Villar dares stakeholders in dairy industry
to set higher goals in their production

SENATOR Cynthia A. Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, challenged stakeholders in the dairy industry to set higher goals in their production to keep the momentum of growth.

"Let us continue to exert joint efforts towards our collective goal... I am aware that challenging objectives are up ahead for the dairy industry in line with the Dairy Roadmap 2010-2016 or the dairy sector's very own Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP)," said Villar during the Luzon Dairy Cooperative's opening of a new dairy processing plant in Sta. Maria, Bulacan.

She said efforts such as improving facilities is a move in the right direction.

On top of the increasing production outputs and targets, she said poverty alleviation and job generation are among the objectives in the roadmap.

In particular, it seeks to provide for the creation of 22,000 rural jobs and generation of family income of about P500 per day per farmer.

The roadmap also intends to involve some 100,000 dairy farm families in active dairy zones in crop-dairy systems and dairy-related enterprises including breeding services, calf rearing, milk dealership, among others.

"I agree that dairying contributes to increasing farm incomes and consequently in reducing rural poverty incidence aside from the enhancement of household food security, improvement of nutritional status of farmers, their families, communities and the country, as a whole," said Villar.

According to the senator, the continued efficiency and increases in the number of dairy animals on the milk line, particularly carabao and cattle, and the higher volume of dairy production from dairy multiplier farms of the National Dairy Authority (NDA), are the main contributing factors to higher dairy production in the country.

"With the identified goal of increasing dairy herd, the existing figures or outputs are likely to become even better," she said.

She also noted the dairy sector is on the right track in meeting its targets. She said the country's milk production grew by 35 percent in the last five years. 14.41 million liters in 2009, 15.86 million liters in 2010, 16.45 million liters in 2011, 18.45 million liters in 2012, and 19.46 million liters in 2013.

The NDA remains firm in realizing its mandate of accelerating dairy development through policy direction and program implementation.

She said the NDA also targets domestic milk sufficiency of 38 percent by the end of 2014, 44 percent in 2015 and 46 percent in 2016 with the goal of increasing sufficiency level in the Ready-to-Drink milk market from 20 percent to more than double or to 46 percent in 2016.