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Technology-Livestock

When we see a farmer, in our minds is also a carabao since they are partners in the farm. They till the soil. The carabao is his beast of burden, pulling the plow and harrow and hauling farm produce when market time comes.

With the current carabao population of 3.33M, 99.9% is raised at backyards by small-hold farmers, while only 0.1% is found at commercial farms.

The Philippine water buffalo locally known as carabao not only serves as a multi-purpose animal but also as good source of meat and milk.

Technologies to improve the buffalo not only as a source of draft but more importantly of milk and meat have been developed to increase its population and its profitability.

The Philippine Carabao Center (PCC), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, has organized and extended its services to improve the genetic potential of the native carabao for meat, milk, and draft through its Carabao Development Program.  Various reproductive biotechnologies were developed and utilized which resulted in improved carabao for the country.

The Artificial Insemination (AI) technique in upgrading buffalo is a technology being practiced by the Center. This started through the UNDP-FAO funded project for carabao upgrading in 1980.  At first, PCC sourced out frozen semen contained in ampule from India.  They provided trainings for technicians at National Artificial Breeding Center (NABC) for one month to further facilitate AI.  This led to the establishment of our own semen laboratory in the country.

Thirteen centers of the PCC network lead in the nationwide implementation of AI activities.  These are at: Mariano Marcos State University (Batac, Ilocos Norte); Cagayan State University (Piat, Cagayan); Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (Rosario, La Union); Central Luzon State University (Muñoz, Nueva Ecija); University of the Philippines at Los Baños (Los Baños, Laguna); Leyte State University (Baybay, Leyte); West Visayas State University (Calinog, Iloilo); La Carlota Stock Farm La Granja (La Carlota City); Ubay Stock Farm (Ubay, Bohol); Mindanao Livestock Production Complex (Kalawit, Zamboanga del Norte); Central Mindanao University (Musuan, Bukidnon); Mindanao State University (Marawi City); and University of Southern Mindanao (Kabacan, North Cotabato).

To further disseminate information on AI, the Expanded AI program had been launched.  This initiates the privatization of the AI services, tapping the village-based private technicians to do the insemination activity.  PCC provided training on AI for these technicians.

PCC provides them with the needed AI equipments which include the liquid nitrogen tank, semen straws and AI gun.  Semen from the stored frozen semen is also provided at no cost.  The liquid nitrogen required to maintain and preserve the frozen semen in the field is being provided by the national and the local government.  The farmers will later on be charged for these services when the Localized or Privatized Expanded AI program becomes a viable approach for a wide-scale improvement of the carabao.

Changing Lives
The expanded AI service has reached farmers all over the country.  Mr. Sosimo Ma. Pablico, an agricultural journalist featured personal accounts in buffalo dairying by farmers assisted by PCC.  The book titled, “Changing Lives…Beyond the Draft Carabao”, also revealed success stories of farmers who have availed either of PCC's 25-dairy buffalo module or AI services.

Farmers were able to source out additional income as well as generate employment for other people in their respective communities.  In some of the personal accounts revealed in the book, the families were able to pay debt, send children to school, formed cooperatives, and so on.

For instance, Mr. Elpidio Balino a farmer from Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija has been practicing AI since 1983.  “Iyong isang anak ko nakagraduate ng nursing, iyong isa naman nasa Singapore na ngayon. Commerce naman ang natapos,” Mr. Balino shared.  (One of my children is now a nursing graduate and the other one is now in Singapore, finished commerce). All these he attributes to milk produced by their AI breeds.  His wife would sell every morning about six liters of milk produced to their neighbors giving her a daily income of P400.00.

The AI technology show great impact to the livestock sector.  These upgraded buffaloes can change and improve our lives as well.

Source:
This article was based on the study, “Reproductive Biotechnology in Water Buffaloes in the Philippines: Recent Developments and Future Perspectives” by Eufrocina P. Atabay of the Philippine Carabao Center, National Headquarters and Genepool, Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.