In the town of San Vicente, there is an abandoned jailhouse, with nine hectares of land, which is now a farm school which helps address food sufficiency in the city of Catbalogan.
Science teacher Archimedes Fabellar teaches high school students to become professional farmers by honing their skills, knowledge and attitude about the land.
Through the help of Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), the Catbalogan comprehensive national high school (CCAIS) is now closely reaching its vision of becoming a centre of excellence in farming in the Eastern Visayas.
CCAIS is now making its operations sustainable so it does not rely so much on government funds. It has a demonstration farm with a vermi-composting area and chicken coop, where students can apply the skills they learned in the classroom. The school is also starting to build a livestock farm, focusing on hogs, cows, and carabaos.
CCAIS currently delivers close to 15 trays of brown eggs every day. The income is used to purchase feeds for the school’s animals, and for mass produce blue ternate (or butterfly pea flower) for a high-end farm in Leyte. This year, SCB is turning over four agribusinesses to 41 (from the first batch of SHS graduates in April) students to help them become young agri-preneurs (Seen in photo).