Nueva Ecija farmers get gold daily from carabao dairy
By: Anselmo Roque
Inquirer Central Luzon
11:20 pm | Saturday, August 25th, 2012
ALIAGA, Nueva Ecija—Sylvia Pasaña, 45, a farmer's wife in Barangay
Bibiclat here, was in front of her house one early morning to wait for
the most important person that she was certain to come.
She held a plastic gallon of milk collected earlier by her husband from
their three crossbreed dairy carabaos.
Soon, the milk collector came. He took the milk bottles, poured their
contents in a steel canister and after determining through a lactometer
that it was "Grade A," paid Pasaña P360 for the 10 liters of fresh milk
she turned in.
Pasaña is one of 60 women from eight villages in Aliaga and nearby
Talavera town who sell daily the milk from their families' carabaos to
Florencio Jacinto, an accredited milk collector of the DVF Dairy Farm
Inc. in Talavera.
Elsewhere in the province, members of the 55 dairy cooperatives also
sell the milk harvested from their carabaos to different milk collectors.
Most are taken to the Nueva Ecija Federation of Dairy Carabao
Cooperatives (Nefedcco), an umbrella organization of local cooperatives
and which serves as their marketing arm.
In other towns and cities in Nueva Ecija, farmers who own about 6,000
female crossbreeds, about a third of them lactating, sell milk to
various outlets.
"Our dairy carabaos have brought a lot of changes in our lives," Pasaña
says. "We don't worry anymore for our daily needs and for our children's
school allowance."
In the past, she says they used to earn only during rice harvest, which
happens three months after planting.
Jacinto, also a rice farmer, says that when he became a milk collector,
life for him and his family changed dramatically.
He earns about P20,000 a month for the P2 mark-up price he turns over to
the DVF Dairy Farm.
The DVF Dairy Farm, a milk processor, sells 90 percent of its products
in Metro Manila, Pampanga and Cebu and the rest in its Nueva Ecija
outlet. It is set to market its product to Hong Kong soon.
Miracle Sibayan, plant manager, says the plant processes from 800 to
1,200 liters of milk a day.
The milk supply is turned into liquid products (pasteurized milk),
flavored milk (chocolate, buko-pandan extract and melon flavored),
cheese line (kesong puti, queso blanco and mozzarella cheese), yogurt
line (creamy, crunchy yogurt with nata de coco, non-fat yogurt and
mango-flavored yogurt) and dry products (pastillas, espasol and milk
candies).
The DVF Dairy Farm is a family-owned company put up by Talavera
businessman Danilo Fausto, president of the Dairy Confederation of the
Philippines.
Fausto used to work in the financial market and served as executive vice
president and general manager of the Preferred Securities Corp.
In the early '90s, he underwent training at the Philippine Carabao
Center (PCC) on carabao raising and dairying. He eventually formed a
cooperative composed of farmers and put up in 2000 his own dairy processing.
He is helping several dairy farmers in his hometown of Talavera and in
other areas put up dairy cooperatives.
PCC officials said at least 55 cooperatives are operating in Nueva
Ecija. In 2008, PCC declared Nueva Ecija as the national impact zone for
carabao-based enterprise development (CBED) under the national
government's carabao development program (CDP).
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
CARLOS ANI - International Microfinance Consultant - SEEDFINANCE Corporation Chairman
Mailing address: PO Box 90 UPLB Los Banos Laguna, Philippines 4031
Emails: carlosani@gmail.com , carlosani@seedfinance.net
Landline Phone: +63495010127 (PLDT)
Cellphone Numbers: +639152919580 (Globe) and +639328590859 (Sun)
Websites:
CARLOSANI.COM - http://www.carlosani.com
DEVJOBS - http://www.devjobsmail.com
PHILDEVFINANCE - http://phildevfinance.posterous.com
http://phildevfinance.blogspot.com
Family website - http://www.anifamily.net
SEEDFINANCE Corporation - http://www.seedfinance.net
My News Clippings - http://www.myclipps.posterous.com
Skype name: carlosaniph
--------------------------------------------------------------------
