For local farmers, SM Foundation hosts training

CEBU, Philippines - Eyed to provide sustainable development to the lives of Filipino farmers, a three months Farmer's Training will be conducted in Brgy. Babag,Cebu to benefit marginalized farmers from eight farming communities in the province.

Funded and spearheaded by the SM Foundation, Inc. under its “Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan” program, the 90 days which will consist 10 sessions of field school will impart developmental and sustainable farming techniques to around 120 farmer beneficiaries that will also help them improve their yields, said SM Foundation Inc. project director Christie S. Angeles.

She said that Cebu City is the 11th site chosen to host their “Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan” field school program and they expect to also achieve solid, sustainable and long term partnership with their farmer beneficiaries.

Angeles explained that their project's advocacy is to help alleviate marginal farmers from poverty by providing them easier access to a wider consumer market as well as to increase their yield and crop value to earn more profit.

She said that aside from corroborating with SM Supermarkets, Hypermarkets and Savemore outlets, they are also under negotiations with other institutions that could be tapped as buyers for the produce of heir farmer beneficiaries.

She said that the foundation will serve as a conduit to help these farmers to gain more access to the bigger market.

In this program SM Foundation is also partnering with the Cebu City local government as well as Harbest Agribusiness Corp. who will provide the technological support and the trainers for the field school.

 Its president Arsenio Barcelona said that they will provide farmer beneficiaries with the inputs that are necessary for their training such as the technology and seedlings.

He said that simultaneous with their trainings, farmer beneficiaries can duplicate the inputs they will learn from the field school to their backyards as they will also be provided with seedlings so that after graduating in the three-month training, they can sell their produce and transact with potential clients in a buyer's forum.

The field training will provide trainings on fertilization, pest and disease control, record keeping and accounting, post harvest practices and marketing.

The SM Foundation's “Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan” Farmer's Training program was initiated in Bacolod last May 2007 and now it has already been rolled out to other farming areas in the country such as Cavite, Quezon, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Bulacan, Batangas, Naga and soon it will be pushed in Benquet, Iloilo and Davao.

"Slowly, the program is creating a ripple effect because local government units and other institutions are replicating it and most often farmer trainees become trainers themselves. The bottom-line really of the project is to sustain and develop profitable farmers so that they can also achieve success in their livelihood," said Barcelona.

The 90 days Farmer's Training to be conducted in Brgy. Babag will start next week and it will utilize a 5,000 square meters demo farm where farmer beneficiaries can train to grow high valued crops like broccolis, cucumbers, cauliflowers, red lady papayas, cherry tomatoes and unique vegetable varieties that are in demand in the supermarkets, said Barcelona.