Sen. Ramon B. Magsaysay Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on agriculture, and the Bureau of Agriculture (BAR) of the Department of Agriculture have agreed to provide P6.8 million to the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) for the commercial production of genetically superior water buffaloes through biotechnology.

Dr. Libertado C. Cruz, PCC executive director, said the financial support will be equally shared by Magsaysay through his priority development assistance fund (PDAF) and BAR.

Danilda H. Duran, PCC biotechnology expert, said genetically superior water buffalos will be produced at the PCC Satellite Embryo Biotechnology Laboratory in India. The project will use reproductive biotechniques developed by PCC scientists led by Cruz.

Other PCC scientists to be involved in the project are Dr. Peregrino G. Duran, Dr. Hernando V. Venturina, Dr. Eufrocina P. Atabay, and Dr. Edwin C. Atabay.

The genetically superior embryos produced and frozen in India will be transported to the Philippines and transferred to selected buffalos now being raised by farmers in Central Luzon for the production of genetically superior water buffalos in the country.

Expected to start in January next year, the project expects to produce more than 7,700 frozen embryos by April 2006. The embryos will be transferred to selected water buffalos from June to December next year after owners of selected animals shall have been oriented on the embryo transfer program.

Duran said superior water buffalo calves are expected to be born from May to November 2007. After three years, the calves produced through the project will start to breed. By December 2007 some 386 superior water buffalo calves are expected to have been born.

Assuming a 1:1 male-female ratio, 193 female buffalos will produce 772,000 liters of fresh milk during a lactation period of 300 days, Duran added. This means that 38.6 million worth of milk will be produced in one lactation period, using the current price of fresh milk, 50 a liter.

Thus, each cooperating farmer could expect an income of 200,000 per lactation period or 666 a day. Even if a farmer only gets this income five times during the average 15-year life span of the animal, he would already get a total income of 1.0 million. This also means that the farmer will obtain a total income of no less than 2.0 million in 15 years.

Duran further said the genetically superior male offspring will be used as sources of semen for breeding purposes.