DA eyes commercial market for native chicken

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) is looking into the commercialization of dual purpose breeds of native chicken that can be used for high egg production.

 The DA has been conducting research on the improvement of native chicken breeds since 2002 even if it is only meant to benefit small backyard raisers.

 Compared to other chicken breeds, native chickens are inferior when it comes to egg and meat production but can be economical to raise because they require less feeds.

 Native chickens produce 40 to 60 eggs per year while commercial layer breeds such as white leg horns produce more than 200 eggs.

 Compared to commercial broiler breeds, such as a Vantress chicken that weighs around 2.23 kilograms after six months, a native chicken weighs only 1.16 kg.

“Purification and genotyping of native chicken and classifying for either egg, meat or dual breed has already been done,” Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said yesterday.

He said research on and development of indigenous feed materials for native chickens are also being conducted.

 Native chickens have been proven easy to raise, being let loose on free range and fed only twice a day. They usually feed on farm by-products such as unmilled rice, rice bran, and crack corn.

 Alcala wants the poultry industry to benefit from raising native chickens as the Philippines is becoming an attractive source of poultry, having remained free from avian influenza that wrought havoc on the poultry industries of neighboring Asian countries.

 The country currently exports yakitori nuggets to Japan and chicken cuts to South Korea and United Arab Emirates.

 To support the local poultry industry, the DA has been constructing AAA-rated bird dressing plants to support the export requirements of the industry.

The Landbank of the Philippines has also begun offering credit facilities with lower interest rates to chicken raisers, Alcala said.