PANGASINAN – In an effort to increase the number of Learning Sites for Agriculture (LSA) in the region, the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center 1 through its LSA-Technical Working Group conducted onsite field evaluation of LSA applicants at NJ Rolusta Integrated Farm and Amang Antonio Integrated Farm on February 28 and March 2, 2022, respectively.
The NJ Rolusta Integrated Farm located in Brgy. Patayak, Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan is owned and managed by Mr. Nardo and Mrs. Josephine Rolusta. The five-hectare (5 ha) farm is divided into three (3) sites. It can be found in the first site the different facilities of the farm, such as office with receiving area, library, training hall, hands-on demonstration area, storage room, kitchen and garage. Included in this site is some part for aquatic animal production and area for producing different crops like rice, corn and vegetables and fruit bearing trees.
The second component of the farm focuses on animal production, where rabbits, swine, goats, and different poultry animals like rhode island red chicken, turkey, ducks, and geese are raised. Meanwhile, the third site of the integrated farm has an area for source of irrigation that supply 40 ha. of farmlands in the community producing various vegetables and fruit bearing trees. Mr. and Ms. Rolusta eye their farm to be an agritourism site that will offer pick, pay and cook.
On the other hand, Amang Antonio Integrated Farm, which is owned and managed by Mr. Manuel Baladad, can be found at Brgy. San Benito, Pozorrubio, Pangasinan. Existing technologies in this farm include inland tilapia culture production with 10,000 tilapia, agricultural crop production and organic agriculture production. The farm is also installed with different facilities and susch as two (2) training halls, hands-on demonstration and nursery area, storage room for tools, kubo house and equipment like kiosk.
During the field evaluation, the farm has an on-going training on agricultural crop production facilitated by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and this implies that the farm also serves as a venue for trainings.
The NJ Rolusta Integrated Farm was evaluated by Ms. Jeimelie C. Constantino, Rice Program Point Person, Ms. Alyssa L. Caryl Vallo, HVCD Program Point Person, Ms. Amor Joyce M. Marcelo, Admin Officer IV, and Mr. Jomar R. Palsimon, Project Evaluation Officer I. Meanwhile, Dr. Josephine K. Aben, Asst. Center Director, Ms. Abegel A. Joson, CDMSS Chief, and Ms Vallo served as the field evaluators for Amang Antonio Integrated Farm. Ms. Almera M. Montano, Agriculturist II, acted as the secretariat during the field evaluation activity.
The importance of field evaluation is to validate the compliance of applicants to the requirements and qualifications before certifying them as Learning Site for Agriculture.