BANGKOK, Thailand—Ambassador Prasas Prasasvinitchai of the Royal Thai Embassy in Manila has committed to support the development of the Philippine dairy industry as part of the effort to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

“We are ready to provide the Philippines the support it needs to strengthen its dairy industry,” Prasasvinitchai told the BusinessMirror in an interview following a closed-door, government-to-government meeting, one of the highlights of a visit of the 15-member Philippine delegation here.

The Philippine delegation, led by Agriculture Assistant Secretary for Livestock Davinio P. Catbagan, National Dairy Authority (NDA) administrator Grace J. Cenas and Bureau of Animal Industry executive director Efren C. Nuestro, is composed of representatives from concerned national government agencies, the private sector and media.

Prasasvinitchai said the success of the dairy industry in Thailand is not a trade secret and Thai government is willing to share the technology to the Philippines, as well possible exchange program for skills and knowledge sharing of best practices in dairy production, processing, packaging and marketing.

“There is no trade secret. It is a matter of providing dairy farmers the support they need,” he said.

Prasasvinitchai accompanied the Philippine delegation during their visit to the Royal Chitralada Agricultural Projects at the Chitralada Villa, the residence of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand here on Tuesday.

Catbagan said they are eyeing an exchange program to enhance the capacities of dairy-cattle technicians for the artificial-insemination program.  He said being a foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease-free country, the Philippines can offer its best practices in animal disease prevention and control.

Aside from being FMD-free, the Philippines is also free of the avian-influenza virus, also known as the bird flu virus.

For her part, Cenas said an exchange program, including one that will send farmers to learn first-hand from their counterparts in Thailand how to manage their dairy farms and strengthen their dairy farmers’ cooperatives, will help local farmers do good business in producing pasteurized milk and other milk products and byproducts that will be a boost in local dairy development.

She said learning from discussions with their counterparts in Thailand, including what Thailand did to achieve its present status of being 60-percent milk self-sufficient. Agriculture experts from the Philippines have long called for an increased budget allocation for the agriculture sector.

In fact, she said the Philippines is on the right track if it will only pursue the proposed Philippine Dairy Roadmap 2011-16, which the NDA hopes will fast-track the development of the dairy industry.

“As we proposed in the Philippine Dairy Roadmap, one sure way to develop the industry is to tap our local beef cattle to upgrade to dairy cattle breeds, the same way Thailand did.  We need to tap our local cattle and use artificial insemination to ensure the genetic improvement of our cattle,” she said.

The dairy cattle breed which could be imported from Australia and New Zealand could produce as much as 10 to 12 liters a day, compared with the local cattle that can only produces around four to five liters a day.

To increase the number of the country’s so-called milking cows, she said more artificial-insemination centers managed by well-trained technicians is a necessity.

According to Cenas, there are around 700 artificial-insemination centers all over Thailand while the Philippines has less than 10 well-established artificial-insemination centers.

Also, she said there’s a need to improve the efficiency of the country’s technicians through trainings.

Cenas said to strengthen the foundation of the dairy industry, there’s a need to formulate policies that will support small farmers and the dairy cooperatives.

The NDA’s 2011 budget is P547 million.  For 2012 it is proposing to have P691 million.

Having sufficient budget, she said, will boost the local dairy development and help the Philippines achieve the status of Thailand in terms of milk self-sufficiency.

Right now, Thailand has approximately 500,000 dairy cattle. The Philippines only has 34,000 and only half or about 17,000 are females, plus the latest importation of 870 dairy cattle from New Zealand which arrived on May 12.

The Philippines has about 2.5 million local cattle but only around 700,000 are females, which can be tapped to produce milking cows.

As part of the proposed Philippine Dairy Roadmap, Cenas said the NDA plans to buy milking cows which farmers want to dispose.  Often, she said those sold by farmers when they are in dire need of money, end up in slaughterhouses, and sometimes, these cattle are milking cows that the country needs to produce better offspring and more milk.

According to Cenas, the NDA will propose a moratorium in the slaughter of these milking cows.

“We have lots of male cattle that do not produce offspring so why not they be the ones slaughtered for meat?” she asked.

According to Cenas, the NDA plans to ask local government units to pass local laws prohibiting the killing of milking cows so that the dairy cattle breed will be able to multiply.