Farm Partner and YIPOA Interns sign the legal document that outlines the terms and details of a partnership agreement together with Mary Ann A. Ramos, Center Director; Jeflor L. Dela Cruz, Regional Organic Agriculture Focal Person; and Rosvel R. Sistorias, Acting Accountant all from ATI Region 6.
BANGA, Aklan – In support of uplifting the role of youth in organic agriculture, ATI Region 6, DA-Regional Field Office VI, and DA-National Organic Agriculture Program sign the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) of the Youth Internship Program Organic Agriculture (YIPOA) on June 25, 2024, at ATI Training Hall, ASU Compound.
Ms. Ramos expresses her words of challenge to both farm partners and YIPOA Interns.
Mary Ann A. Ramos, ATI Region 6’s Center Director, supported the YIPOA, especially the farm partners and interns/grantees. She highlighted the importance of MOA as a legal document that outlines the terms and conditions and pertinent details that bind the partnership agreement. She also challenged the interns to finish the said program and apply the technologies they learned from the farm partners.
Engr. Almario T. Senoro, Owner of Senoro Green Farm, Inc., confers the role of farm partners to YIPOA Interns, especially on technology sharing.
“We need to develop our values as farm partners and apply the technologies to our business so that our interns can adopt them and implement them in their farming communities. Our mission is to help our communities by sharing science-based information and technologies with the farmers,” said Engr. Almario Senoro during his response to the challenge.
The concerned agencies conducted the pre-deployment program orientation last June 7, 2024, at DA-RFO VI, WESVIARC, Jaro, Iloilo City. Before the signing of the MOA, a total of 10 interns and six farm partners underwent pre-internship training for two weeks.
In his closing remarks, Vianney T. Ojerio, ATI Region 6’s OIC-Assistant Center Director/Senior Agriculturist, said, “There will be two weeks of pre-internship that served as your chance to acclimatize with interns and farm partners. I hope you have known each other well because today marks the start of your journey together for up to two years. With this successful activity, we can now officially declare the start of YIPOA Batch 2 in Western Visayas.”
YIPOA is a highly specialized internship program that aims to capacitate young farmers who will contribute to attaining food sovereignty by ensuring the availability of healthy agricultural produce and products grown, raised, and developed in a healthy and safe environment. This program instills and develops the trainees an appreciation for organic agriculture and adopts it as their source of living in the fullness of time. In addition, it promotes activities that suit the likes and interests of the youth, exposing them to successful farms and letting them explore modern farming practices and technologies.
The said program will run from June 2024 until February 2026.
Okay sa OA: Bright smiles draw in the faces of Farm Partners and YIPOA Interns after signing the MOA with Ms. Ramos, Ms. Ojerio, and Ms. Dela Cruz from ATI Region 6.
