As of March 15, 2022, the Provincial Government of Davao Del Norte released 41,889 chickens to the 381 people’s organizations in Davao Del Norte since June 2020 to help people sustain a living amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the food sufficiency and livelihood program of the Provincial Government of Davao Del Norte, the KAwsa sa AGrikulturA ug PAnginabuhian sa barangaY (KAAGAPAY) Program was launched.
The beneficiaries are the people’s organizations in the province that received vegetables seedlings and chickens for free.
They also received a “Sustainable Livelihood Training Course on Free Range Chicken” to sustain their livelihood program.
To ensure a stable market for their chickens, the Provincial Government of Davao Del Norte buys all the chickens after 45 days.
Under the system, they call “retention,” 22 people’s organizations are now ready to let their chickens lay eggs and raise them by themselves without giving back the start-up chickens to the provincial government after 3 months of sustainable chicken farming.
Other successful beneficiaries used their income to start new livelihood projects for their organization such as hog raising and lending their income among their members.
Beneficiaries said that the program did not make them rich but is more than enough to earn a living despite the pandemic the world is still facing. (PIA XI Davao del Norte/jmda/Ezri M. Coda, Jr. with reports from One DavNor Network)
