Dairying could help ease poverty in RP

CEBU, Philippines - Developing the local dairy industry will help reduce poverty in the country, as dairying or production of fresh milk uplifts the income and lives of farmers in the rural areas.

This is why the Dairy Confederation of the Philippines (DairyCon) has been encouraging growers of dairy herds—cows, carabaos and goats—to reverse their focus from just fattening to dairying.

According to Danilo Fausto, national chairman of the Dairy Confederation of the Philippines (DairyCon), the growing number of dairy families and enterprises confirm that dairying provides substantial livelihood in the countryside, and its benefits trickle down to the urban areas.        

“The increasing interests of investors and sponsors are attestations to the viability and impact of the local dairy industry in better propelling the nation’s economy to a more stable position,” he said during the opening of the 13th Dairy Congress and Expo last Friday at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).

Fausto said a group of dairy farmers produces multiple benefits for its numerous stakeholders including poverty reduction through regular family income; off-farm jobs estimated to be at one job per 10-20 liters per day of milk marketed; environmental benefits through balanced and integrated farming systems; low energy use compared with industrialized dairy production and improved household food security and nutrition.

One milk-producing animal can produce an average monthly income of P7,000. A farmer-family, who is well trained to manage dairy animals, can handle or grow up to six dairy animals. This means a potential monthly family income of P40, 000 to P50, 000.

Grace Cenas, National Dairy Authority (NDA) Visayas Island Office Regional Manager, said the potential income from dairying will augment income of farmers from merely fattening—buying young cow or calf or young goat or kid, growing them and selling their meat.

“(If they go into dairy cattle,) cows produce milk for 300 days after they give birth while raising their calves. After that, you just have to let them rest for two months, they can be impregnated again (so the process goes,)” she told The Freeman in an interview.

Cenas said the country’s production of fresh milk is far from the demand of the local market. This is why the Philippines is still dependent on imported milk.

In 2008, total actual milk dairy production was 13. 81 million liters, which is equivalent to 37, 836-liters per day. The liquid milk equivalent of total dairy importation on the other hand is 1.618 billion liters or about 4. 49-million liters per day.

In Cebu, Cenas said 1, 000 dairy cattle in 100 farms all over the province produce 2, 000 liters of milk in a day. A milk-processing plant located in Consolacion is serving all the 21 members of the Cebu Federation of Dairy Cooperatives (Cefedco).

NDA funded the construction of the plant, which was leased to Cefedco. The cooperative’s products are under the brand name Cebu Dairy Fresh with fresh milk, choco milk, melon milk, low fat milk, yoghurt, white cheese, sour cream, cream, butter, pastillas de leche, polvoron, milk bars and milkee.

DairyCon’s Fausto is calling on the local market as well as the government to help support the country’s dairy industry by patronizing local dairy products and allocate budget for its development, among others

“Allow it (dairy industry) to grow. Help uplift the lives of our dairy farmers and develop the agricultural sector and bring it to a new dimension for the sake of the Philippine economy.”

DairyCon is the organization of all local dairymen and their cooperatives. It is at the forefront of the development of the dairy industry. Its vision is to make dairying the top industry and a partner in nation-building. Its mission include encouraging people to go dairying to create wealth, livelihood and share the benefits of economic development nationwide and create a permanent sector for dairy with globally competitive professional farmers and farm workers.