CEBU CITY – Farmers in Cebu’s Tabuelan town have resorted to raising “free-range” chickens and their hard work was the result of their perseverance, determination, and initiatives based on experiences, struggles and challenges they encountered.
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| Farmers in Cebu's Tabuelan town are now raising “free-range” chickens through the Department of Agriculture's “Ahon Lahat Pagkain Sapat Kontra Covid-19” program. |
Free-range is a term that refers to a method of animal husbandry where animals are able to roam freely outdoors rather than being confined by an enclosure for 24 hours a day.
The farmers are all beneficiaries of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) "Ahon Lahat Pagkain Sapat Kontra Covid-19" and were all provided with free-range chicken modules. At least 20 farmer associations benefited from the project.
A total of 1,200 heads of free-range chicks of dominant CZ breed and 40 bags of feeds were given to each association, including 60 heads and two bags of feeds for dispersal to the members.
Each member received 12 chickens. The members would return the same number of chickens received which are to be dispersed to other members in the waitlist.
Some beneficiaries have successfully grown, doubled, and even tripled the number of chickens they received from the project. This was also reported by members of the Integrity Circle (IC) of the DA’s Agriculture Dialogue and Information Network Group who are private volunteers monitoring the project.
One successful recipient, Resca Pugio, of the Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa Tabunok, now has more than 50 offspring from the existing nine chickens. The chickens, she said, have engrossed her family to have more of such breed.
“We observed that the chickens are good egg layers too, however they don't brood their eggs, resulting to spoilage. What we did since we have native hens that are laying eggs, we get all the native eggs and replace it with the eggs of the CZ. We found out that the native hen will brood the eggs until they hatched. I was able to produce more offspring,” Pugio said.
Pugio’s son also narrated that their brooding nest has three layers composed of straw, sacks and cloth which they usually replace from time to time to avoid the eggs from getting wet that will result in spoilage.
Pugio’s practice of letting the native hens’ brood the CZ eggs was adapted by other recipients such as the Bongon Farmers Association of Tabuelan and the Villahermosa Planting Group Farmers Association that also claimed to be successful by using the same technique.
Evelyn Pable, a project recipient of Canaan Bongon Farmers Association, said the eggs give them additional source of income and as a source of food. (Carlo Lorenciana)
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