(Agricultural Training Institute Regional Center director Veronica Concepcion Esguerra congratulates and urges farmers in Tarlac who are beneficiaries of the “SaGOAT Kita! Swak na Pamamaraan sa Paghahayupan!” to continue to strengthen their knowledge and face various challenges on goat farming with strategic advancement and technology. Photo Courtesy of PIA 3)
TARLAC CITY – The “Schoolon-the-Air” program on Goat Production Technology of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) has produced some 514 goat raisers here.
The graduates were part of the “SaGOAT Kita! Swak na Pamamaraan sa Paghahayupan” of the program which includes meat hygiene practices, marketing and value-adding, traits of an agri-preneur, and opportunity assessment and identification.
The participants were from the 17 municipalities and city in the province who took part in 10 episodes of the radio program which featured discussions on goat breeds, animal husbandry, goat selection, breeding and record-keeping, health management, common diseases, nutrition and other relevant topics on goat farming, said ATI Regional Center director Veronica Concepcion Esguerra.
“We hope that through this program, we were able to capacitate farmers on the latest technologies on goat farming to increase their production and apply all the knowledge gained in this farming system,” Esguerra said.
A 71-year-old farmer identified as Jaime Damasco shared his insights on the implementation of the program in behalf of the beneficiaries in the province.
“Through this program we were able to strengthen our knowledge on goat farming especially those who are not that knowledgeable in the industry. It was also relevant because we were oriented on the significant topics, more importantly the proper medication and sanitation,” Damasco said.
“We hope that the government will continue to support the agriculture sector especially those who are starting out in the industry,” he added.
Esguerra said after six months, the ATI will monitor the implementation of the program through the state universities that will conduct the result evaluation in order to see if there are technology adoption, improvement in income and production.