Agriculturist Jennifer Reyes of DA-MiMaRoPa shows the participants how to properly prepare mushroom fruiting bags.
DILIMAN, Quezon City – To assist its clientele in acquiring skills, knowledge, and attitude on agribusiness, the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) continues to offer free seminars on the production and processing of various commodities.
Since growing mushroom has become popular, the Institute turns this trend as an opportunity to provide enthusiasts demonstration of technologies that could help them succeed in this enterprise. Hence, a free seminar on mushroom production was conducted.
Agriculturist Jennifer Reyes from Department of Agriculture (DA) MiMaRoPa served as the speaker during the seminar. She shared some technologies on the successful preparation of substrates for mushroom fruiting bags, bagging of substrates, sterilization, and inoculation.
She also stressed the importance of having the right attitude when venturing into mushroom production, “There should be no shortcuts in the processes. If you do take the shortcut, all of your inputs and hard work will be for nothing.”
For those who want to venture into the mushroom enterprise, Reyes urged them to study its market first. She encouraged the participants to check out what kind of mushroom has high market demand before going to business.
The participants expressed their gratitude for the activity. Tony Bolos from Makati said he really appreciated the free seminar for he was able to interact with the speaker and hear her experiences firsthand. Prior to the seminar, Bolos has been watching mushroom culture videos on Facebook and YouTube.
He furthered that the seminar added to his motivation to try mushroom enterprise, “It really encouraged me to do this (mushroom-growing) and try this business out.”
Annie Bautista from Novaliches was also very grateful since she has been looking for training on mushroom-growing for several years now.
This time, she learned more about the technology. “Thank you, DA and ATI, for helping out Filipinos who want to have livelihood and uplift their own lives.”
This free seminar was held last October 19, 2018 at the ATI Rural Development Education Center. It was attended by around 700 individuals interested in mushroom-growing.
The ATI is set to conduct its last free seminar for the year on November 9 where cacao production and processing will be discussed. The ATI Partnership and Accreditation Division spearheads this effort which is open to the public.