The Negros Oriental Provincial Veterinary Office announced that it is expected to produce 6,000 chicks of native chickens per month, as soon as the provincial hatchery center becomes operational this year.

Provincial veterinary officer Jaime Villaluz said that, aside from upgrading the existing program of propagating native chickens in the province, it is launching the native chicken hatchery development program, considered as a first in the province or the entire country.

Allotted P5 million by the Department of Agriculture, the center construction is 90 percent complete at a one-hectare government lot in Siaton town, while the provincial counterpart is P3 million for its operation and other expenses, including the salaries of job order workers.

Once operational, target harvest is 1,500 chicks per week or 6,000 chicks in one month, to be distributed to local government units or barangays, in support of the Philippine Rural Development Program.

Initially, 500 breeders will be purchased by the national government, of which 70 percent will lay eggs to be placed in an incubator with target hatching capacity of 1,500 per week.

The PRD has a budget of P23 million, of which the native chicken hatchery development program is one of the components.

Villaluz, however, said even with the native chicken hatchery center in the province, it is still not an assurance that prices of native chickens will go down because of lack of supply.*

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