Self-motivation is her primary investment in achieving better living. She believes that age is not a barrier to technology and learning. She is a living testament that age is not an impediment to success.

It was in 2013 when Venus Lomboy, a 68-year old resident of Balloy, Sta. Maria, Pangasinan, retired from her 45-year teaching profession and focused on agriculture. Before Mrs. Lomboy’s retirement, it was her husband, Dionisio Lomboy, who managed their 1.75-hectare agricultural land since 2000. She had limited hands-on practice in farming then.
After her retirement, Mrs. Lomboy decided to help in their rice and corn farming business. However, she lacked skills to develop their farm and increase their harvest. Along with this challenge, Mrs. Lomboy’s husband began having serious health issues. She took over the management of the farm while taking care of her sick husband whose condition was barely improving.
Highly self-motivated, Mrs. Lomboy sought for answers and guidance from the experts. Her impulse to learn more about farming led her to true fulfillment and glorious blessing.

Rescue Me
It was in 2014 when Mrs. Lomboy learned about the School on-the-Air (SOA) program of the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center I. She said it was perfect timing when she went to the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Sta. Maria, Pangasinan (to inquire on how to increase her farm’s yield) as registration for the SOA on Sustainable Rice Production was in progress then. She was recruited to sign up for the program by SOA Coordinator Irma Baltero, who has been a consistent frontrunner in producing the highest number of SOA graduates. Joining SOA was a major breakthrough in Mrs. Lomboy’s journey toward success in agriculture.
Due to her earnest eagerness to learn, Mrs. Lomboy became fully engrossed with SOA – that she even invited and involved her relatives and neighbors in the program.
Mrs. Lomboy describes how the program helped her. “I’ve learned so many things from SOA like the importance of land leveling and the correct way of seeding. Before SOA, I never considered the right broadcasting of seeds.” She adds, “I’ve learned the advantages of using organic fertilizer and pest management. I’ve also learned that frequent visitation to the farm is vital to check and examine our crops especially the appearance of their leaves. I used the learning I’ve gained and applied them to our farm. We applied this knowledge and our crop yield definitely increased. Before SOA, our normal harvest in one-half hectare was less than 30 cavans of rice. This time, we harvested 42 to 43 cavans.”
The SOA program brought positive change to Mrs. Lomboy’s well-being. She proudly speaks how it improved her day to day life. “Unlike before, we now have enough supply of rice. Our supply at the moment may even last for 3 months.”
SOA on Sustainable Rice Production likewise boosted Mrs. Lomboy’s understanding on vermiculture. It was the SOA program which inspired Mrs. Lomboy to cultivate vermiculture. While SOA was on-going, she visited a vermiculture site in Barangay Capandanan. Since then, she started to buy vermicompost and African Night Crawler (ANC), and developed vermiculture in her own backyard. After a while, she had customers from the municipalities of San Nicolas and San Quintin, including her former co-teachers with agricultural lands, whom she encouraged to venture into vermiculture.
“I earned quite well in vermiculture. With 5 kilos of ANC worth 2,500 Php, and 50 sacks of cow manure worth 500 Php, I earned 10,000 Php after 6-7 months. You just need to strive and work diligently for it,” Mrs. Lomboy explains.
After the SOA on Sustainable Rice Production in 2014, Mrs. Lomboy organized a farmers’ meeting in her barangay and asked for assistance from SOA Coordinator Irma Baltero. Her purpose was to disseminate the information and the new technologies she learned from the SOA program.
To date, Mrs. Lomboy continues to take part in farmer meetings and events to further expand her knowledge and skills. She is anxious to learn more about agriculture and farming technologies. As a result of the fulfilling experiences and the benefits she gained from the SOA on Sustainable Rice Production, Mrs. Lomboy also enrolled in the SOA on Sustainable Corn Production in December 2015.
Mrs. Lomboy declares how the SOA on Sustainable Corn Production helped her increase her corn crop yield. “SOA taught us about the benefits of organic fertilizer. When we were using inorganic fertilizer, our corn crops looked limp. When we used organic, they became healthy. As a result, we harvested 120 cavans in one hectare. Our yield increased from 43 to 80 sacks (after threshing). SOA was really a blessing to us!”

Insight Bites
Considering the SOA as her knight in shining armor, Mrs. Lomboy...

(Read the full story on the next issue of our Upnorth Newsletter, coming this December)