DA unveils P1-B swine repopulation program
The Department of Agriculture (DA) is set to roll out a P1-billion swine repopulation program as part of a broader effort to bring back hog population to pre-African swine fever (ASF) levels.
Agriculture Undersecretary Constante Palabrica announced that Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. recently approved this initiative, which involves distributing around 30,000 gilts, or female pigs that have not produced piglets, to large farms.
In turn, these large farms “will repay the government by providing reared pigs for distribution to backyard farmers,” the DA said in a statement.
The DA is fleshing out the details of the swine repopulation program, including the timeline and target areas for distributing gilts.
This is one of the longer-term solutions the agency developed to restore the domestic hog inventory to 14 million heads recorded before ASF infected piggeries all over the country.
Tiu Laurel had unveiled a plan to produce 2 million hogs more annually from 2026 to 2028 to return to the pre-ASF population.
“Well, if we can reach 16 million or 17 million [hogs] in the next 10 years, that’s really significant. It will reduce our reliance on importation,” he had said.
The animal disease has caused significant losses and slashed swine population by about 6 million.
Reviving livestock industry
The DA is crafting a road map to govern the industry’s recovery, counting on the commercial release of an ASF vaccine from Vietnam and the proposed Animal Industry Development and Competitiveness Act to achieve these goals.
The proposed law seeks to revive the livestock industry, which entails ensuring adequate supply, providing production support to backyard farmers, establishing livestock-based enterprises, increasing farmers’ income and promoting a livestock farmers’ organization.
Based on a Bureau of Animal Industry report, there are active ASF cases in eight provinces and five regions as of April 11.
The DA and swine industry players had reached an agreement to intensify the enforcement of the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) for pork amid low compliance.
The MSRP is set at P300 per kilogram for freshly slaughtered carcasses. The price cap for pigue (leg/ham) and kasim (shoulder) is P350 a kilo; liempo (pork belly), P380 a kilo.
