A farmer’s organization in Camarines Sur will benefit from the PHP5.5 million community-based swine farm project aimed at reviving the local hog industry impacted by the African swine fever (ASF).

In a statement on Friday, Gay Labad, Camarines Sur I provincial agrarian reform program officer, said the Mambalite Palangon Farmers Irrigators Association (MAPAFIA) in Libmanan town was chosen as the project recipient under the Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives for Recovery and Expansion (INSPIRE) of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

DA’s INSPIRE is a three-year plan aimed at helping the swine industry recover faster from ASF and revive the sector, which is experiencing a major decline in production.

Labad said the MAPAFIA would be the first agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organization (ARBO) in the Bicol region to fully operate a newly constructed 360-square-meter hog facility, which was built on a 2,000-square-meter lot in Barangay Mambalite in the town.

“As program recipient, they received PHP5.5 million in aid, which included pigs, feeds, and a modern pig facility with a tunnel ventilation system, a biogas facility, a caretaker shower room, and a perimeter fence,” she said.

Labad said the project would speed up efforts to repopulate pigs so that there would be a steady supply of high-quality hogs.

This would thus help the local market sell more high-quality pork, she said.

In addition to the pig facility, 300 piglets will be delivered in October, along with feed and biologicals.

MAPAFIA president Florentino Umali thanked the DA for providing them with the opportunity to raise pigs and entrusting them with a costly project.

He hopes to work with different line agencies in the future on bigger projects and programs.

Edwin Castaneda, the organization’s treasurer, thanked the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) – Camarines Sur 1 for its continued help.

“Without DAR’s assistance, we would not have been able to obtain such a large-scale project from DA,” he said.

MAPAFIA was organized last year, and its assets and income are now making it one of the most progressive ARBOs in Camarines Sur 1. (PNA)