(A total of 210 participants joined the KSK Batch 198 launch. Contributed Photo)
SM FOUNDATION INC. (SMFI) launches its Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan (KSK) Farmers Training Program, a 12- week hands-on technology training on high value crops, fruits and vegetables as well as rural and urban farming, together the DA, DSWD, LGU and training provider Harbest Agribusiness Corporation in Tarlac City Hall on February 27, 2019.
“We are thankful to SM for initiating this program and that the farmers and 4P’s farmers of Tarlac City are the chosen benefi ciary”, said Tarlac City Agriculturist Susan Concepcion. She also recalled that this is the second time that SM has chosen Tarlac City as its beneficiary.
This is the second batch of farmers and 4P’s to join KSK in the city, sixth in the whole province and 198th in the entire country since the inception of the project. The batches were held respectively in the following areas: Brgy. Kapehan, Tarlac City in 2011; Victoria in 2013; Sta. Ignacia in 2015; Bamban in 2016; Paniqui in 2018; and Brgy. San Manuel, Tarlac City for this year.
The participants will undergo a comprehensive course in production of high-value crops with lectures and activities to experience the actual challenges of farming. They are divided into groups consisting of members from different barangays and each group is assigned to certain crops.
The sessions include Land & Seedling Preparation; Composting & Fertilizer Preparation; Transplanting, Farm Management; Trellising, Control of Pests and Plant Diseases; Crop Maturity; Proper Harvesting; Values Formation- Capacity Building (c/o DSWD); Financial Literacy in cooperation with BDO; and Sustainability Forum/Workshop, which aims to help participants in learning more important guidelines in program cropping, production planning, goal setting, marketing and sustainability. Stakeholders inform participants what their agency can do to help. All inputs will be used as a tool in preparing the farmer group’s sustainability plan towards the end of the course. Since the first graduation of the KSK Program at SM City-Bacolod in February 2007, KSK has evolved into one of the pillars of the SMFI’s CSR Programs.
Since 2007, the KSK Program has graduated more than 19,000 small farmers, agribusiness entrepreneurs, and agriculturists from the Local Government Units (LGU). The program has covered 155 sites all over the country where SM stores are located. It is SM’s way of giving back to the communities it serves. It has developed more than 5,000 small farmers into self-sufficient families, earning their living from the vegetables and the fruits they produce from their lands. Several of them have indirectly become regular suppliers of SM while majority earn from the local markets they serve.
