The cattle fattening project for out-of-school youth (OSY) will be set this year in six trial locations in Ilocos Norte.

Right after launching this program last year of December, OSYs in the municipalities of Bangui, Solsona, Marcos, San Nicolas, along with Laoag and Batac City will soon pave the way for the first roll of the project.
Fifty beneficiaries are allocated for the province of Ilocos Norte.

This is part of the government’s initiative to engage youth in agriculture and generate income opportunities with the growing concern on aging farmers and increasing OSY population.

In 2017, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has revealed that around 3.8 million or ten percent of Filipinos aged six to 24 years old are not attending school.

Department of Education meanwhile in 2020 has reported significant decrease of Filipino students who did not enroll for the 2021 school year, from 27.7 million enrollees in 2019 down to 23 million, both in public and private school.

The most frequently identified problems involved marriage and family issues, as well as the high expense of education and financial difficulties.
DA also took this program as an opportunity to help in reviving the cattle industry of the country which had a -10% growth rate in 2020 and -2.6% in 2021 as per PSA assessment.

Eligible beneficiaries should be aged 18-24 years old who has undergone training on cattle raising and is willing to loan an amount of Php 200,000.
The amount borrowed should be used for purchase of fatteners, construction of livestock housing, and cover monthly salaries and wages for the first year with an interest rate of 4% per annum, payable up to five years.

This is a collaborative project of the DA, ACPC, Ilocos Norte provincial government, PhilGuarantee Corporation, Ilocos Consolidated Cooperative Bank, and Agricultural Training Institute.