THE NATIONAL Dairy Authority is pushing to regain oversight of the government’s school-based milk feeding program, which is currently managed by the Department of Education with a budget nearing P2 billion.

NDA Administrator Marcus Antonius Andaya highlighted that the agency is more familiar with sourcing high-quality milk and could ease DepEd’s workload.

Andaya also revealed that the NDA is requesting an increased budget for 2025, as the program greatly benefits local farmers.

“Gusto rin namin palakasin ang milk feeding program dahil ang milk feeding program po natin ay isa sa pinakamalakas na source ng livelihood ng ating mga farmers,” he said.

Additionally, the NDA has requested an extra P250 million for the importation of dairy cattle, which will be placed in five stock farms expected to be operational by 2025. Each farm can accommodate up to 150 dairy cattle.

Andaya made these remarks following a request from the National Federation of Dairy Farmers and Stakeholders’ Association (Dairy NatFed) for DepEd Secretary Juan Edgardo Angara to return the program’s management to the NDA.

Dairy NatFed president Danilo Fausto argued that the reversion would lead to more efficient implementation and relieve teachers and non-teaching staff from extra responsibilities.

“In this light and in order to have an effective and smooth implementation of the program, we would like to request the Honorable Secretary of DepEd to allow and delegate to the NDA the implementation of the milk feeding program of the government which is currently being done through the DepEd, provided however, that the Philippine Carabao Center managed dairy cooperatives will be allowed equal treatment to participate in the program under NDA in accordance with their production capacities,” Fausto said.