Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. has ordered a comprehensive review of an ambitious goat breeding program launched under the Duterte administration but left chronically underfunded, after state auditors flagged widespread animal deaths linked to poor care.
The review will determine whether the Department of Agriculture (DA) should continue the program, particularly the upgrading of small ruminants project based at the Pangasinan Research and Experiment Center in Sual, Pangasinan.
Tiu Laurel said the assessment will look at both the program’s technical viability and the resources required to sustain it. The Commission on Audit (COA), in its 2024 annual audit report on the DA, noted that 52 of the 101 Anglo Nubian and Saanen goats purchased for the project had died.
The animals were intended to serve as breeder stock for high-quality ruminants, but COA attributed the deaths to inadequate feeding and nutrition. COA also acknowledged the DA’s explanation that funding gaps were being addressed.
According to the audit, allocations for goat feed were included in the 2025 budget under the National Livestock Program, with sufficient feed inventory now available at the station. Additional funds for animal care and maintenance have likewise been identified and incorporated into the DA’s 2026 budget proposal.
However, DA records indicate that beyond basic feed and veterinary needs, no adequate funding was set aside during the previous administration to expand or sustain the goat production initiative. Under then Agriculture Secretary William Dar, the program moved forward without the long-term budget support needed to keep the breeding operation viable.
Tiu Laurel said the review will guide whether the DA revives the program, scales it down, or ends it altogether. In the meantime, the agency plans to distribute the remaining Anglo Nubian and Saanen goats to farmers in storm-battered Catanduanes, where livestock losses have compounded the impact of recent typhoons.
The DA also intends to temporarily repurpose the 140-hectare Pangasinan facility for high-value crops production and innovation hub while decisions on the breeding program are finalized. This is envisioned to institutionalize a transformative public-private-community engagement process with transparent and inclusive business model aimed to increase local food production with value-added products and services to boost rural agro-industrial development.
The episode underscores a broader challenge facing the DA of inherited projects with lofty goals but thin funding. As the review unfolds, the DA appears poised to draw a clearer line between ambition and sustainability to ensure that future programs are backed not just by vision, but by resources to keep them alive.
