Bataan to represent region 3 in Gawad Saka 2017

ORANI, Bataan – Bataan has been nominated to represent the region in this year’s Gawad Saka through Mr. Alex Diaz, an animal raiser in Orani.

“Gawad Saka” is an annual search of the Department of Agriculture for outstanding achievers in agriculture and fisheries to give recognition and take pride in honoring our farmers, fisher folks, and organizations.

This is not the first time that Diaz is nominated in contests like this and with the Gawad Saka’s criteria, he is undoubtedly fit to represent our region in the small animal raiser category because it has been 20 years since he started taking care of ducks (itik), and his journey is unlike the others because when he was just starting, he only had 100 ducks, but today that number reached more than a thousand. He said this is because of his perseverance and meticulous monitoring of his animals, and also with his secret ingredient: the azolla.

Azolla is a native water plant with some great attributes for anyone looking to develop closed-loop cycles for organic animal feed. It’s high in protein and minerals, fixes nitrogen, is palatable to chickens, pigs, goats, ducks and cows, and can be grown on any closed body of water.

One of the objectives of the said contest is to give due recognition to small animal raisers for engaging in integrated farming system leading to the economic upliftment and contributing to the welfare of the community, and with this, Diaz shared that he is not only raising ducks for himself, but in fact as a member of Tapulao Multi-Purpose Cooperative before, he organized duck-raising projects and soon helped fix the building of their MPC. Not only that, he as well has a balutan and that he helped his magbabalots put their children to school by letting them keep the extra income earned from selling balots.

There are certain requirements needed for this contest like photos and video documentaries, which will be submitted in May and the awarding ceremony is to be announced by the Department of Agriculture.