Poultry industry urged to raise native chicken

To increase backyard farmers’ profitability amidst the challenges of prices spikes in feed prices and rising production costs, a Cebu-based multipurpose cooperative is calling for farmers to look into the brighter prospects of raising free range native chicken.

Because of the increasing demand for organic products in both local and global markets today and the rising awareness for healthier lifestyles, Cebu Integrated Multipurpose Cooperative (CIMPC) chairman Rose Canastra said in a phone interview that raising native chicken could be a wiser alternative to augment the income of poultry raisers especially backyard farmers.

She said that compared to broilers, native chickens are healthier and has strong resistance against diseases since they feed on greens and other organic minerals. These breeds can also easily adapt to our local agro-climatic conditions and are able to utilize farm products. The cost of native chicken production is also minimal since these chickens graze on range, added Canastra.

“Chicken is the cheapest source of protein. There is great demand for organic chicken abroad and even in the Philippines alone of which the need cannot be filled,” she said.

Canastra underscored that the demand for chicken is around 635 million every year. And since Western consumers are now demanding organic food, they avoid chickens that were raised and treated with so much chemical medicines and preventive antibiotics that can cause deadly diseases to humans such as cancer.

“By 2012, the European market as well as other Western countries will buy only free range native chicken because now a days they go for organic products so there is indeed a big potential demand for us to tap into this segment in the poultry industry,” she added.

However Canastra further explained that the industry is still unaware of this great demand as they are more into raising commercial breeds such as broilers. She said that the supply of native chickens in the country is scarce since we still do not have a free range chicken industry.

She said that here in Cebu particularly, only a few farms in rural areas such as in Dumanjug are raising native chickens and these are usually grown in their backyards and raisers do not have the right knowledge of raising these breeds well.

And to provide farmers the technical knowledge of the proper techniques of raising commercially free range native chicken, CIMPC will be conducting a seminar this May 17 at the Department of Agriculture Compound.

“Our aim is to teach farmers to raise native chicken commercially so we can increase our supply and to help them later on to export these products to other countries abroad so they can augment their income and address the poverty problem of the country,” she added.

Canastra said that the three basic factors for successful poultry raising are proper method and management, breed and nutrition and these are the topics that they will be discussing to equip farmers with the basics in potentially starting a commercial native chicken industry. – Rhia de Pablo