Research project to study Philippine carabao sector

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines – The country’s carabao supply and value-added chains are now being determined in a year-long research project launched last January by a government agency and a Southeast Asian center based here.

Titled “Value Chain Analysis of Carabao and Carabao-based Products in the Philippines,” the research is a joint undertaking of the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Carabao Center (DA-PCC) and the Philippine government-hosted, Los Baños-based Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA).

It covers five regions: Cagayan Valley (Region 2), Central Luzon (Region 3), Calabarzon 4-A (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), Mimaropa or Region 4-B (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan), and Central Visayas (Region 7).

To be conducted until December, the project is led by Flordeliza Lantican, a noted agricultural economist and former dean of the University of the Philippines Los Baños-College of Economics and Management (UPLB-CEM).

SEARCA and DA-PCC noted that in recent years, carabao production has gained importance as a vital component in achieving food security and increasing farm income in the country and is now a main source of draft power and meat for smallholder farmers.

“With this in mind, this project will analyze the value chain for carabao and carabao-based products in the country by examining the processes through which these products pass through production, together with the resulting variety of products at the end of the chain,” they said.

The project will develop product- and commodity-specific value chain maps, which identify the activities and services, key players and their functions, product and information flows, and selling and payment schemes.