CRA Program Beneficiaries to Become Future Entrepreneurs

The participants during their benchmarking at Cervantes Squarefoot Urban Garden

The beneficiaries of the Climate Resilient Agriculture Community Project in Kiabo, Malitbog, Bukidnon were subjected to a series of capacitation activities to better increase their resilience amidst climate change. In March this year, they were trained on Vermicomposting so that they can use the compost in their crop production. All the beneficiaries who are members of the Higaonon Tribe are practicing organic production.
On April 23-30, the 25 CRA beneficiaries together with two (2) interested farmers in Cagayan de Oro City attended the Climate Smart Farm Business School held in Cagayan de Oro City. In this training, the participants were made to realize that farming is a business and that they must look at the market first before venturing into any enterprise or before planting crops. The training aims to make the participants aspire to become entrepreneurs. As such they were taught about visioning, entrepreneurship and value adding. They also came up with a business plan for their future business.
They were also taught abour risks management and that one of the biggest risks that they are facing is climate change. As such they came up with adaptation strategies to cope with changing climate. As part of the training, the participants visited the Cervantes Squarefoot Urban Garden at Brgy. Pagatpat, Cagayan de Oro as part of their benchmarking activity. They also visited the Bulua Market for their market survey where they interviewed various actors in the value chain such as producers, consumers, traders and transport providers.
On May 1-3, 2018, the participants were then trained on Value Chain Analysis and Financial Management where they were made to analyze the various processes that their products go through before reaching the final consumer and where in those processes they can earn more.