ROSARIO, Agusan del Sur – They used to live hand to mouth, making ends meet on a day-to-day basis. But after attending the training of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), they vowed to look ahead and always set aside for tomorrow’s needs.

Twenty-nine farmers in the town of Rosario completed the two-day Financial Literacy Training (FLT) last September 13-14, 2018. The FLT program was crafted by no less than DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol who wants farmers to intensify the business and marketing side in farming. Through FLT, it hopes to capacitate farmers with the important practices such as farm record keeping, budgeting and good values formation towards credit.

Participants of this training have already availed the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) Program of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC). This loan facility offers a maximum of Php 50,000 for short-term crops/commodities and up to Php 150,000 for high value crops and long gestating crops.

FLT trainee Henry Cabales said during the closing program “I am very thankful that we had this training because it helped us the right way to spend our income and how to budget our limited family income.”

Taking a loan without understanding of one’s cash flow and not evaluating risks and missteps in monitoring one’s progress is a recipe to failure in terms of money management. That is why in FLT, farmers are taught the importance of regular saving and thoughtful expenditure and how to compute their expenses against income. In this way, farmers will no longer see their hard-earned financial gains drain away due to poor financial management.