The Philippine Swine Industry Research and Development Foundation, Inc. (PSIRDFI) launched the 2016 Swine Production Performance of the Philippines on March 21, 2017. The report is the output of the 25-year-old project, “Swine Production Performance Monitoring Project in the Philippines,” which was initiated by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD).
Currently, the project is jointly implemented by PSIRDFI and PCAARRD in partnership with private commercial swine farms and private drug and feed companies.
PSIRDFI Project Leader, Dr. Arturo T. Calud, spearheaded the presentation of the production performance report. Also part of the launching of the 2016 swine performance data are the technical presentations on “Increasing Productivity and Efficiency thru DNA Marker Selection in Swine Breeding” by Dr. Ester B. Flores of Philippine Carabao Center (PCC); “Development of E-commerce System for Breeder Swine and Boar Semen” by Prof. Katrina Abriol-Santos of Institute of Computer Science (ICS), University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB); and “Batangas Pork - The Green Pig” by Dr. Ruth Niclat-Sonaco of Agricultural Training Institute – International Training Center for Pig Husbandry (ATI-ITCPH).
The Swine Production Performance Monitoring project collects, collates, and analyzes production data from various participating farms nationwide each year. Its aim is to develop standard performances for the swine farms in the country and for the other stakeholders of the swine industry to benchmark their own production performances with continued improvements in productivity and profitability. This project was initiated by Dr. Valentino Argañosa and Dr. Rodolfo Peneyra, who were former project leaders from UPLB.