Privatization of Artificial Insemination Services under Smallholder Production System Libertado Concepcion CRUZ * , Eric P. PALACPAC, Sonia D. POL, A. S. SARABIA and Felomino V. MAMUAD Philippine Carabao Center, Science City of Munoz,Nueva Ecija, Philippines *Corresponding email: pcc-oed@yahoo.com, pcc-oed@mozcom.com ABSTRACT Efforts to privatize AI services for water buffaloes in the villages was initiated in 2006 through training of selected and interested individuals to conduct “pay per service” in their respective communities, the VBAITs. Government covered the training, equipping and nurturing until the VBAITs are fully functional. From 2006-2012, there were 636 VBAITS trained and represents 61.5% of the all trained AI technicians and is an increase of about 11 folds from the 2005 level. The share of VBAIT AI service in 2005 was only 5.92% while government AI technicians accounted for 94.0%. After 6 years of sustained trainings of VBAIT, the overall AI services rose to 52.5%, whereas the government AI technicians share went down to only 47.2%. Among the trained VBAITs, 38.1% were inactive, a bit higher than 29.3% inactivity among trained government AI technicians. However, among the active AI technicians, the average AI services/year/technician for VBAIT is 97.1 and 66.8 for government AI technicians. Also, the number of technicians with services of 200 or more per year was higher among VBAITs. Nurturing of VBAITs is very essential for their establishment in their service areas, and for those who have been totally capacitated, VBAITs formed their association. There are indications that VBAIT when fully capacitated and empowered can run and manage the AI system in a privatized mode. Keywords: artificial insemination, privatization, village-based artificial insemination technician INTRODUCTION The urgency of creating opportunities for generating additional income for rural families is brought about by the increasing population, and thus growing number of available rural labor against the background of declining size of land holdings. Use of existing resources among rural family, such as the swamp buffalo, has been demonstrated to significantly contribute to increase income through the introduction of dairy genetics. This approach has been of value in improving production capacities among the resulting crossbreds, a magnitude as much as two times for growth, and 3-4 folds for milk production. Consideration has to be taken of the fact that there are about 3.3 million of carabaos in the custody of some 2.5 million farming families. In view of the limited number dairy of buffaloes in the country that may be used for natural mating, introduction of dairy genetics through artificial insemination becomes the most practical approach to achieve the desired improvement in milk 285 Buffalo Bulletin 2013 Vol.32 (Special Issue 1): 285-292 Accepted April 10, 2013; Online November 11, 2013.