THE Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) has strengthened ties with livestock and dairy development agencies and a university in Vietnam following a study mission spearheaded by an agriculture-based non-profit research and training center in the region.
Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) executive director Dr. Gil Saguiguit Jr., said the study mission aims to enhance its capacity to address the requirements of the carabao sub-sector.
He said there is a need to enhance the PCC’s full potential as a major player of the livestock industry in the region considering the onset of the economic integration of the Association of South East Asian Nations as well as greater globalization.
The study mission to Vietnam is part of the project titled “Capacity Development under Livestock Research and Biotechnology Research and Development of the Carabao Development Program.”
The mission, he added, also identified relevant and specific overseas public and private sector program concepts and strategies needed to strengthen the Intensified Rural Enterprise Build-Up framework and its operationalization.
During the study mission, the PCC delegation visited the TH Group that was established after the 2007 melamine scare in milk and milk products. TH Group is recognized by the Asia Book of Records as “Asia’s biggest centralized dairy farm with hi-tech applications.”