Multi-million dairy project to rise in New Corella


The Province of Davao del Norte is set to resurrect its dairy industry with the coming of a multi-million USDA Food for Progress (FFPr) Program in New Corella town.
Land O’Lakes, which is a US-based private voluntary organization, will implement the P23 million FFPr dairy project that will initially benefit 76 farmers in the barangays of Carcur, New Cortez, New Bohol, and San Jose.
Ms. Marilyn B. Mabale, operations manager of LOL foundation Phils, Inc., said the program aims to improve the incomes of rural farmers and provide access to nutritious milk for poor communities.
She bared the components of the project include a milk processing plant, milk cow stocks, and milk-feeding program for malnourished school children.
She also said a heifer loan scheme will be employed that would require a beneficiary family to pass on the first female offspring to another family in need, who is also required to pass on to the next family.
“We want to do away with the dole-out mentality in our goal of increasing the access of our farmers to high grade dairy animals, quality supplemental feed rations, as well as access to and availability of affordable high quality veterinary pharmaceuticals,” she added.
Some 160 heads of milking cows are expected to be delivered this year. The first batch consisting of around 56 cattle will be released by the first week of June.
Gov. Rodolfo P. del Rosario welcomed the significant project and directed concerned provincial executives to facilitate the immediate preparation of necessary documents for the project to start sooner.
He assured compliance with the counterpart of the provincial government, which include the building for the milk processing equipment, technical and logistic support through provision of veterinary drugs biologics (vaccines, feed supplement, etc), vet services, and funds for the milk-feeding program component.
The governor said the new project will strengthen the dairy milk-feeding program of the province that his administration started some two years ago.
Aside from putting up the necessary counterpart for the project, he said the province sill also redirect the budget for its milk-feeding program to become a strong component of this new dairy project, in support of the celebrated nutrition program of Davao del Norte.

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