A delegation of high profile officials of Malaysia which also included a World Bank (WB) official visited the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) and got first-hand knowledge on what the agency has done and is doing as regards carabao dairying and related industries that it has spawned in the country.
The delegation, headed by Mr. Samuel Taffesse, Senior Agriculture Economist of the WB, was composed of ten members who were mostly officials of Malaysia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry.
It included Engku Zakir Hussein bin Syed Abdullah, Deputy Director, Agriculture Section, Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of Malaysia’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MEA).
The study visit was part of the WB-funded “Agricultural Transformation and Inclusive Growth: Malaysia-Philippines Two-Way Knowledge Exchange Program.”
After their visit to the PCC, they also toured other attached agencies of Department of Agriculture (DA) such as Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech), Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice). They are also scheduled to visit various agricultural projects in Mindanao.
Welcomed by PCC officials headed by Executive Director Dr. Arnel N. del Barrio, the delegation started off their visit to this agency by having a walking tour of its Central Collecting and Processing Facility (CDCPF). It then later provided opportunities for the tasting of the dairy products produced by Milka Krem, which serves as the PCC’s showcase of buffalo milk-based business utilizing farmer’s milk produce.
Dr. del Barrio, in his message to the delegates, said that their visit, coupled by their sharing of their own experiences, knowledge, best-practices, and technologies in the fields of agriculture, would surely benefit Malaysia and the Philippines.
The PCC executive director also briefed the delegation about the agency’s Carabao-Based Enterprise Development (CBED), adding that more than 300 cooperatives nationwide are currently involved in the program with assistance from PCC.
He expressed gratitude to the World Bank for selecting PCC as one of the agencies to be to be visited by the delegation.
Dr. Eric P. Palacpac, chief of PCC’s Knowledge Management Division, on the other hand, discussed the breeding technologies developed by PCC in relation to the agency’s Genetic Improvement Program (GIP).
The visitors were also given a tour and briefing of the PCC’s national buffalo genepool and cryobank facility.
