by Ruel Orinday., PIA-Quezon July 6, 2019 LUCENCA CITY, Quezon - Around 20 local media practitioners from Cavite and Quezon province atte...
July 6, 2019
LUCENCA CITY, Quezon - Around 20 local media practitioners from Cavite and Quezon province attended the two day farm tour dubbed as“Activate: Linking Media in Promoting Organic Agriculture in CALABARZON” on June 24-25, 2019.
The farm tour for media was initiated by the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) of the Department of Agriculture (DA)-4A which aims to promote organic agriculture in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.
Among the farms visited by the media in Cavite were Luntiang Republika Ecofarms in Alfonso, Cavite; Rerra Verde Ecofarm in Maragondon, Cavite; and Terra Verde Ecofarm also in Cavite while in Laguna, farms visited were Graco Farms in Pila, Laguna; Forest Wood Garden in San Pablo City; and Ato Belen’s farm also in San Pablo City.
Eduardo Cleofe, owner of the two hectare Luntiang Republika Ecofarms shared his knowledge and expertise in operating his farm particularly in crops and livestock production including organic farming to the visiting media practitioners.
Cleofe also thanked other farm owners in promoting agri-sites in CALABARZON. Meanwhile, Mr. Joel Frago, owner of Forest Wood Garden farm in San Pablo City who promotes organic agriculture and agri-tourism also shared his knowledge and skills in operating their ‘farm to table’ concept which promotes culinary farm tourism.
“We commit ourselves to natural farming practices and our mission is to build a community which produces safe and quality food for the people,” Frago said.
Joel and his wife Myrna are also the owner of the Forest City restaurant in San Pablo City which sells organic food.
“With the hopes and vision to bring forest in every city, we would like to use the restaurant as a platform where we encourage people to eat natural healthy food,” Frago said.
Frago decided to resign from being an OFW for almost 12 years to becoming a farmer due to his interest in farming.
Meanwhile, other fronline services of ATI includes training services, accreditation of extension service providers, certification of learning site for agriculture and school for practical agriculture, provision of extension grants and scholarship programs, provision of farm and business advisory services among others.
ATI-4A also support the initiatives of extension agencies to forge linkages with other agencies, to reach more clients and stakeholders, and address issues affecting the delivery of extension services.
The ATI-4A has accredited extension service providers, these are private groups composed of NGOs, people’s organization and other private organizations currently doing agricultural training and extension work.
To help undertake such task, ATI also provides funds to ESPs for their training and extension activities for the clientele. (Ruel Orinday-PIA-Quezon)
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