The Ilocos Norte government, the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC), and a multi-sectoral group composed of local farmers’ cooperatives have pledged to consolidate their resources to revitalize the province’s carabao industry.

Through Provincial Resolution 2023-02-103, a memorandum of agreement is being prepared for the establishment of a province-wide carabao-based business improvement network to boost the local dairy industry and provide business opportunities to carabao entrepreneurs or “carapreneurs.”

“The memorandum of agreement is due for signing by the governor, the PCC, and the partner cooperatives anytime,” said provincial board member Jonathan Torralba, chairperson of the committee on agriculture.

The partner cooperatives were identified as the Linang Farmers’ Agriculture Cooperative, represented by chairman Ronald Lutap, and the Piddig Basi Multi-purpose Cooperative, represented by chairman Felixberto Cid.

The resolution was certified as urgent by Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc on Tuesday.

Funded by the national government, the implementation of the Accelerating Livelihood and Assets Buildup-Karbawan project in Ilocos Norte hopes to benefit more stakeholders with the main goal of increasing local milk production and creating livelihood opportunities.

To improve the dairy development in the province, the PCC will entrust dairy buffalo to partner farmers’ cooperatives that will engage with processing plants and outlets to pursue carabao-based business ventures, and provision of capability-building and technical support services.

As a model of the country’s national convergence program, the local government unit of Piddig is taking the lead in this project to save the water buffalo from extinction.

Recognizing its potential as a local source of milk and meat, Piddig town Mayor Georgina Guillen said water buffalo should be protected.

“We need carabaos, not just to help farmers to plow the land but also to give us milk and meat,” she said.

Guillen said the Piddig local government has started its inventory of the remaining water buffalo in every rural village here.

She also urged local farmers to help revitalize the carabao industry and increase production with the right mix of technology.

Water buffaloes, according to the PCC, have inherently longer gestation periods than any other domesticated farm animal. The average gestation length is 310 to 315 days.

Given a post-partum service period of 60 to 90 days, the yearly production of a calf is not achievable even under the best conditions, the agency said.

This characteristic has a major effect on the measure of the overall reproduction efficiency over a given period, it added. (PNA)