This was the manifestation of Dannica Jane Ellen Partoza, as she followed the steps of her mother in agriculture. She is the daughter of Helen Alguso, owner of DJE’s Farm, a certified learning site operator of the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center in Region-X (ATI-RTC X) located at Sto. Niño, Tubod, Lanao del Norte.
As a daughter of a farmer, Dannica’s interest in farming was piqued during a school project in her high school year, she was onced tasked to grow plants but all ended up dying. In that event, she believes that she is unfortunate in the field and has no talent in it.
Thus, she took her National Career Assessment Examination(NCAE) with a desired career path of a public servant, research or chemical engineering.
As she got into college, she decided to pursue agriculture the second time around and took up Agribusiness Economics (AgriEcon) in UP Davao. They were handed individual project which involves marcotting a plant that will determine their overall grade. Unfortunately, the plant died, which intensified her desire to pursue agriculture.
In 2019, upon the demise of her father, all of the farm work were left under her mother. Dannica then decided to try pursuing agriculture the second time around, but this time, not on growing plants, but on assisting her mother on farm community engagements and helping farmers. This is where her desire towards agriculture was rekindled again. She attended a Training of Trainers for Rice conducted by ATI in Bukidnon. With the constant reminder of Efren C. Macario, one of the resource persons on the said training and currently Administrative Officer IV, this one training led her to participate in more ATI-initiated trainings.
As her passion for agriculture continued, A civic organization in Tubod, ONEDA, noticed her capability to lead and foresaw her future in agriculture. They designated her as president of 4H club, and later on became 4H vice president of the Province of Lanao del Norte. She also got the opportunity to participate in
Kabataang Agribiz, a DA-lead event for youth and won financial assistance for her Agribiz project which involves vermitea, african night crawlers, and vermi compost. With this turn of events, she gradually helped her mother train other farmers. She worked as a junior trainor on Farmer Field School (FFS) facilitated by her mother and later on was able to facilitate her own training incorporating her skills on statistics and business in agriculture.
Realizing in her heart and mind that agriculture is not only limited to growing plants, she initiated her first project for the youth which is the Online Gulayan Project during the height of the pandemic.
In this project, young people were encouraged to sell farmer’s vegetables online or from their communal garden and in every purchase, a five peso share will be given to the member. The income generated from the project and solicitations were used to procure bond papers, USBs, and radio which was distributed to schools in response to online teaching with the effort to help lessen the burden of the parents.
Today, at the age of 26, she already has 32 members including out of school youths in their barangay 4H club and a total of more than 200 members in the Municipality of Tubod. She have also established 4H Clubs to 17 barangays, encouraging them to register in DOLE, as a way to implement income generating projects. With her influence and leadership, four of her members are pursuing agricultural courses in college and one member coming from her barangay qualified for the Kabataang Agribiz and got a handful of awards.
As she continues her journey in agriculture, she continues to implement a slew of income generating projects for the 4H club, starting from value adding on banana, which is one of the major commodities in the municipality. She looks forward to the future together with honing the youth in agricultural entrepreneurial and livelihood skills. On the other hand, as she is working on incorporating her vermiculture project from her kabataang agribiz to their rice farming, she also intends to share with other farmers the aforementioned technology to address the increasing price of fertilizers.
Despite her discouragements and lack of talent to grow plants, fate has its way to let her involve time and time again in agriculture. She may not have been blessed with a green thumb but she was able to foresee the opportunity to explore other fields of agriculture integrating her expertise as her strength. “Dili tuod kaayo ko maayo sa pag-pananom, pero nag contribute ko sa agriculture sa lain nga pamaagi”, she expressed in the vernacular. “Agriculture is far from my dream job, but the passion and desire through my heart in agriculture is deeper. I may have encountered a lot of setbacks in this path, but nothing compares to the fulfillment I always felt in helping others, especially farmers and their children, that they may have the desire to follow their parent’s footsteps.”, she further said. Indeed, talent does not define your path, desire does.###
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