The Philippines is hit by typhoons at an average of 20 per year. Every time a major typhoon hits, damage cost amounts to millions, sometimes even billions of pesos. Previously this would not even make me think twice, just take in the news and move on. But recently with Typhoon Nona, reports about cost of damage particularly in agriculture made me think twice and ponder, “Are they really assessing the damage right?”

Inspired by an extension activity designed to curb obesity implemented by the Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CUCE) in New York City, ATI-RTC 8 implemented a similar activity under its Organic Agriculture (OA) program to educate mothers on the value of money with the food they prepared. The activity, which took place in Calag-itan, Hinunangan, Southern Leyte on March 23, 2015 was dubbed "Value for Money: Shopping for Health".

Upland barangays of Ormoc City is no stranger to calamities. They experienced loss of livelihood when their abaca plants where eradicated due to “bugtok”. Then came financial losses due to typhoons, foremost of which, was Yolanda. The losses were not only to production but also to soil fertility, which contributed to the low market value of products.

Sir Jim: Give example of a topic for your blog...

We: Extension...

Sir Jim: Extension of what?

We: It's what we do...

Funny but this happened during our training on blogging and photography with our resource person Mr. Jaime Ramon 'Jim' Paredes of Apo Hiking Society. We were used to having resource persons who are familiar with what we do that we just assumed the rest would also know, which include Sir Jim.

Nonetheless, let me tell many others who don't know who we are and what we are.

In my blog "Life according to Jim", one of the life lessons I mentioned was 'be accident prone'. I was thinking when would it happen to me, until I read "Not Once But Twice" did I realize that it already did. Photography always fascinates me ever since I can remember. I always look for ways of improving what little I know of this craft. Since I don't have any formal training on photography, I never entertained joining any photography contests.

Recently I assisted the Regional Farm Family Forum (RFFF) in Calbayog City on May 22-23, 2013. Since ATI started conducting RFFF, orientation on e-Extension has always been a part of the affair. This year's orientation, just like in the last three (3) years, was doing well with the usual queries from the audience. However, I was taken aback when a 4-H'er from Biliran province asked, "In your own perception, do you think the e-Extension Program made significant impact in the lives of the farmers?" That was hard. While thinking for an answer, I saw Sir Mike raised his hand to my relief.