 

The Nueva Ecija Federation of Dairy Carabao Cooperative (Nefedco), one of the country's most prolific dairy cooperative, asked Agriculture secretary Arthur Yap to upgrade dairy operations from manual to mechanised operations as well as from plastic to food-grade stainless steel facilities.

 

Nefedco also asked Yap to help in the infusion of 1,000 heads of buffalo to put up a 5,000-kilo milk processing plant to daily supply milk companies such as Chichiyasu Dairy and Nestle.

 

The last time the Philippines imported breeding carabaos was in 1998 when only 1,000 was imported from Bulgaria.

 

The Philippines now has 3.2 million heads of buffalo, but this is used to supply a combination of requirement for dairy and draft (farm-working animals)