CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY - The provincial government of Misamis Oriental will start the hog repopulation after detecting "zero" African swine fever (ASF) in the province for the past 77 days, the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) said on Monday. Under the repopulation, PVO head Dr. Benjamin Resma said the provincial government will provide assistance as ordered by Governor Yevgeny Vicente Emano to every barangay that has been affected by the ASF. "We have prepared a package per barangay. We will provide 10 female and one male hogs. We are planning to give old hogs so that they would be ready to breed," Resma said during the flag-raising ceremony. He said the ASF has affected 765 farmers in 99 villages in Misamis Oriental due to the hog depopulation conducted by the PVO in 2021. The city of El Salvador and the towns of Balingasag and Alubijid have the most number of reported ASF cases last year. The provincial government immediately banned hog raising in the entire province after detecting ASF cases in Barangay Jampason in Initao town and Barangay Pagawan in Manticao town on February 10, 2021. Egg production Despite the hog raising ban, Emano provided livelihood assistance to the affected farmers as an alternative source of income, specifically the "Itikan sa Kalambuan," or the rearing of ducks for egg production. Resma said the affected hog raisers collected 467,781 produced eggs, equivalent to PHP3,831,785 income for the last five months, from the said livelihood project. As part of the ASF recovery program, the PVO continuously visits some of the affected areas to gather some blood samples from live hogs and conduct disinfection and provide disinfectants. The PVO team has recently visited Sta. Ana village in Tagoloan town and the villages of Hinigdaan and Bolisong in El Salvador City. Resma said measures will still be intensified to stop the spread of ASF and help the affected communities return to their business. Investment potentials from South Korea Meanwhile, the municipality of Claveria, Misamis Oriental is one of the towns in the Northern Mindanao region to be visited by some executives and representatives of a South Korean company. Assisted by the Department of Agriculture Region 10 (DA-10), the officials made farm and office visits to the different farmers, cooperatives, associations (FCAs), as part of finalizing a partnership, with the foreign company for the supply of fresh cassava tubers. DA-10 and the Department of Trade and Industry - Bureau of Investments (DTI-BOI) facilitated the said visit to 13 FCAs on Feb. 16-18. Other FCAs visited were in the towns of Malitbog, Salvacion, Kadingilan, Don Carlos, Pangantucan, Maramag, Cabanglasan, and Lantapan, all in Bukidnon province. The FCAs in Claveria and Bukidnon towns have earlier signified their intent to supply the South Korean company's targeted tapioca manufacturing starch plant in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental. During the field visits, the Korean team met the chairpersons and other farmer-leaders of the different FCAs, where they have laid out their terms and conditions, for the eventual sealing of a marketing agreement between said parties. DA-10 Executive Director Carlene Collado said in a statement that farmers can also avail of loan assistance from the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC), DA's credit arm, in aid to the needed added logistics and capital that the FCAs may need for such marketing opportunity. "This year, the agency continues to implement several projects, that are already in the pipeline, to help raise agricultural productivity, resiliency, and access to more market linkages for farmers in the region," Callado said. The Cassava Program of the Field Operations Division, the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division of DA-10, and DTI-BOI facilitated the second batch visit of the Korean buyers. (PNA) }