DA approves P3M grant for Legazpi’s chicken program

By Cet Dematera

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has recently approved the P3 million grant to the Legazpi City Veterinary Office (CVO) for the implementation of the chicken raising project dubbed ’Range Chicken and Organic System for Alternative Livelihood (ROSAL).’

Legazpi CVO chief Dr. Emmanuel Estipona, in an interview on May 10 said that the P3 million grant would be used for the construction of the cage, including fencing and lighting, to make sure all the chicken are safe while growing faster.

“The budget would also be used for industrialization to make sure that the implementation of range chicken has proper direction to strengthen the program resiliency and food security measure and later on to make it income generating livelihood activities of the people in the community”, Estipona said.

He said his office had purchased already an additional incubator machine with a capacity to incubate 1,500 eggs in 19 days.

“Presently, we are using our incubator machine with a capacity of 500 eggs per incubation period but through our new incubator we can expect to produce at least 2,000 chicks every 19 days”, Estipona added.

The CVO has distributed 10 head of chicken each to all the barangay leaders of the city’s women federation on May 6 as part of the Mothers’ Day celebration.

Former mayor and now president of the Legazpi City Women’s Federation (LCWF), Geraldine Rosal, expressed gratitude to the CVO for including the women’s organization in the dispersal program of (ROSAL) chicken.

She encouraged the recipient women to breed their own chicks so that they can produce more eggs for hatching as part of their livelihood activities and in order for them to generate additional income from this range chicken program.

Estipona said that he is planning to give at least 50 heads of range chicken each recipient farmer, but they should first register to the newly organized Legazpi Poultry Raiser Agriculture Cooperative (LPRAT) in order for them to avail the program.

He explained that the CVO will purchase a poultry dressing plant to be used for slaughtering chicken so that all the raised organic chicken by the farmers can be easily sold or delivered to the malls, including groceries and other meat vendors at the market.

“The LPRAT will make their own label to identify the product as an organic chicken and healthy meat to consume”, Estipona added.