The National Dairy Authority has turned over 50 heads of heifers (female cow) to the members of the Association of Farmers and Advocates of Organic Farming Inc. (AFAOFI) in Southern Leyte after they were selected to become one of the agency’s beneficiaries under its Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan (CFIDP). 

The venture started when Romulo Leopardas wrote the National Dairy Authority (NDA) requesting that they be given cattle to be tended by AFAOFI which he leads.

In less than a month, technicians from NDA visited their area in Barangay Himakilo in the town of Bontoc to see if the detailed requirements for a cow pasture were met. Before the year ended, the NDA managed to deliver the cattle they requested. 

“Pinaka paspas, pinakadali mo-aksyon ang NDA” (The NDA acted fast, and swift),” Leopardas, president of the Association of Farmers and Advocates of Organic Farming Inc. (AFAOFI), told the Philippine Information Agency.

The project, called Dairy Coconut Integration, and the one-hectare site is located in Barangay Himakilo, five kilometers away from the Bontoc town proper.

All of the 12 AFAOFI member-beneficiaries have been registered with the National Coconut Farmers Registry System (NCFRS), a program pushed by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).

How Leopardas was able to get his group’s milking cows was a story in itself.

In 2018, he met Joel Pilapil, the regional manager of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), who advised him to register in the National Coconut Farmers Registry System (NCFRS), a program pushed by the Philippine Coconut Authority.

With the upcoming implementation of the coco levy fund, only registered farmers can avail of the projects through that source, Pilapil told Leopardas.   

Leopardas attended the National Organic Congress in Cebu last year, where he met someone from Ormoc City who told him to plant napier grass, an edible plant that cows eat.

“Pananom mo og napier sa injo ug inig ka daghan na ipa-survey ninjo kay tagaan mog baka,”  he said.

[Once you have planted napier grass on your property and it becomes abundant, it will be surveyed, and you will be provided with cows.]

He planted napier grass with no clue about where to acquire the cows that would soon graze on the lush vegetation.

One day, he saw a post on a picture showing the NDA distributing cows. 

“Diha man gi-post ang ilang address sa central office, nagsuwat mi,”  he said.

(Seeing the address of their central office posted, we decided to write directly to them.)

The "aha" moment prompted Leopardas to write directly to the national office of the NDA, and within just one week, he received instructions on where to send his next communication.Shortly thereafter, personnel from the NDA office conducted an ocular inspection at his location, and a few days before Christmas Day, the animals arrived at AFAOFI's territory.

Everything at that moment fell into place: the NDA’s cow distribution program is under the auspices of the Coconut Farmers Industry Development Plan (CFIDP) that can be accessed by organized coco farmers who were registered with the NCFRS, and one of the requirements was that enough area had been planted to napier grass.

On January 23, a ceremonial turnover was conducted at Bontoc municipal hall, attended by Municipal Mayor Noel Alinsub, Gov. Damian Mercado, and personnel from NDA. Bontoc Municipal Agriculture Officer Edgar Sabillo told PIA there are three sites in Eastern Visayas to be given the NDA-enabled cow project, but Southern Leyte was the first one that was delivered, like a Christmas gift. There was no other such project in the province, only in Himakilo, Bontoc, Sabiillo said. The project had a package on training thatthe beneficiaries had completed last year, Sabillo shared. 

“For now, ang Bontoc pa ang nakadawat, pero tulo man ang naa diri sa Eastern Visayas, ang Bontoc pa ang unang nahatagan sa baka. Sa Southern Leyte usa lang, ang Bontoc lang, sa province of Samar ang duha, pero wa pa sila mahatagi,” Sabillo said.

(As of now, only Bontoc has received the project, but there are three similar projects in Eastern Visayas. Bontoc was the first LGU to receive it. In Southern Leyte, there is one, only in Bontoc. The other two are located in Samar province, but they have not received it yet.)

Leopardas could not believe the rapid pace of events, from casual meet-ups to simply following instructions, to a leisurely browse on social media, and then proceeding to send letters, culminating in the actual receipt of the things he and his colleagues had hoped for. It seemed too good to be true, but it turned out to be true and indeed too good to believe.

Another hard-to-believe scenario was that the deliveries should have been scheduled in July this year with imported stock. But since no foreign-bred cattle were available at the time, it was decided that only locally-born animals be the ones transported instead, and this happened last month.

Millionaire mindset

The first five years of the project is a critical period, for this is the time frame stated in the conditional grant of the NDA. 

“Mag monitor ang NDA for five years, ug pagkahuman biyaan na mi nila kay ma-milyonaryo na man mi mga beneficiary,” Leopardas said.

(The NDA will monitor us for five years, after which the agency will leave us, confident that the beneficiaries will have become millionaires by then.)

Whether it was said in jest or in all seriousness, Leopardas and his AFAOFI team can look forward to that moment, and prepare themselves now with a millionaire mindset.

Leopardas, who is 55 years old this year, will enjoy a windfall when he turns 60. (LDL/MMP/PIA Southern Leyte)