BAGULIN, La Union—The Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) has recently given a boost to the livelihood of another farmer association (FA) beneficiary by delivering a new set of cattle to be raised by the members of the FA.

Seven upgraded male Brahmans were handed over to Dina Pascua, the president of the Sinabugan Farmers Association, Inc., in the highland town of Bagulin, La Union. These large ruminants are in addition to the 26 cattle given to the association in June 2023 that are being reared alternatively by each of the 87 members.

Expressing her gratitude, Dina thanked the DA SAAD program for the continued support and could not hide her excitement about raising yet another set of large ruminants. She mentioned that one of her aspirations for their association is to be known as a dairy farm someday.

“𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑠𝑎𝑘𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑘 𝑡𝑎 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑖 𝑛𝑎𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑚𝑖 𝑎 𝑏𝑎𝑘𝑏𝑎𝑘𝑎. 𝑆𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑦 𝑘𝑜𝑚𝑎 𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑢𝑑 𝑡𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑎𝑑𝑢𝑚𝑖 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑡𝑜𝑦 𝑡𝑎 𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑎𝑝𝑘𝑜 𝑡𝑖 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑎𝑖𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑜𝑚𝑎 𝑖𝑡𝑖 𝑑𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑦 𝑓𝑎𝑟𝑚. 𝐼𝑠𝑢 𝑛𝑔𝑎 𝑎𝑔𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑘 𝑢𝑛𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑎 𝑛𝑎𝑎𝑚-𝑎𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑖 𝑡𝑖 𝑆𝐴𝐴𝐷 𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑛𝑎𝑔𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑎𝑚𝑖 𝑎 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑𝑎; 𝑠𝑎𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎 𝑘𝑜𝑚𝑎 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑢𝑚-𝑢𝑚𝑎 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑡𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑘𝑎𝑑𝑎𝑘𝑎𝑚𝑖.” (I am glad to have received these additional cattle for our group. I hope that we can multiply them and our association succeed because I dream of establishing a dairy farm. We are lucky to have been chosen as a beneficiary of SAAD; I wish the interventions we receive would not falter.”) Dina said.

The Sinabugan Farmers Association, with 87 members, would alternately feed and herd the cattle.

“Gapu ta aggaaddayo ti balbalay, nagtutulagkami: maysa a grupo, uppat a baka. Makaammodanto metten a mangaywan basta adda ti responsibilidad ti tunggal maysa.” (Since the houses of the members are remote from each other, the farmers agreed to rear the cattle by group and by schedule.)

The cattle given to the association will be raised for fattening. Once sold, they plan to purchase female cattle for breeding and soon, milk production.

Aside from the large ruminants, the FA has already received drugs and biologics for the cattle, vegetable seeds, and other farm inputs.

The association has also undergone various trainings on cattle raising and vegetable farming. In November 2023, they are set to undergo financial management training in order to upskill each member in the proper management of their livelihood.

With the mountainous terrain of the place where the association members reside, livestock raising is a very viable enterprise that would augment their meager income on crop production. Cattle raising has been one of the identified choice of enterprise by the FA as a result of the conducted Beneficiary Needs Assessment by SAAD during its pre implementation phase. The program’s objective to alleviate poverty in the rural communities is expected to be achieved with the success of the given enterprise to the FA.

With reports from SAAD Ilocos Region