Wanted: 12,000 milking cows

Holy cow.

The Arroyo administration needs 12,000 milking cows to address its dairy needs for the supplemental feeding program for some 12 million malnourished children in the country, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon "Dinky" Soliman said yesterday.

Soliman said the Department of Agriculture was already encouraging farmers to start breeding milking cows, offering them assistance through grants or loans to buy the breed.

Usually, when the government looks for "milking cows," it’s a sign of graft and corruption. But this time, it’s for the nutritional good of the nation.

Speaking to reporters after the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) Cabinet meeting at Malacañang, Soliman said this would also contribute to the 9,000 farm jobs that the government hopes to generate from the feeding program.

"We are also promoting the dairy industry here with this project because we hope to get 40 percent of the milk requirements from the dairy industry in the Philippines," Soliman said.

The NAPC addressed malnutrition in the meeting, noting that 12 million out of 17 million Filipino children aged two to 10 were malnourished. This is "alarming" since it also affects their "brain power."

Of these, 2.2 million Filipino children are underweight; 2.86 million are short or under-height; and .27 million are thin.

"We will be servicing 300,000 children a day and we will need 60,000 liters (of milk) a day," she said.

The Department of Education is implementing the supplementary feeding program for 167,000 children at pre-school and grade one levels with a high prevalence of malnutrition and high dropout rates.

The DSWD, on the other hand, will lead the program for 60,000 three- to five-year-old pre-schoolers in day-care centers at fourth, fifth, and sixth municipalities in 11 regions, 30 provinces, 87 municipalities and 2,170 barangays.

Some 1,000 children at day-care centers in the National Capital Region will also be covered under the program.

Soliman said the program also aims to improve weight and nutritional status, increase school attendance and lower the dropout rates.

Soliman explained being thin is not the only gauge of malnutrition, but lack of height as well.

"Being under height when you’re growing up becomes a problem. Nutrition is measured by weight, height and body mass," she explained.

Soliman said the government’s maximum target was to have zero malnutrition by 2015 or, at most, 20 percent.

She added some 6,000 off-farm jobs could also be generated from the feeding program.

"Rural income will increase because the food that the government will buy will be from farmer producers. There are two basic commodities that we want to use other than rice — coco bread or coco pan, and also local produce, like eggs and vegetables and rice in the different areas that we’re going to target," Soliman said.

She said the Arroyo government allotted P300 million for the project to be carried out simultaneously in different regions nationwide with the help of the local government units, private sector and non-government organizations.

She said the program could also reduce poverty through job creation, increase income, and reduce dependence on imported milk, wheat flour and vegetables through local food production.