MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) is targeting to bring back the country’s swine inventory to pre-African swine fever (ASF) level by 2025 once the program is approved by President Marcos.
The target is part of the three-year agriculture development program (ADP) aimed to raise the country’s food production.
The ADP for livestock lays down specific activities over a three-year period to help the swine industry recover and boost production to pre-ASF levels, the National Livestock Program (NLP) director Ruth Miclat-Sonaco said during the 29th National Hog Convention last week.
“The President wanted specifics on what to do in the livestock sector aside from roadmap, agricultural and fisheries mechanization in three years. The ADP will be very specific and activities based, of course anchored on the roadmap of the private sector,” she said.
The final form of the ADP will be issued once the President’s approval is secured, the NLP director said.
But at the end of the three-year program, the NLP hopes pork inventory to reach 12 million.
“Our goal is to increase volume, which would hopefully redound to increased income of farmers. So, we talk of swine recovery, at least we go back to the original pre-ASF inventory, which is around 12 million. Right now we’re only at 9.8 million,” Sonaco said.
The ADP for livestock will still cover the Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives For Recovery And Expansion (Inspire) Program and the Bantay ASF sa Barangay (BABay ASF) program, the government’s repopulation and surveillance programs for the swine industry.
It also details the implementation of indemnification for farmers and of the Cold Examination Facility in Agriculture (CEFA).
“Indemnification, that’s on top of the list. Then INSPIRE is still there, but an expanded INSPIRE. Then there’s also our surveillance programs and CEFA. All these things are required by the private sector,” Sonaco said.
The DA’s budget does not cover the indemnification to ASF-hit hog raisers that ended in July 2021.
Hog farmers will only get compensation if they have insurance from the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC).
“For 2024, we are proposing a budget for that through the General Appropriations Act. We are proposing P10,000 per head. Because right now, compensation is just through insurance. The insurance for finishers is P10,000 per head. For sows, its P25,000 to P35,000 if insured with the PCIC,” Sonaco said.
Earlier, hog industry groups urged the government to expand its repopulation program to more commercial farms and to consult players in coming up with inventory data to help in the faster recovery of the swine industry amid the continuous spread of ASF.
At present almost all regions have been hit by ASF, the latest of which was Central Visayas.
National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. (NFHFI) vice chairman Alfred Ng said the government’s INSPIRE program was initially focused backyard farmers and cooperatives.
“Once only defined for backyard farmers and cooperatives, DA has opened some project assistance for the commercial farms,” he said.
However, the NFHFI is proposing that a higher share in the program’s budget should be allocated to private commercial farms for the industry to deliver faster results in the repopulation program.
By doing so, this will allow the grantees to use more of the budget in buying breeders and growing or piglets.
“We just suggested that it be given to commercial farms so that the industry can benefit immediately,” Ng said at the sidelines of the convention.
Under the updated INSPIRE program, the DA increased the fund grant to P10 million from P5 million to qualified farmer cooperative and associations (FCAs).
The grant will be used to establish a new bio-secure facility per grantee, which will eat up 60 to 75 percent of the total amount. This leaves the FCA with less than 25 to 40 percent of the grant for the procurement of piglets, of feeds and biologics support and other items, such as disinfectants.
Ng said the budget would not be enough for backyard farmers and cooperatives for the actual hog repopulation if bulk of the grant would be used in building a bio-secure facility.
The bio-secure facility under the program requires the installation of climate-controlled animal house and waste management, among others, and these entail additional costs for the farmers outside of the grant.
“How can backyard farmers afford those? They cannot afford to maintain the facilities, unlike commercial farms,” Ng said.
“That’s why we said a higher allocation under the program should be given to private commercial farms because they already have the facilities so all they need to invest on is the retrofitting,” he said.
As biosecurity is a critical component in the recovery of the swine industry, NFHFI members are employing simple retrofitting measures in their existing facilities to comply with the strictest standards to guard against emerging viruses and their vector carriers.
“In our group, we mostly call it retrofits, so that means we put nets on all the buildings to seal them better so people don’t come in, birds don’t come in, rats don’t come in. These are the things that we are doing, so majority of the budget will go to actual purchase of breeders or piglets,” Ng said.
Meanwhile, Pork Producers Federation of the Phils. Inc. (PROPORK) president Rolando Tambago said the government should also review its methodology on getting inventory data of the swine industry.
“They should declare how much was already added to the inventory or how much is the harvest. That would determine if there really is shortage,” he said.
Earlier, the NLP said that there would be a shortage of at least 46,104 metric tons in the pork supply this June amid the spread of ASF.
In reviewing the methodology, PROPORK urged the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to consult the private sector to get actual data on the ground.
Tambago said they are not asking directly the actual players of the industry to get the actual figures.
“During that meeting, we agreed that the private sector should be consulted on the figures because if the figures are wrong, then all projections will be flawed. But I think they are doing something, that they will start consulting the agriculture, and private sector, especially the big groups NFHFI and PROPORK,” he said.
On Wednesday, NLP director Ruth Miclat-Sonaco expressed optimism that the swine industry will recover in one to two years.
“Since the second quarter of 2022, we are having positive growth. Although of course…we’re only talking about one to three percent growth in terms of inventory and volume of production. Nevertheless, with all these positive developments that we have, we are looking at the recovery of the swine (industry) in the next one to two years,” she said.