“Nagsipag… Nagnegosyo… Nagtagumpay!”.
This will be the theme for the second “National Carabao Conference (NCC)” which will be held on November 14 and 15 at the national headquarters and gene pool of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC), Science City of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija.
The conference aims to gather participants, trustees, and all those who are benefitting in the dairy carabao-based industry.
It will serve as a venue for meaningful interaction among the participants and will be a source of significant information, ideas, and good practices for sharing and disseminating, which is expected to inspire more to participate in the Carabao Development Program (CDP).
The two-day event is expected to be attended by some 500 dairy farmers, partners, businessmen, local government officials and representatives from various government agencies and private organizations that are actively involved in the implementation of the CDP, which is considered as PCC’s flagship program.
Senator Cynthia Villar, vice-chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Food, and Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol are expected to be present in the event as the guests of honor and will be joining the dairy farmers in an open forum.
According to Wilma Del Rosario, National Impact Zone (NIZ) coordinator of PCC and the overall chair for the second NCC, there will be breakout sessions and speakers to realize the concept of the theme.
For the “nagsipag” (diligent technology adopters), those who will share their stories are farmers who have been persistent in alleviating their way of living thru the income that they earn from the dairy carabaos. They will also narrate their good practices in the value chain and how they adopt technologies in their respective activities.
In the “nagnegosyo” (innovative entrepreneurs), businessmen will highlight and promote their carabao-based enterprises and their products out of carabao’s milk, meat, and hide such as ice cream, pastillas, tapa, chicharong kalabaw and others.
On the other hand, for the “nagtagumpay” (rising above subsistence), this will involve testimonies of dairy farmers on how the dairy carabao program benefitted their families. Narration of their stories on how their children were able to graduate from college thru the help of dairy carabaos will be done thru a video presentation.
It is shown, as of now, that many children of dairy farmers who were once hopeless to reach college, have now finished their respective bachelor’s degrees thru the help of the income that their parents earn from the dairy carabaos, the organizers of the event said. They now have their own jobs and are beholden to the dairy carabaos for the daily income that has helped them achieve their dreams.
Other activities lined-up for the conference are products exhibition, Knowledge Café (media forum), National Knowledge Sharing Forum on Carabao-based Enterprise Development with the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, and a tour of PCC’s major facilities.
