Mr. Ruben Ragas, owner and co-operator of Ragas Farm shares his experiences and best practices during the benchmarking of CRFBS participants at Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte.
LOS ANGELES, Butuan City –The impacts of Climate Change place increasing risks on agricultural production. Addressing this inevitable global problem has become a priority of key government institutions by formulating adaptable measures that practically suit the needs of the locality.
In support to this endeavor, the Agricultural Training Institute -Regional Training Center (ATI-RTC) 13 conducted a 10-day Training of Trainers (TOT) on Climate Resiliency Farm Business School (CRFBS) for Agricultural Extension Workers (AEWs) EWs last April 1 - 10, 2019 at the ATI Training Complex.
The training aimed to capacitate the AEWs with knowledge and skills necessary in helping the farmers make their farm more profitable in the face of climate and economic-related challenges. It also aimed to assemble pool of experts who can deliver climate farm business school in an effective and efficient way. It was also designed to equip the AEWs so they can aid the farmers in complying with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the ASEAN market.
The TOT was packed with lectures, participatory-discussions and workshops. The following were some of topics discussed during the training: Transformational Leadership; Rice ratification law; Climate Resilient Farming System; Extension Delivery System; Water and Soil Conservation; Integrated Pest Management; Resilient varieties and Farming as a business.
The participants also visited Ragas farm and Zels Dragon Fruit Orchard, two of ATI certified Learning Sites for Agriculture to do benchmarking of their best farming practices. Moreover, the trainees had a tree planting activity at the ATI-FFARMS on April 6, 2019.
A total of 32 AEWs from various Local Government Units (LGUs) in the region successfully completed the TOT (with reports from Caerian Muga).