The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) – La Union Provincial Statistical Office conducted the 3rd Quarter 2021 Livestock and Poultry Surveys comprised of the Commercial Livestock and Poultry Survey (CLPS) and the Backyard Livestock and Poultry Survey (BLPS). Field operation for the CLPS was implemented on September 20 to 30, 2021 while the BLPS was on October 01 to 08, 2021.

The CLPS aims to generate estimates on inventory, supply and disposition, and other related data of livestock and poultry commodities from commercial farms. It is conducted quarterly for swine, layer and broiler, and semi-annual for carabao, cattle, goat, sheep and duck. On the other hand, the BLPS is designed to generate estimates on inventory, supply and disposition, and other related data of livestock and poultry commodities at the household level. The data gathered in this survey are as follows; type of operation, inventory, born live/hatched live, acquired, sold live for slaughter and for other purposes, slaughtered/dressed in the household, number of deaths, average liveweight, average farmgate price, egg production indicator for poultry, and milk production for carabao, cattle and goat. The data that will be generated for both surveys are disseminated through Situation Reports (annual and quarterly), infographics, and publication. More importantly, the production data generated from the survey are direct inputs to the Value of Production of Agriculture and accordingly, to the computation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In La Union, the PSA hired eight Statistical Researchers (SRs) who visited the sample farms for both surveys. The BLPS has a total of 16 barangay Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) and 312 household Secondary Sampling Units (SSUs) while the CLPS has a total of 64 sample farms. Hybrid data collection methods were employed due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. For face-to-face interviews, SRs strictly abided with health and safety precautionary measures such as social distancing and use of face mask and face shield. For areas where face-to-face interviews were not feasible due to community quarantine, mobile phone interviews or the use of email were adopted.

The authority and mandate of the PSA to conduct the CLPS emanates from Republic Act (RA) No. 10625 known as the Philippine Statistical Act of 2013 which states that, “the PSA will be primarily responsible for all national censuses and surveys, sectoral statistics, consolidation of administrative recording system, and compilation of national accounts.” Respondents are assured that all information collected from them shall be kept strictly confidential. Section 26 of RA 10625 stipulates that individual data furnished by the respondent to statistical inquiries, surveys, and censuses of the PSA shall be considered as privileged information and such shall be inadmissible as evidence in any processing. The PSA may release data gathered from the surveys and censuses only in the form of summaries or statistical tables, in which no reference to an individual, corporation, association, partnership, institution or business enterprise shall appear.

SGD. DANITES E. TEÑIDO, Ph.D.
Chief Statistical Specialist

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