“Tabangan nato ni’ng imong course dai aron mahipno ug makahatag og tabang sa buot makat-on sa pagpananum og ubi, “ (let us work hand-in-hand to make this course in place so that it will facilitate those individuals who wanted to learn in ubi production) Nanay Dolfa had said.

I met Nanay Dolfa (Adolfa T. Apale) 12 years ago during the celebration of the annual Ubi Festival in 2005 (barely five-months from my transfer to ATI in Central Visayas from ATI-Farmers’ Training Center in Cagayan de Oro City). I was introduced by my colleague to our partners whom they were having booth displays of the bountiful harvest of ubi – and Nanay Dolfa was among those who were very active in this endeavor given that she served as Rural Improvement Club (RIC) President in the municipality of Corella province of Bohol for quite some time and an active community leader.

Fast forward: When ATI in Central Office invited the second batch of course developers that includes our center, we were then asked to identify one (1) commodity course to be developed into online learning, thus, Yummy Yam: Online Course on Ubi Production came into the picture.

With ATI’s strong collaborative partnership among stakeholders in the region; the course development phase was able to pool subject matter specialists (SMS) with different backgrounds, but with common expertise on ubi production.

Nanay Dolfa who was an ubi farmer for 35 long years; had the great cut on the traditional planting; harvesting to post-harvest. With her experiences; it has been a test of time that indigenous knowledge played a great impact on the ubi production especially the aromatic purplish variety best known in the province, the Kinampay.

At 85, Nanay Dolfa indeed served not just to her locality but the entire e-learning community who enrolled Yummy Yam. Her untimely passing due to a vehicular accident last October 25, 2017, was a sudden lull of our existence and the ubi industry as a whole.

And since, we cannot defy death – we at ATI7 would like to thank Nanay Dolfa for her contribution that our e-learners had benefitted.

To recall, it was just last April 25, 2017, that I wrote a Thank You message to Mam Zenaida Darunday, another ubi SMS who went ahead of us, and today, another good soul followed.

To Nanay Dolfa, salamat kaayo sa tanan (thank you very much) – our grand salute to you.