The DA-Philippine Carabao Center celebrates three decades of service as the lead agency responsible in conserving, propagating, and promoting the carabao as a source of milk, meat, draft power and hide to benefit the rural farmers.

This year’s anniversary is aptly themed, “PCC at 30: Continuing the legacy of service excellence and synergy”, which aims to honor the agency’s pillars and pioneers and to continue carrying on their legacy of service excellence.

Senator Cynthia A. Villar, chairperson of the Office of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform who served as keynote speaker, recognized PCC’s service in improving the productivity of the carabaos as source of meat and milk, for nutritional support and to augment farm income.

The senator said that she will continue to support DA-PCC for the propagation and distribution of milking carabaos in all the PCC’s regional centers and service areas.

Senator Villar asserted in RA 11037 otherwise known as ‘Masustansyang Pagkain para sa Batang Pilipino Act,’ the demand and market for local liquid milk, via the Department of Education’s milk feeding program.

In addition, her office channelled fund for the Carabao-based Business Improvement Network (CBIN) project under the banner program “Accelerating Livelihood and Assets Buildup (ALAB) Karbawan.”

“Milk security is still the challenge for PCC now and in the future. It should continue to champion locally produced

is part of the “Carabao-based Business Improvement Network (CBIN) or Accelerating Livelihood and Assets Buildup (ALAB) Karbawan” aiming to increase the dairy production in many parts of the country while giving farmers an additional and sustainable source of income through dairying.

Prior to the delivery or entrustment of the crossbred buffaloes to their respective farmer-beneficiaries the LBIMPC headed by its chairperson and manager, Edito P. Ballad and Helino B. Panganiban called for an assembly with their members. Also present during the assembly are the municipal administrator and municipal agriculturist of the Municipality of Echague, Dr. Matthew Joseph P. Alindada and Ferdinand P. Tejada who expressed their gratitude for the implementation of the project.

“The dairy crossbred buffaloes entrusted to our municipality offers nothing but benefits to our farmers so we must really take care of them for the continuation of the project,” Tejada stated adding that the project will pave the way for the establishment of milk processing facilities in their municipality, enabling them to produce more milk and soon to supply to their neighboring municipalities.

To better support the implementation of the project, the manager of LBIMPC, Helino B. Panganiban, plans to adopt strategies undertaken by other successful cooperatives. “We need to propose the enactment of an ordinance that will give an incentive to farmers engaged in dairying and an ordinance that will limit or regulate the slaughtering and selling of productive dairy crossbred buffaloes in our municipality to maintain the dairy herd population,” Panganiban said.

Currently, the DA-PCC at CSU is implementing the Carabao-Based Business Improvement Network project in five provinces in Luzon, where six cooperatives have been entrusted with 356 crossbred buffaloes boosting further the dairy carabao value chain.