The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) will train agrarian reform beneficiaries and communities on new farming methods and techniques to help them improve the quality and quantity of their crops.
DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III, in a press statement, said the department has launched intensive training for interested agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs).
Estrella said they are targeting some approximately 7,500 ARBOs nationwide to help in the government’s food security program.
The DAR will coordinate with the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Agriculture Training Institute (ATI)) in mobilizing the ARBOs to establish demonstration farms under the Farm Business School (FBS) project.
The DAR will then evaluate the readiness of ARBOs to face the challenge of increasing food productivity.
DAR Undersecretary Milagros Isabel Cristobal said the FBS is a long-standing project of the DAR where interested members of ARBOs could undergo training on new farming techniques to help them produce more quality crops.
The ARBOs could visit the demonstration farms to learn modern farming methods that they may replicate in their respective farms.
“The idea here is to determine the technical capability and readiness of our ARBOs to develop demonstration farms where fellow, but less technically abled ARBOs can learn from,” Cristobal said.
She said the DAR eyes at least one ARBO in every region all over the country to take the challenge and be among the pioneers of the program.
As a former Abono party-list representative, Estrella expressed high respect for farmers and farmer’s organizations nationwide.
“They have long proven their dependability, by providing food to the people in areas critically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Estrella said.
“I should know because we worked with them to ensure the continued supply of food for our people when operations of the food manufacturing industry practically came to a halt during the pandemic,” he added.
Estrella said one of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directives was to maximize food production in the country. The President is the concurrent DA secretary.
