BOHOL. - In support to the easy access on financing programs of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center VII (ATI 7) in collaboration with Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC) conducted “ A Peso a Day is Ok: A Financial Literacy Training” to the provinces of Bohol and Negros Oriental. The training was jointly launched with the “TIENDA” program last August 16-17, 2018 in Tagbilaran City, this province which was attended by DA Sec. Emmanuel Piñol, some executives and representatives from different offices both private and government.
Sec. Piñol in his message reiterated that our small farmers and fishers (SFFs) need financial literacy training because the situation now is very different from the past. He said that SFFs should think farming is a business that needs to earn profits not just a source of food for consumption. Now that DA is widely promoting the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program, he thought that the SFF should undergo the training to learn the right way of managing their finances to help them and their businesses grow respectively.
Meanwhile, in Pres. Carlos P. Garcia, Bohol, a series of six (6) batches was conducted from August 16-September 21, 2018 which was attended by 211. Likewise, in Negros Oriental, three (3) batches were done in the city/municipalities of Valencia (August 23-24), Bais City (August 28-29) and Mabinay (August 30-31) which trained a total of 125 SFFs.
As this developed, participants were grateful for the support given by the department from the financial assistance to the series of training. They were challenged to apply what they have learned so far in their daily lives especially on the concept of saving, budget, and investment. Furthermore, the municipal and barangay local government units extended their thanks for giving their constituents the opportunity to be the participants of the training.
Highlights of the training were a series of discussion on financial literacy and other related topics. Participants had tried recording their financial transactions (budget vs expenses) and computed their total capital and profits during the workshop on the financial recording.
The pool of trainer-facilitators for these training who shared their time and expertise were Mr. Jorge F. Trinidad, Training Specialist II, Ms. Reynadez M. Lim, Agriculturist I together with their support staffs Mr. Arnel Navarro, Mr. Jeffrey O. Awas and Mr. Jovanie Picot with ACPC representatives Mr. Alvin U. Cobato and Ms. Dina Mejias.