The Philippine Carabao Center (Filipino: Sentro ng Kalabaw sa Pilipinas), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, was established at Nueva Ecija in 1992 to study and promote the carabao in the Philippines as a multi-purpose animal that can be raised for milk, meat, hide, and draft. It was sponsored as a bill by the then senator Joseph Estrada and eventually enacted as a law through Republic Act 7307 or the Philippine Carabao Act of 1992.
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Imported Breeds
To improve the breeds and milk yield, Murrah buffalo breeds were imported from the Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, Hisar, India. The center breeds and cross-breeds, through artificial insemination, animals called Murrah buffalo, a species of the dairy type from India, Bulgaria and some countries like North and Latin America. This type can produce an average of eight liters of milk daily in 300 days. Top-performing ones can produce 12 - 15 liters per day.
Reproduction Technology
The PCC had some success in reproductive biotechnology in 2004 when the first test-tube buffalo was born on April 5, also the birthday of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Incidentally, the test-tube buffalo is a female and was named as "Glory" after the President.
Milk Yield Improvement
Late in 2007, according to Filipino scientists, the Center located in Nueva Ecija initiated a study to breed the super water buffalo that could produce 4 to 18 liters of milk/day using gene-based technology. The majority of the funding came from the Department of Science and Technology. When this marker-assisted selection process is perfected it will allow the poor farmers to conserve their resources by raising only the best producers that are genetically selected soon after birth.