1st KaraFest in NE fosters greater appreciation for carabaos May 2025 None KaraFest By Ronaline Canute Carabaos, traditionally known as draft animals toiling under the scorching sun, are now being valued apart from their draft power abilities. Today, farmers provide them with comfortable housing and access to animal health and nutrition because carabaos offer greater benefits—they are also a good source of milk, meat, and hide. Carabaos, traditionally known as draft animals toiling under the scorching sun, are now being valued apart from their draft power abilities. Today, farmers provide them with comfortable housing and access to animal health and nutrition because carabaos offer greater benefits—they are also a good source of milk, meat, and hide. The KaraFest 2025, the first carabao festival held at the Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, showcased and celebrated the underrated value of carabao to the livelihood of local farmers and its contribution to boosting the community's tourism. “Sa pamamagitan ng KaraFest, nais nating palakasin ang turismo at itanghal sa mas malawak na merkado ang galing ng ating mga produkto. Sa ating mga exhibitor at mga kalahok, kasama na ang mga modelo ng matagumpay na negosyo tulad ng Dairy Box, Milka Krem, Kardeli, at Cara Cuero, kayo po ang patunay na may kinabukasan sa industriya ng kalabaw—hindi lamang sa agrikultura, kundi maging sa negosyong may puso at malasakit sa komunidad,” said Dr. Liza G. Battad, Executive Director III of DA-PCC. Dr. Benjamin Albarece, DA Assistant Secretary for Ruminants, delivered a message on behalf of Secretary Francisco Tiu P. Laurel Jr. He stated, “Initially seen as a beast of burden, the carabao has now come to symbolize identity, culture, and livelihood. Its potential for meat and milk production is now widely recognized.” Through the cooking demonstration and CaraCuero fashion show, the event has created a deeper appreciation and understanding of the benefits of carapreneurship to the public. In Nueva Ecija, numerous farmers’ cooperatives can attest to the success that carapreneurship offers. Some of the successful cooperatives that attended the event were the Catalanacan Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Eastern Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Licaong Agriculture Cooperative, Eastern Primary Multi-Purpose Cooperative, and Simula ng Panibagong Bukas Multi-Purpose Cooperative. One of the highlights of the festival was a carabao cooking contest in which students from the Central Luzon State University participated. Bhryan Paulino and Vince Bantique won first place with their dishes, "Grilled Carabao Tapa Pasta in Creamy Pineapple Sauce" and "Fruity Modern Palitaw." The event also featured techno-demonstration exhibits that showcased a variety of dairy and meat products, as well as services from private agricultural businesses. Exhibitors included Baking Ma'am, CAMPC-Dairy Box, Kardeli, Milka Krem, Seaoil PH, DA-PCC at CLSU, and Landbank. Hazel Dacanay from the Department of Trade and Industry and Patrizia Camille Mariano from the LandBank of the Philippines were also present to showcase their products and services. The event was organized by the Community Relations Section of the Knowledge Management Division in partnership with DA-PCC at CLSU, the local government of the Science City of Muñoz, DTI, CLSU, and LandBank of the Philippines.
Terms and Conditions Welcome to DA-PCC Knowledge Portal (K-Portal)! Thank you for visiting k-portal.pcc.gov.ph website. Subscription to the K-Portal is free. We don’t charge you to use or access this platform. Your privacy and security are very important to us. Please read the information below for your guidance. Data Policy To provide you with the services of our K-Portal, we must process information about you. We do not collect your personal information unless you choose to provide them. Rest assured that we do not share or sell your personal information but we do collect technical information about your visit to our website. When you visit k-portal.pcc.gov.ph website, our system automatically stores: Your personal information that you provided for subscription (email, password, name) Date and time of subscription Words or information you searched for The publications/ categories you viewed on our website The items you clicked on our website Your comments Items you downloaded from our website This process does not collect or track any of your personal information but makes our website more useful to visitors. Through such information, we learn about the number of visitors to our website, detect operational problems, and continuously improve the website’s overall functionality and security. Your comments will be visible to the public. Please make sure to not share information that you do not want made available to the public. We will not be responsible for how other visitors may use your information. Please be reminded that when you voluntarily submit information, it constitutes your voluntary consent to the use of the information you submit for the website’s improvement and maintenance. General Disclaimer and Copyright Notice All the contents uploaded to our website are considered public information, which can be used as reference and may be shared but we strictly request that our agency, DA-PCC, and our knowledge portal website including authors of knowledge products be cited as the source of any information, photos, and images copied from this site and that any photo credits or bylines be similarly credited to the photographer or author. The articles, publications pdf, AVPs, books, manuals and other materials owned by DA-PCC should be directly acquired from the knowledge portal and not through other sources that may change the information in some way or exclude material crucial to the understanding of that information. Disclaimer While we make every effort to provide accurate and complete information, some information may change between site updates. With a lot of articles and documents available and uploaded within short deadlines, we cannot guarantee that there will be no errors. We make no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of the contents of this website and expressly disclaim liability for errors and omissions in the contents of this website.
