ALEGRIA, Surigao del Norte – Twenty-five (25) members of the 4H Club graduate from the Garden in School that was held at the Stand Alone Senior High School in Brgy. Ouano this municipality.

This activity aims to promote vegetable production in elementary schools through lectures and hands-on activities and establish and maintain school gardens as a ready source of food for the students and other stakeholders. It is one of ATI’s initiatives to introduce agriculture to the young ones especially to the elementary students. Thus, the Stand Alone Senior High School of Alegria, Surigao del Norte was chosen as the beneficiary of this program. The students were thankful even though they are not under the agriculture tract but they found the learnings valuable for their health and the environment.

For almost three months, the students gained knowledge on vegetable gardening through lectures and hand-on activities on land preparation, seedling, planting, identifying and controlling the insect pests and diseases. They also gained the skill on preparing the organic fertilizer concoction, developed their interpersonal relationship with their peers and appreciated agriculture during the field tour at JB Nature Farm through the warm reception of its owner Engr. Woodrow Escobal.

“We are very thankful because of all the schools in Surigao del Norte, we were chosen to be the beneficiaries of this program. The program gave us great source of knowledge about vegetable gardening and the benefits of vegetables in our health. We learned how to make organic fertilizer concoction as control of insect pest and diseases in our plant. The knowledge we learned here will be shared to our co students in order that the garden will be sustained,” said Argie Silladora, one of the participants of the 4H Garden in School.

The school-based program in Alegria commenced last July 23, 2018 and concluded last October 12, 2018. The Project Officer was Mary Jane Asubar, Agriculturist I and 4H/RBO Coordinator of ATI-RTC XIII.