A farmer from La Union gained the first offspring of the Brahman heifer he received from the the National Tobacco Administration under its Beef Cattle Production Assistance Project (BCPAP)
. The heifer of tobacco grower and Barangay Chairman Robert Opinaldo of Pao, Balaoan, La Union gave birth to a calf on March 28, or just more than a week after he received the production assistance.
Opinaldo told NTA La Union that he was not aware that the heifer was pregnant when he received it from the Branch Office on March 19, or during the distribution of the first batch of beneficiaries for the second phase of the project. He said he was just lucky that he gained an offspring in such a short time.
With his first calf, Opinaldo will now have the first repayment for the production assistance.
Per project guidelines, assistance shall be repaid with two 12-month-old cows, the first and third offspring, within a maximum period of six years. The first offspring is the first repayment which is to be loaned out immediately to next-in-line or downline farmer-cooperator, and the third offspring for the second repayment, to be sold out as income of the agency to recover investment.
BCPAP is part of the priority programs of NTA Administrator/CEO Robert Victor G. Seares Jr. that give livelihood support to tobacco growers who are reeling from the economic impact of the pandemic. Administrator Seares ordered last year the immediate implementation of the second phase of the project, increasing the number of beneficiaries to 500 or twice the number of the 250 beneficiaries in the first phase last year.
[Photo credit: Gerylle Vanmarie Palabay]