SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ, Nueva Ecija—The Philippine Carabao Center in this city is the perfect template for showcasing farm tourism in the country, Senator Cynthia Villar said.
Villar, chairperson of the Senate committee on agriculture who has worked for the passage of vital legislation and amendments to existing laws to complement farm tourism as a subsector of the tourism industry, said the PCC has its own carabao milk processing plant as well as an outlet where processed products are sold.
There are around 100 or more accredited and non-accredited farm-tourism sites in the country, ranging from micro, small, medium and large sizes.
Farm-tourism sites or farm camps help promote tourism and products of the area, especially those produced and manufactured by the rural industries, Villar said.
She also cited a report of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization which showed that 50 percent of the food supply globally is provided by smallholder-farmers and family farms.
“By 2050, when the population shall have reached nine billion, the smallholder-farmers will feed them,” she said.
Villar also noted that PCC could solve the problem of bulk importation of milk to meet local demand.
She urged PCC to partner with the Department of Social Welfare and Development to replicate its milk supplementation program in more provinces across the country.
Under the program, carabao’s milk from PCC-assisted dairy farmers are provided to day care children for 120 days.
“This program solves two of our country’s major problems—poverty [among dairy farmers] and malnutrition (among children),” Villar said.
