Production of poultry, hog and other livestock here is expected to significantly increase following the recent approval of the creation of the Livestock Poultry Raiser Agriculture Cooperative (LPRAC) by the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) through a private-public partnership scheme facilitated by the City’s Veterinary Office (CVO).

City Veterinary Officer, Dr. Emmanuel Estipona, in an interview on Monday, said they have invited interested farmers to become members of the LPRAC so that they could benefit from the offered services and incentives.

“We already scheduled on May 15 a general assembly for the farmers who are interested to become members of this newly-formed livestock raiser cooperative,” Estipona said.

He said he would invite the Department of Agriculture (DA) to explain to the farmers the operation of the cooperative for it to become beneficial to all its members.

Estipona said he will also conduct an election of officers and give training to all the members to sustain LPRAC’s operations.

“The LPRAC would be the first livestock and hog raisers cooperative in Legazpi that would help sustain the Range and Organic System and Alternative Livelihood (ROSAL) and also to revive the hog raising industry in this city,” he added.

“ROSAL” is one of the programs of the CVO that enable farmers to breed their own chicks as part of livelihood activities that can give them additional income.

Estipona said he would also help the LPRAC in creating its own product label for organic chickens and its marketing.

DA Undersecretary Ernesto Gonzales, he said, has pledged to give some multiplier breeders to fasten the hatchery of organic chickens in this city.

“We are also waiting the poultry dressing plant of DA that could be used as support facility for the dressing of the organic chicken so these could be sold quickly to the market,” Estipona said. (PNA)