Theories, however, pointed out that in the country’s history, the first migrants to the country brought with them ancient flora and fauna. For the fauna they brought in, the commonly called “water buffalo” elsewhere in the world was among them.
This animal, according to published archeological findings, was domesticated some 7,000 years ago in the Chekiang province of China. It was of two types – the swamp buffalo and the riverine buffalo.
Both types have distinct and similar descriptions and characteristics. Their body anatomy is generally the same but their chromosomes differ – the riverine type with 50 and the swamp-type 48. The riverine- type has a black body color and with curled horn while the swamp-type, dark gray and with horns that extend outward and curl backwards like in semi-circle form.
It was the swamp-type that was brought to the country which, by its nature, is excellent for its draft usability. The riverine-type, like those found in India, Pakistan, and in the Mediterranean areas, is for meat and milk.
On Philippine soil, this animal earned the unique name “carabao”. Recent studies on the lineage of the Philippine carabao indicated that it descended from the maternal line of the Chinese buffaloes.
The name carabao is surmised to have come from the Visayan or Cebuano word karabaw which was apparently from kerbau, the Malaysian and Indonesian local name for the water buffalo.
Contribution in farm works
“The estimated value of the contributed draft power of the carabao is at $1.48 million (P21 billion),” said Dr. Libertado Cruz, former executive director of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC), quoting a research study in 2002. “This contribution was divided in the production of rice, corn, coconut, and sugarcane and some other crops in smaller values.”
About 66 percent of the population the Philippines used the carabao for farm works based on that study, Cruz added.
Yet for all the very significant role in Philippine agriculture and in supporting the lives of farmers and their families, the carabao’s existence suffered natural and man-occasioned misfortunes that almost wiped out its population more than a century ago.
In the early 1900, diseases, particularly rinderpest, swept through the animal’s population. As if conspiring to that ill-fortune, locust infestation damaged the vegetation that resulted in the poor dietary supply for the animal. Almost 90 percent of its population was wiped out because of the disease and the calamity.
The locust infestation, particularly, was viewed with alarm by foreign entities worrying about the economy and instability of the country. It thus merited prominence in one of the issues of the New York Times in the latter part of 1902. The paper’s story for the carabao’s adversity carried this headline: Dearth of Field Animals. Pest has Almost Exterminated Carabaos in the Philippines. Agriculture at a Standstill.
But like the resilient people and nation that we are, life moved on for the carabao. In time, its population increased.
During World War II, however, another catastrophe befell on the carabao. Japanese officials suspected that the carabao was being used by the Filipino guerrillas for transporting weapons and goods in aiding American soldiers. The massacre of the carabao was ordered. All told, about two million were killed.
Their breed, too, suffered.
“The farmers, wanting to have bigger and sturdier animals, usually castrated the best of their bulls. As a result, lesser quality bulls were left for mating and for the propagation of their species,” Cruz said.
Their nutritional needs and health care were not well-attended, too, by the farmers, he added. Their offspring declined in size and weight. Their draft power dwarfed.
Saving the carabao
It was not all a lost cause for the carabao. Monumental developments took place in the last 42 years that eventually catapulted the carabao to new heights.
Filipino scientists took the cudgel for the improvement of the breed and proper care for the carabaos. Then the Philippine legislature passed a unique law that gave prominent attention for the improvement and propagation of this animal.
From a tiny step, that of including a study on the carabao’s breed, population and health under the beef-chevon research and development studies, developed bigger concerns for this animal.
“That was in 1973 when the Philippine Council for Agricultural Resources Research took that step,” said Dr. Patricio Faylon, former executive director of the council, in his published account about the carabao’s development in the country.
Three years later, a Carabao Commodity Team was formed by PCARR and was allotted funds for its R&D efforts, he added.
Then in 1981, with a funding provided by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)-FAO, the “Strengthening of the Philippine Carabao Research and Development Center” was implemented.
The center, among others, was meant to strengthen institutional capabilities in the testing of the performance of crossbreds, which are the offspring of the crossing of the dairy-type buffalos with that of the native carabao.
In its terminal report ten years after, the center reported:
“The farmers attested that the developed crossbreds possess relatively higher capacity to produce milk, better growth, and having more meat without lessening the animal’s draftability.”
A bill for the institutionalization of the carabao improvement program was filed in Congress authored principally by then Sen. Joseph Estrada. Subsequently, the “Philippine Carabao Act of 1992” (RA 7307) was passed which, among others, authorized the establishment of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) to “conserve, propagate, and promote the carabao as source of draft power, meat, and hide for the benefit of smallhold farmers.”
On March 27, 1993 the PCC was officially created. The agency, which is attached to the Department of Agriculture, from then on embarked on a program of upgrading the farmers’ native carabaos through the oldest known biotechnology, artificial insemination (AI), and through bull loan program and modern reproductive biotechnologies.
“Your country has developed a unique water buffalo, a three-in-one carabao… It produces more milk, it’s heavier and meatier, and it still retains its draft ability,” Dr. Surendra Ranjhan, a former consultant of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and chief technical adviser of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), said in an interview when he visited PCC last year.
The economic life of the farmers raising dairy carabaos have improved a lot, Ranjhan added.
“They not only vastly improved their houses, bought farm machines and motorcycles, but were able to send their children to college,” he said.
