TANDAG CITY - One of the priorities of the Department of Agriculture is to provide access to agriculture finance to qualified farmers. In order to guide the recipients on how to effectively manage the money from the credit services, ATI-RTC 13 conducted the Financial Literacy Training. It was designed to help farmers understand how income should be spent and managed.

The training aimed to enhance their knowledge, attitude, and skills toward agricultural loans and proper management of their finances. Farmers were taught about savings, farm planning and budgeting, and were refreshed with values and behavior towards credit.

City Agriculturist Von C. Falcon acknowledged the farmers from Tandag City and Tago, Surigao del Sur who have availed of the credit services of the DA, particularly from the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA).
He encouraged the farmers to take advantage of the various services and assistance from the government and reminded them of their responsibilities as recipients. Agriculturist II/Project Officer Engr. Joel Laure presented the rationale of the training. He mentioned that SCI is the only conduit cooperative in the entire province. He mentioned that the 3-day training is composed of five modules which include financial literacy and its significance, Filipino Values, Agri-Credit Program Orientation, Business cycles and character of successful business, and financial recording.

The participants were taught on the value of money and saving as Engr. Laure thoroughly explained financial literacy, its significance and components. He also shared some set of Filipino values that one should uphold. Technical Staff Caerian B. Muga discussed farming as a business specifically the topics on farm business management. The farmers also prepared farm plan and budget per group as part of their workshop in farm planning and decision-making. Mr. Muga also presented the Agri-Credit Program of the DA.

Pedro Olvis from Anahao Daan said that there is a need to change our system in spending and managing our income not only in farming but also in our daily household undertakings. He added that the learnings gained from the training must be shared to others especially on budgeting and saving.

Tago Vice Mayor Reynaldo Selades affirmed the need for planning and budgeting in every household, and most importantly in farming. During the closing ceremony, Vice Mayor Selades emphasized that as recipients of DA's credit assistance, the farmers should be responsible in spending the money purposively and be able to pay their obligation on time for the program to be sustained for greater benefit.