TONGGO, San Fernando, Cebu (Dec. 30, 2019) — Solid Earth Development Corporation (SEDC) has expanded its backyard hog fattening project as it added two new clusters of nine family beneficiaries after the first four clusters have attained sustainability in their livelihood.
“The first batch now manage their livelihood as a business,” shares Mitzie Almira Carin, SEDC division manager for human resources and administration, about the program rolled out in this town.
She said the company used to assist in safekeeping their proceeds (sales) and gains (offspring) for every cycle. “Now they are on their own, but we still continue to monitor them periodically and check on them until the end of 2020,” she said.
The company allocated ₱224,000 for the first phase that just got concluded, and added ₱116,200 recently for the second phase for two more clusters of low-income households in Sitio Gorion in this barangay, disclosed Carin.
As it did previously, SEDC distributed one hog per beneficiary family and provided them with feeds, medicines and vitamins, she added.
SEDC extended the program to a cluster composed of the families of Genevieve Balasabas, Naneth Salado, Cresenciano and Shirley Barnigo, and another with Diosdado, Elizabeth, Myra and Nancy, all surnamed Barnigo, and Feliza Secuya.
These clusters got into the program after each had set up a communal pigpen with a water source and complied with the requirement laid out by SEDC and the town’s municipal agriculturist, Carin noted.
Tonggo barangay officials helped in the selection process among Gorion residents that had the most number of jobless housewives.
The hinterland barangay has 475 households and a population of 2,298. Gorion has 83 households while 92 percent of its residents earn below ₱10,000 a month.
2 years
The program started in November 2017 when SEDC officials with municipal agriculture officer Nelson Soronio and barangay captain Virgilo P. Siarot met with and briefed Tonggo residents about the project.
The first four clusters of five to eight families each started raising hogs after they signed with Tonggo Purok 5 Gorion Organization president Joseph Barnigo a memorandum of agreement on Jan. 19, 2018.
These clusters produced gains soon by May and June of the same year, and these were further distributed to other beneficiaries until they started selling their produce util today, disclosed Carin.
“Our approach has been to promote sustained improvement in the living standards of our host and neighboring communities by creating responsible, self-reliant and resource-based communities,” she said.
Designed to run for two years, SEDC collects back the seed capital from the sale of hogs during the first year so that the funds will be used for the succeeding clusters in Tonggo until a maximum of six cycles, each for a 12 to 16 week period.
“This way the cluster members will learn to properly manage capital and income,” explained SEDC community relations officer Gines T. Boltron.
He said the first four clusters completed six cycles, each cluster recording a yield of as much as 3,300 kilos and almost ₱70,000 in total net income in one cluster.
As intended and proven with the first four clusters, the process of recycling the seed funds continued even now that SEDC turned over the project to the beneficiaries. The new two clusters proceeded with learnings from the first four.
