ALCALA – Overseas residents of Alcala are contributing money among themselves in order to build a feed mill to be donated to their townmates back home.

Mayor Manuel Collado said many of the donors were among those who attended the Grand Homecoming in Alcala sometime in April during their town fiesta in honor of their patron, the Holy Cross.

These people also bankrolled Alcala’s quests for the longest grill and longest barbecue held last April 30 which would expectedly put the town in the Guinness Book of World Records.

They identified feed mill as a project which they can donate to their town mates because it could make use of the abundant harvest of corn and palay not only from Alcala but also from adjacent Bautista and Bayambang.

The feed mill will be put up on a lot to be donated by the municipal government, Collado said.

A feasibility study for the project is now being prepared by the municipal government which is likewise organizing a cooperative that will soon manage and operate the feed mill.

Collado said overseas Alcala residents, based in the United States, Canada and Europe, are contributing U.S. 1,000 to 10,000 dollars each among themselves to have the feed mill realized at least by the first quarter of next year.

They chose feed mill as their initial project to donate not only because Alcala is a big producer of corn and rice but also because there are many people raising pigs in their backyard as well as in their farms.

Collado said with corn and rice bran already available, they will only have to source out fish meal from Dagupan City or Lingayen in order to produce feeds.

With the feed mill, the mayor said, they can lower the price of feeds being bought by local feed raisers, thus eventually enhancing livestock raising in the town. Aside from this, they are also studying the feasibility of bankrolling the acquisition of a processing plant for dried mangoes, to also make use of the abundant harvest of mangoes by their town mates.

The plan is to have whatever profit derived, will be shared between the cooperative and the municipal government to finance other allied socio-economic projects. (PNA)