From frustration to action. This is the focus of our latest edition of LUGAS newsletter. Our cover story features Mr. Genovivo “Bong” Cajes, whom after years of exhausting life in the corporate arena, shifted his path and now enjoys a rewarding life as a farmer and entrepreneur.
After many setbacks and challenges, with ATI XI’s financial aid and technical guidance, Mr. Cajes was able to turn his frustration into passion. Currently, the “Macatabo Farm” is a proud Good Agricultural Practices-compliant. It is located in Baguio District, Davao City and is home to freshly produced vegetables together with dairy and non-dairy products.
Apparently, his previous experience is similar to us with Covid-19 pandemic which is far from over. Frustrations remain as the pandemic continues to threaten food security and causing economic blow to farmers.
Now, more than ever, extension is instrumental in fostering agricultural communities’ resilience and recovery through rapid and effective sharing of vital farming knowledge and skills. As extension agents, this season have required us to rise to the situation and answer the call to action. Thus, we continually provide trainings and other support services to our clients to benefit rural communities.
Likewise, this issue features our trainings and seminars in face to-face and online set-ups. Most of the trainings are not only production-oriented but also introduced proactive business opportunities as key to economic growth and sustainability among small farmers.
Though faced with many restrictions, we will also highlight how we succeeded in reaching to more than 11,000 farmers to enrol for School-on-the-Air. As a result, we are proud to have brought ATI Davao Region to the forefront as we were awarded the “Best SOA Implementer” for 2021. This award belongs to our partners in extension who helped us fulfil our mandate.
For over two years, the pandemic have forced us to move with apparent limits while serving the general interests of our farmers. Yet, we have taken advantage of the situation that leads us to solid outcomes.
Considering that, we must create agricultural extension programs that continue to operate seamlessly in a crisis as future disease outbreaks are likely to re-occur.
From strengthening broad set of capacities of our partners to introducing the right tools and channels for tailored agricultural developments, a lot of important events and stories covering 2021 are prepared for you. We hope you will find inspiration from our stories, as they highlight action and passion as the engines behind driven extension efforts.
