BUTUAN CITY, Agusan del Norte – Twenty-six farmers in this city completed the 16-week Farmers’ Field School (FFS) on Cacao Production conducted by the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center XIII (ATI-Caraga).

In the said school, farmers gained knowledge on soil and climatic requirement of cacao, nursery establishment, cultural management, pests and diseases management, harvesting, good agriculture practices (GAP), climate change, agro-ecosystem analysis (AESA), cacao genetics, farm management and establishment.

During the closing program one farmer spoke about a hindrance they face in growing cacao. “I have knowledge on cacao but my problem is financing. This is important in making our cacao more productive. We have proven that cacao needs fertilization. As we have discovered in our training, during the first seven weeks we diligently counted the flowers of our cacao. We also listened to the lectures, and what is really lacking is financing. We already know the diseases, we know what fertilizer to apply, we have observed our field. The three groups of the three areas also were already equip sir in terms of knowledge. Our problem is on how to increase the fruits of our cacao trees, and that is financing, because fertilizer is very expensive,” said Renato Manabat from Brgy. Bitan-agan, Butuan City.

Meanwhile, Arceli Marasigan, another farmer from Bitan-agan expressed her thanks to ATI. “We are very grateful for this training on cacao, we have learned a lot, and we enjoyed going to our areas of study. We now can identify the harmful insects and how to control them. We also know which are friendly insects and the tiny midges are our precious friend because without them, there will be no cacao pods. Thanks ATI for sponsoring this FFS on cacao. And of course, to our very kind facilitators, for their diligence in coming here to teach us.”

The FFS on Cacao Production in Butuan City commenced last March 22, 2018 and concluded last September 20, 2018. (with reports from Engr. Joel Laure)