At the turnover of seedlings are Harbest President Barcelona, DSWD Region 3 Director Adelina Apostol, SM Olongapo PR Officer Neth Mortel, SM Foundation AVP Angeles and Municipal Agriculture Office OIC Ramon Dolojan.
PHOTO BY JOHNNY R. REBLANDO
BOTOLAN, Zambales – The SM Foundation, Inc., in partnership with the Municipal Agriculture Office here,
the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) provincial office and Harbest Agribusiness Corp.
launched the three-month “Kabalikat Sa Kabuhayan” Farmers Training (KSK-FT) Program, at Sitio Duhok, Purok 1, Bancal, Wednesday morning.
Batch 61 consisting of 150 farmer-scholars from 19 barangays in this municipality participate in the training program to further equip them with high technology know-how on effective ways of producing high yielding fruits and vegetables.
SM Foundation Inc., Assistant Vice President Cristie S. Angeles said SM Foundation, the socio-civic arm of the SM Group of Companies, launched this program in 2007 to help farmers improve their economic condition through better yields of high quality and healthy vegetables and fruits.
The KSK-FT program is much like backyard farming, only it is enhanced by new technology to increase yield results, she said. “We need to dream, and make this dream a reality. We have to grab opportunities and this training program is an opportunity to improve the lives of our farmers and their families,” she added.
“It is a 12-step program that teaches farmers seed culture and propagation, irrigation, fertilizer application, pruning, and safe farming among other skills,” said Arsenio Barcelona, president of Harbest Agribusiness Corp.
SM Foundation provides the scholarship fund for teaching paraphernalia, food and planting implements. Harbest will provide technical support and trainors on high technology farming, while DSWD personnel will teach the participants on capability building and money management, Barcelona said.
About 20 types of hybrid crops including onion and garlic, will be transplanted and monitored on a half-hectare demo farm in Barangay Bancal during the training period. Training starts on January 22 and harvest season
on April 2014.
Meanwhile, Botolan Mayor Doris Maniquiz lauded the efforts of SM companies in helping alleviate the economic condition of farmers through introduction of the new farming technology.
