35 farmers became new entrepreneurs
At least 35 Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARB) members of the Katipunan Agricultural Farmers Association (KAFA) in Barangay Katipunan, Bayugan City were in hype into showing the entrepreneurial skills they learned in their Farm Business School (FBS) during their graduation ceremony and harvest festival held last November 26, 2020 in Barangay Katipunan, Bayugan City.
Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II Jamil P. Amatonding Jr. congratulated the farmer-graduates and challenged them to apply the skills and knowledge acquired from the FBS to effectively respond to present day demands in farming.
“I hope that by the coming years, KAFA farmers will significantly contribute to the overall status of Agusan del Sur in terms of income and profitability,” he said.
“Sa pagsugod, dili kaayo ko interesado kay tungod sekwelaeskwela lang pero nagkadugay, nag ka interesado ko sa mga topiko tungod aduna koy daghan nakat-unan. Usa niini kung unsaun pag pamaligya ug sakto ug pag compute sa mga posible nga kitaon. Salamat sa DAR ug sa tanang nagpaluyo niining programa.(I was not so interested when it started because I think it is like all-classroom type. But I started to like it when practical topics like how to sell effectively and how to compute correctly were discussed. Thank you so much to DAR and to everyone who help making all these things possible), said Ricardo Jandog, one of the graduates.
Municipal Facilitator Dimple Joy Suarez said that choosing for crops took them so many things to consider. “While banana is the main crop in the locality, they challenge themselves to engage in peanut because of shortage,” she explained.
Initiated and implemented by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Training Institute (DA-ATI) and the local government unit of Bayugan, the FBS design develops capacity in farm business management among smallholder farmers, and supports the transition towards market-oriented farming.
The program ‘flexible-curriculum based’ approach has 25 sessions about farming techniques, marketing, business and action plan making, record keeping, savings and mobilization and benchmarking with review and learning session.
-by Rechel Besonia, PIO Agusan del Sur
