THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it will distribute more than 230,000 breeder sows until 2028 to rebuild the hog herd after the African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak.
The program will begin in 2026 with the distribution of 32,000 breeder sows, followed by the planned distribution of 100,000 breeders each year in 2027 and 2028, Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Laurel, Jr. told reporters at a briefing last week.
Mr. Laurel said the DA is in the pre-procurement stage for the initial batch of 32,000 sows. He said the DA is targeting distribution by the second quarter of 2026.
“Our plan is to distribute the 32,000 to medium to large farms because they have the financial capability and the resources to support this big number,” he said.
Under the repopulation program, large farms that receive breeder sows will return 30% of the piglets produced for redistribution to smallholder farms.
“The plan is, if it is given to a big farm, if it has 10 piglets, the government will take three. Then those three will be given to smaller farms,” Mr. Laurel said.
The DA estimates that since the first ASF outbreak in 2019, the swine herd has fallen from 13 million to around 8 million head. Mr. Laurel said the multi-year breeder sow distribution program is intended to help restore, and potentially exceed, pre-ASF herd levels.
“We need to bring back the five million hogs lost to ASF. We will bring back six million hogs in the next couple of years,” he said.
Mr. Laurel added that breeder sows to be distributed under the program will be vaccinated against ASF.
Funding for the repopulation drive will come from the Animal Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, which allocates P20 billion annually from tariff collections on livestock, poultry, and dairy imports. Of the total annual allocation, 26% is earmarked for repopulation and herd build-up, with about 70% of that portion intended for the hog industry.
Meanwhile, the DA said it has so far administered around 260,000 of the 500,000 ASF vaccines it procured, with the remaining 240,000 doses expected to be used by April next year.
However, the DA said it does not plan to further subsidize ASF vaccines for commercial hog raisers, although the government may still consider vaccine support for smallholder farmers if needed.
“For commercial use, producers will be expected to purchase the vaccines themselves. Government support may be considered in the future for smallholder farmers, but there are no plans for that at the moment,” Mr. Laurel said. — Vonn Andrei E. Villamiel