TINOC, Ifugao- – Sheep may soon be a common sight in this municipality with the Department of Agriculture (DA) under its Livestock Livelihood Program (LLP) already dispersing the initial stock.
Nineteen heads of sheep of the Dorpher Breed purchased from Gerona, Tarlac were delivered to the municipality last month and turned over to 7 of the 40 beneficiaries to raise at the Mugao Training Center in Barangay Impugong. These constitute the first batch of the shipment.
Under the approved Forage and Pasture Project proposal submitted by the Municipal Agriculture Office, 40 farmers from barangays Danggo and Luhong of this town will be given 88 sheep to raise.
The remaining 69 heads will soon be delivered and distributed to the other 33 beneficiaries who are interested and have sources of food and housing facility to ensure the survival of the animals.
This sheep dispersal is a government initiative to help support and improve the lives of the people of Danggo and Luhong, and to develop the community. These areas were once influenced by armed insurgents and listed as disadvantaged areas of Ifugao based on the Community-Based Monitoring System survey.
Barangay Danggo with a population of 1,273 and Luhong with 1,320 people have limited livelihood projects and most of the residents are engaged in gardening.
Sheep raising is being promoted in the said areas because the weather is favorable, there are abundant grasses and farm by-products, and open grasslands and pasturelands as well as idle lands that can be planted with improved legumes and grasses.
Sheep are easy to handle, do not require elaborate acilities and equipment, consume roughage as their primary food and a minimum amount of supplemental feeding thus beneficiaries who cannot afford to buy stocks but have minimal counterpart of light materials for housing are qualified.
Training and capability building were provided to the beneficiaries by the Provincial Veterinary Office before the animals were received by the sheep farmers. **By Daniel B. Codamon, PIA CAR
