ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Western Mindanao State University (WMSU), through its College of Agriculture, has received a PHP10-million grant from the Department of Agriculture (DA) under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2).
In a video message on Thursday, Prof. Florenchita Somblingo, WMSU College of Agriculture dean, said PHP5 million of the PHP10 million grant will be used for the propagation of Zampen native chickens.
“We are going to produce thousands of heads of Zampen for dispersal to our farmer-beneficiaries and those interested to start little business on Zampen (chicken),” Somblingo said.
Zampen or Zamboanga Peninsula native chicken is a product of the purification process of ‘Joloano’ chicken.
The purification resulted in higher production performance in terms of age and weight, age at the point of lay, eggs produced per hen, average egg weight, hatchability, plumage uniformity, and survival rate of breeder chickens.
Somblingo said that PHP1 million will be used for the production of malunggay.
“We started already producing the seedlings and eventually, we will be dispersing this to our farmers,” she said.
She said that the remaining PHP4 million will be utilized to enhance the College of Agriculture’s tissue culture laboratory to produce banana, especially its lakatan variety.
She said like the Zampen native chicken and malunggay, selected farmers will also get lakatan banana plants which they can grow to boost their livelihood.
She said all of these programs are aimed to help the farmers whose livelihoods were greatly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. (PNA)
