Lantapan, Bukidnon---The family unit has been tapped as the immediate solution in order to address the triple challenge of producing more food, attain sustainable agriculture and preserve our natural resource base. Recently, the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center X (ATI-RTC X) organized the 1st Regional Farm Family Camp which intended to strengthen the Filipino farm families and by equipping them new knowledge and skills in agripreneurship with the theme: “Building Wealth through Family Farm Business”.
Attended by 100 Rural-Based Organizations (RBOs) partners, coordinator and officers, farm families composed of a father, a mother with their son(s)/daughter(s) who are RBO members, and Learning Site (LS) partners, the training also aimed to enhance the entrepreneurial skills of the participants based on the resources and potentials of their farm. OIC-Center Director Maria Lydia A. Echavez stressed in her message to the participants that value-adding and entrepreneurship are essential steps and skills aside from production alone.
According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about 90 percent of the world’s 570 million farms are owned and operated by families. Most are small and are found in the rural areas of the developing world. Many of these smallholder family farmers are poor, food insecure and have limited access to markets and services. Aside from farming, they take on multiple (often informal) economic activities to contribute towards their small incomes.
Moreover, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) declared that family and small farms are vital to our economy and well-being as a nation. Not only do they support the competitiveness and sustainability of rural and farm economies, they also serve to protect and enhance natural resources and the environment but provide a nursery for the development of new enterprises and marketing systems as well as maintain rural populations.
Among the activities during the training proper include the coming up of family goals and vision, farm planning, family entrepreneurship, natural farming management, marketing, selling and family branding, farm product value chain, profitability and financial projections, family farm operation management and family History and records. The 1st Regional Farm Family Camp transpires at the Binahon Agroforestry Farm (BAFF) in Lantapan, Bukidnon on September 16-19, 2019. (with reports from Jisa T. Dulay, DMO-I)