PATIN-AY, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur – To enhance the knowledge and skills using the available farm products of the community, the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center (ATI-RTC) XIII conducted the Training on Root Crop Food Processing Batch 1 under the Gender and Development on April 26-28, 2023 at Hygeia IntegraMeds Center-FDAI.

This was participated by 20 members of the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) Community in the municipality of Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur.

Topics discussed during the activity were the importance of value-adding, food safety, methods and procedures of food processing. It was explained by Jhoanna G. Garcia, owner of Jabez Farm which is a certified Learning Site for Agriculture (LSA).

Carmela V. Makinano and Clarence A. Malbasias, from the Department of Agriculture – Caraga Region, served as the resource persons for financial analysis, marketing, credit, and cost and return analysis.

Participants were also able to perform their hands-on activity and able to showcase and process two cassava recipes, the cassava balls and pichi-pichi.

“We are very thankful for the new things that we have learned. Through this, our association for the IPs is formed with the help of the Municipal Agriculture Office. We hoped for our association to be productive that could benefit us and the future generation of IPs here in our community,” says Sioly S. Robles, one of the participants and member of the barangay council of Salvacion, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur.

The three-day training was done in partnership with the Municipal Agriculture Office of Prosperidad headed by Municipal Agriculturist Marlita Cortez with Nilo Villamor, the Rural-Based Organization (RBO) focal person.