Baybay City, Leyte — Women and youth from various provinces in Eastern Visayas gained essential knowledge and skills on organic agriculture, health, environment, and livelihood during the “OALevelUp: Kababaihan at Kabataan para sa Kalusugan, Kalikasan at Kabuhayan (5Ks)” training. The program equipped participants to implement organic, healthy, environment-friendly, and income-generating agricultural initiatives in their communities.
A total of 25 participants, composed of 14 Agricultural Extension Workers (AEWs) and 11 farmers, actively engaged in modules covering the Philippine government’s role in food security, Joint Memorandum Circular 1 series 2021, organic agriculture technologies, the 5Ks program framework, communal garden viability, and basic financial management for gardens. Hands-on workshops were conducted, e-Learning on Basic Urban Gardening was completed, and re-entry plans were prepared to implement and share the program in participants’ communities. Eleven licensed agriculturists earned 6.50 CPD units for their participation.
Participants expressed appreciation for the training. Cristine Mirasol said, “This training on 5Ks is very good… we learned a lot, especially on how to implement it. What we learned will be shared in our municipality because it will greatly help our community.”
Youth farmer Joe Boy Oprin noted, “Through this training, we learned what the 5K program is and what it contains, so we should pass this on to our communities… This is to provide safe and healthy food for our communities. We also hope to share this with the youth in schools in our municipality, as the saying goes, ‘from Roots to Riches,’ from the very basic level until it grows.”
Maribeth M. Solayao added, “Even though I am just a farmer, I was able to keep up with everyone. When we return to our area, we will apply what we learned to further improve organic farming in our community. Many thanks to everyone.”
The training was held from September 29 to October 3, 2025, at ATI-RTC 8, VSU, Baybay City, Leyte, under the program title “OALevelUp: Kababaihan at Kabataan para sa Kalusugan, Kalikasan at Kabuhayan (5Ks).”
