The Department of Agriculture Ilocos Region, through its Regulatory Division, reports near completion on the implementation of the rehabilitation plan and distribution of cash assistance for the identified 1,662 African Swine Fever (ASF)-affected livestock raisers.
This effort of the agency headed by DA-RFO I Regional Executive Director Lucrecio R. Alviar Jr., along with Regulatory Division Chief, Dr. Florentino Adame, and in partnership with the Local Government Units aims to control and eliminate the spread of the ASF virus whilst delivering utmost support to farmers whose livelihood was hard hit as exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the rehabilitation plan, 609 farmers had already received their animals for livestock raising with a total amount of PHP 25, 873, 650.
Out of the 144 recipients for poultry raising, 19% were provided with their heads of chicken amounting to PHP 351, 450.
Meanwhile, the distribution of indemnification fund for the 909 identified beneficiaries was already completed.
Each farmer received a cash assistance worth Php 5,000 each in replacement of the 5,847 culled heads of swine as per ASF eradication protocol.
The only ASF affected areas in Region 1 are the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union in 31 municipalities.
As per Philippine Statistics Authority data (April 2020), 3% or 17, 514 heads of the total swine population in the region was afflicted with the ASF virus. #
