Aiming for a more bountiful harvest, 30 Pantawid Pamilya farmers from Burgos, Ilocos Sur successfully completed the 20-day Skills Training on Agricultural Crop Production National Certificate (NC) III.
The said intervention which amounted to PhP307,900.00 is an initiative of the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office I in partnership with the Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College (ISPSC) Santa Maria Campus through a fund transfer to the latter.
“Nabayagak a mannalonen ngem ado pay laeng iti baro a nasursurok ditoy training maipanggep ti panagtalon. Dakkel ti yamanmi ta dakkel a tulong daytoy iti pagsapulan (I have been a farmer for a long time now but I was still able to learn new things on farming through this training. We are grateful because this will improve our livelihood),” shared Francisca Ronquillo, one of the SLP participants, when asked on her insights about her training on tractor operation and advanced crop production techniques and practices. Since most of the participants are farm tenants and part-time farmers, they were awarded with starter kits so they can continue with backyard vegetable farming.
Last year, DSWD and ISPSC signed a memorandum of agreement allowing the former to transfer PhP2,683,387.00 to the latter for the implementation of skills trainings on food processing, cookery, dressmaking, agricultural crop production, automotive, broiler production, and electronic product assembly servicing to be conducted this year which will cater 212 qualified SLP program participants in Ilocos Sur.
The Department also transferred funds and partnered with the Department of Agriculture, PhilRice-Batac City, Philippine Carabao Center-Mariano Marcos State University, and University of Northern Philippines for this year’s implementation of various skills trainings for hundreds of qualified SLP participants in Ilocos Sur. (by: Janine Joy B. Altero, Social Marketing Officer, Sustainable Livelihood Program)
