Bohol eyed as Philippines ‘dairy capital

CEBU, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is proposing to turn Bohol province into the Dairy Capital of the Philippines.

In his official social media account, Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol announced he is meeting Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto and Ubay, Bohol Mayor Costan Reyes on Dec. 19 to present to them this proposal.

"Bohol Island is being considered as the Center of the Philippine Dairy Development Program mainly because the Department of Agriculture owns a 3,000-hectare area called the Ubay Stock Farm and also because it is a natural confinement area for imported cattle since it is an island," Piñol said.

Among those expected to join the Dec. 19 meeting are the stakeholders of the livestock industry in Bohol, representatives of big milk companies and officials of the DA in Region 7.

"Very soon, Bohol will not only be known for the Chocolate Hills but also as the producer of fresh milk in the country,"  he said.

According to the agriculture chief, Bohol is also a net importer of meat thus the possibility of animals being shipped out of Bohol is almost zero.

"Should Bohol officials and the people accept the project, the province stands to benefit greatly since along with the establishment of the Dairy Farm in Ubay, we will ask big milk companies like Nestle to look into the prospects of establishing a fresh milk-packaging plant in the Ubay Stock Farm," the DA official said.

Piñol explained that the idea is to ensure that the milk produced by the estimated 5,000 heads of Girolando dairy cattle would be transferred directly from the milking parlors to the the fresh milk packaging plants.

The 5,000 heads of Girolando dairy cattle are expected to produce 22 million liters of milk in one year.

The agriculture secretary said the project is expected to provide employment for the local people and additional sources of income for the local farmers who would be engaged in the planting of forage and in the fattening of the male offsprings of the dairy cattle.

When the dairy cattle population in the Ubay Stock Farm has increased, a municipality-based dairy farming program will be introduced to the different towns of the province to be owned and operated by Bohol farmers and women, thus turning the whole island into the Dairy Capital of the country, Piñol further noted.

To complete the set up, he said a modern slaughterhouse and processing facility will also be set up in the town of Ubay.

Piñol believes the establishment of dairy farms in Bohol will also boost organic farming in the island since one of the components of the project is to process animal waste into organic fertilizer.

However, he said there are issues that must be presented clearly to the people of Ubay and Bohol.

"It must be explained that while the Girolando cattle from Brazil will go through OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) supervised quarantine procedures, the animals are coming from a country which still vaccinates against Food and Mouth Disease.

"As Dr. Jose Osvaldo Barcos, OIE Director for the Americas, emphasized, there is no 100 percent guarantee that the animals which tested negative for FMD prior to the shipment would really be free from the disease," Piñol said.

"It is because of this that the people of Ubay will have to be consulted and measures to ensure that there will be no raising of livestock in the vicinity of the stock farm will be presented of their consideration," the official further explained.

Alternative sources of income will be offered to the farmers in Ubay and surrounding areas like tractors to replace their carabaos, he said.

"The province will also have to agree that there should be no shipment of live animals from Bohol to other parts of the country for at least six months after the arrival of the Girolando Dairy Cattle," he said.  (FREEMAN)