Four farmers associations and cooperatives in Antique are recipients of PHP40 million fund under the Integrated National Swine Production Initiatives for Recovery and Expansion (INSPIRE) program of the Department of Agriculture to assist farmers, especially those into swine production, recover from their losses due to the African swine fever (ASF).

DA Antique Agricultural Program Coordinating Office (APCO) head Sonie Guanco said each association and cooperative received PHP10 million to construct breeding facilities for the initial 30 sows and a boar for breeding.

“The farmers associations and cooperatives will engage in hog repopulation with the piglets to be dispersed to their members,” he said.

The recipients included the Barbaza Farmers Irrigators Association, Sibalom Livestock and Poultry-Raisers Association (SILPRA), Belison Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MPC), and Patnongon MPC.

“The Belison was delivered ready-to-breed sows and boar in the first quarter of 2025 after the completion of its breeding facility,” he said.

The Patnongon MPC inaugurated its breeding facility only last month, while that of the Barbaza Farmers Irrigators Association is scheduled for this May or June.

SILPRA’s breeding facility, meanwhile, is still under construction.

“Once these facilities are finished and producing piglets, the priority beneficiaries will be the farmers associations and cooperative members who lost their livelihood because of the ASF,” Guanco said.

He said that farmers’ associations and cooperatives will set an internal arrangement on piglet dispersal; whether they buy them for their breeding farms or DA will purchase them for redistribution to hog raisers. (PNA)