WESVARRDEC Staff
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| Darag native chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) |
The PCAARRD Native Chicken Program Review was recently conducted at West Visayas State University, Lapaz, Iloilo City last June 3-4, 2013. The review was a commodity focused monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activity participated in by West Visayas State University in coordination with collaborating agencies Central Philippine University, Capiz State University, Aklan State University as well as visiting agencies Western Mindanao State University, Bicol University and Department of Agriculture Regional Office 7.
Native chicken is a R&D project that is supportive of PNOYS program on employment generation through the establishment of rural enterprises by small farmers, trading of live chickens, and production of healthy food products with high nutraceutical value. PCAARRD's Industry Strategic Plan (ISP) focuses on the conservation and profitable utilization of native chicken resources. There are currently 8 on-going native chicken R&D initiatives strategically implemented by various research institutions in Region 5,6, 7 and 9.
As an M&E activity, the program review aimed to conduct a review and assessment of on-going PCAARRD-funded projects in native chicken on the basis of accomplishments vis-a-vis approved objectives and expected outputs; assess the progress and accomplishments of the programs /projects in terms of achieving its over-all objective; solicit expert advice/recommendation from the technical reviewers on the implementation of current R&D programs and provide venue for interactions and exchange of novel ideas among researchers.
There were two components reviewed: (1) Purification, Improvement and Sustainable Utilization of Native Chicken Strains in Bohol, Bicol and Zamboanga Peninsula and (2) Development of Sustainable Production System for the Darag Chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) in Western Visayas. The former was an update of the preparations made by Regions 5, 7 and 9. Meanwhile, the latter was a review of the accomplishments made by Region 6's five projects including Darag hatchery, native chicken feeds, ethnobotanical anthelmintics, Newcastle Disease vaccine, and native chicken range management.
On the second day, a field visit was conducted wherein the group visited the different project sites and Darag native chicken farm sites of WVSU, CPU, CapSU and ASU. The observations of the participants from regions 5, 7 and 10 will be used as inputs in their Planning Workshop to be held in Bohol on June 6-7, 2013.