As the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center 02 (ATI-RTC 02) leans toward capacitating stakeholders from production to entrepreneurship, 30 active Rural Improvement Club (RIC) members from various cities and municipalities in Region 2 became trained bookkeepers through the Training on Bookkeeping on March 12-14, 2025 at ATI-RTC 02, San Mateo, Isabela.

In the 3-day training, the RIC members were first introduced to Accounting and the overview of Bookkeeping through Ms. Genevieve C. Reyes, CPA, of the ATI-RTC 02. On the second day, Ms. Mary Rose M. Dumpit, CPA of the Department of Trade and Industry-Isabela then immersed the participants in the steps in using Debit and Credit in recording transactions. An intensive workshop was also conducted for the preparation of basic Financial Statements.

The RIC members also prepared their re-entry plans to properly plot their Knowledge, Sharing and Learning (KSL) activities after the training.

“Ang training na ito ay napakalaking tulong sa akin sa aking konting negosyo, alam ko po na sa natutuhan ko dito ay maaayos ko nang mabuti ang paghandle o pagmanage sa pamamagitan ng natutunan ko dito na pagre-record. Hindi lang po sa pang sarili kong negosyo dahil alam kong mas mapapabuti ko po ang paghawak ko ng record as a treasurer as a RIC sa aming barangay,” said Jesusa Gacusan, RIC member from Diffun, Quirino.

The RIC is one of the Rural-Based Organizations (RBOs) being supported by the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) through its training and other extension intervention.  It has been an active partner of ATI towards farm home resources management, leadership in community, women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship.  Majority of the trained RIC members are now managing income generating activities like food and non-food processing. Some of their enterprises are processed dried fish. They also have nuggets and other processed meat products. Some also process fried, spicy, and sweet peanuts, soya and robust coffee, turmeric tea and turmeric egg, yema, polvoron, cascaron, coco-based bread and pastry, fresh vegetables, and fruits. They also brought their handicrafts, bignay and calamansi wine, taro and banana chips, and tomato chewies.