UPLB, PFMC tie up for P30-M project

LIVESTOCK feed producer Philippine Foremost Milling Corp. (PFMC) and UP Los Baños (UPLB) have joined forces in renovating and upgrading the Swine Husbandry Building at UPLB’s Animal Science Complex in Laguna.

The renovated structure, which was funded with a P30-million grant from PFMC, was renamed La Filipina Uy Gongco–UPLB Advanced Animal Science Research and Training Laboratory (AASRTL). It will house preparation, extraction, digestion, balance, instrumentation and quantitative polymerase chain reaction rooms; a conference room and staff offices. Continuous development of the facility will be undertaken until 2018.

UPLB Chancellor Fernando C. Sanchez said the animal lab exemplified UPLB’s vision to provide promising and bright minds an environment to learn and interact; a facility where students would be inspired to pursue personal and professional goals.

PFMC and La Filipina Uy Gongco chair Alfonso A. Uy said AASRTL was a product of a “public-private partnership” between UPLB and PFMC. “This laboratory—with its advanced equipment, facilities and new research and training rooms—would help strengthen our country’s livestock and dairy industry,” he stressed.

Elpidio M. Agbisit Jr., director of the College of Agriculture Animal Dairy and Science Cluster (CA-ADSC), said the lab would also help produce some of the best students in UPLB. “AASRTL will play an important role in producing graduates that the Asean community is looking for,” added Enrico P. Supangco, dean of the College of Agriculture.

Also present during AASRTL’s inauguration were CA-ADSC officials led by professor emeritus Cesar C. Sevilla, who initiated the project.

PFMC is a world-class manufacturer of quality animal feeds, including Excel Feeds, Amigo, Lechon for Swine, Poultry and Aquatic sector, IC+ and Iron Claw Game Fowl Feeds.  Its mills are in Manila, Iloilo, Davao and, soon, in Isabela.  PFMC’s mother company—La Filipina Uy Gongco Corp.—is the largest US soybean meal importer in Southeast Asia, the main ingredient in livestock feeds.