Small things contribute to greater things. From a small retail business to the first ever TESDA Training and Assessment Center focusing on agriculture and Extension Service Provider accredited by the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Training Institute in Bataan, Mrs. Angelita “Chambe” Fernando worked very hard for these.
Life After Retirement
Contrary to the belief of many that life after retirement will all be about relaxing and enjoying the fruit of your labor, Mrs. Angelita S. Fernando, also known as “Chambe” by her friends and neighbors, poured her heart and knowledge into helping small-scale farmers. As her retirement as a provincial head of the Department of Labor and Employment in Nueva Ecija was nearing, Chambe started to sell certified palay seeds she bought from Nueva Ecija in
Bataan in her garage.
To educate and encourage the farmers to shift into planting certified palay seeds, Chambe would invite resource persons from different agencies such as PhilRice to conduct a small orientation regarding the benefits and how-to’s of planting and managing certified palay seeds. She later realized the importance and power of educating the farmers about the advantages of purchasing and utilizing certified palay seeds to improve their farm practices, adapting the use of technologies, and enhancing their crops.
Her advocacy to give back to the farmers has strengthened since then which pushed her to dive into a sea of papers to get that final stamp over the name of D’ Planners. Despite her age and the time-consuming process for the legitimization of the center, she attended the necessary training
sessions from different NGAs, reached out to potential investors, and processed the papers to achieve the center that will fulfill her purpose, to help and educate small-scale farmers.
In 2016, all her hard work paid off as the center known now as D’ Planners Training Center Inc. was recognized as the first TESDA training and assessment center in Bataan in the field of agriculture. This helped in the attainment of many more projects to come.
Hand-in-Hand with ATI
Since D’ Planners are garnering more attention and inquiries for training, she then turned a fraction of her land in Pagalanggang, Dinalupihan, Bataan into an on-site training center/farm where different technologies and courses were offered.
D’ Planners was accredited as Extension Service Provider by the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center III (DA-ATI-RTC III), to conduct training for the farmers on their behalf. The center was also recognized as Learning Site for Agriculture in 2018 by the agency mentioned above.
With the support of DA-ATI-RTC III, accommodation facilities that can cater to up to 40 participants with complete comfort rooms, storage for equipment and tools as well as a nursery was established. Additionally, D’ Planners was authorized as a seed grower of rice as part of RCEF’s program Farmer’s Field School (FFS) which aspires to improve the harvesting productivity of rice farmers.
In line with the mandate of ATI, D’ Planners training center also aims to help the farmers to be educated with modern technologies and courses where they can learn ways to increase their profit by shifting into agripreneur. Through this course, they found a hand that will help them
reflect this to the farmers.
“ATI is always guiding us to fulfill our mission as an extension services provider. Ang pagiging service extension provider ay kailangan ay within the standard of ATI or mas higitan mo pa. It is very fulfilling already to receive accreditation from ATI and be accredited as the first ESP training center here in Bataan.” she expressed.
Technologies and Courses Offered
From a small orientation in their garage, D’ Planners Training Center now offers Agricultural Crops Production NC1, Agricultural Crops Production NC1-Mobile Training, Agricultural Crops Production NC II, Agricultural Crops Production NC III, Agro-entrepreneurship NC II, Grains Production NC II, Digital Agriculture Course, and Farmer’s Field School on Production of High- quality Inbred Rice, and Seed Certification, and Farm Mechanization. Some of the technologies developed in D’ Planners Farm/Training Center is the pipeline drip irrigation established through the project of the Department of Agriculture. This project aims to simplify and maximize the use of water by incorporating the fertilizer into their drip irrigation acquired from a reservoir that will be built alongside this. This technology is also planned to be enrolled as a course in TESDA.
D’ Planners has now trained 1, 847 farmer-students and assessed 2, 872 farmers, students, and teachers that earned National Certificates. Chambe reiterated that no amount of achievements written on paper can suffice the amount of fulfillment she feels as an extension service provider that helps the farmers to achieve their fullest potential by guiding and teaching them.
“The fruit of your labor is beyond the achievements written on paper,” she shared. Their graduates were the manifestation of their hard work as some of them were already certified and working overseas among others. To date, they have 8 full-time trainers working in D’ Planners who were also a product of their scholarships. D’ Planners have also worked with Project Israel and Project Yanmar where their farm was appraised to be a model field for high-value crops production using the drip irrigation system.
Paradigm Shift to Modern Farming
For Chambe, enhancing the skills of the farmers by giving them opportunities to receive free knowledge about modern farming technology and methods is crucial in improving their quality of life.
“Our goal is to enhance the skills of the farmers to become a scholar who receives free knowledge about modern farming technology. There are also scholarships available for high-value crops to help them learn the importance and yield of high-value crops. The overall goal of this is to help them have an improved quality of life.” she affirmed.
She believed that with proper education regarding modern farm techniques, technologies, and management, the closer the farmer to achieving the right formula for greater yield.
She shared, “Kapag nakuha mo na yung tamang timpla at technologies sa pagtatanim ng palay, meaning to say the endpoint is a high productive yield. Ganon rin sa pagtatanim ng gulay. If you achieve the right formula there will be high productivity and when there’s high productivity, there is a purchasing power that can be improved that may inspire small-scale farmers to enhance their skill and adopt modern farming methods.” With the combination of adequate knowledge and agricultural technologies, success is guaranteed.
Chambe’s
As D’ Planners progresses in the field of agriculture, Mrs. Angelita’s vision is to consistently provide quality education for farmers to catalyze food security and self-sufficiency among farmers and aspiring farmers. Chambe also mentioned that one of her greatest dreams is to establish a combined training center and farm tourism to be named “Casa Señora/Casa y Señor,” which is a wellness area primarily for senior citizens where a cafe, library, music area, and pick and pay store is located.
As she found the perfect formula for achieving a greater yield, she continually seeks more knowledge and strategies to achieve the greatest dream with her passion for farming, she believes she is getting there, one step at a time.
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