As the capacity builder of the DA, the Regional Training Center of the Agricultural Training Institute in The Cordillera conducted three batches of training on “Writing a Winning Project/Training Proposal” with 81 Agricultural Extension Workers total participants held at the Dam-muh-han Hall, ATI-RTC-CAR, BSU Compd., La Trinidad, Benguet on March 14-16 and 21-23, respectively.
This course is vital in the preparation of project proposals that they can propose to funding agencies. The project officer, Ms. Jam Balingan emphasized in her overview that most of the Agriculture Offices of the Local Government Units of the Cordillera Region have to source-out funds to finance the needs of their farmers due to lack of funds allotted for agriculture. She said that AEWs work directly with the farmers and have the firsthand observation of their needs. She acknowledged and observed that project proposals submitted at the Center need more polishing and coaching for a more presentable one.
Ms. Jam Balingan discussed the Values-to-live-by relative to Gender and Development advocacy, the Training Design Preparation, and Project Proposal Preparation while Mr. Edmund Benavidez discussed the Project Proposal Preparation; Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies, Project Identification, Goal Setting, Macro-micro Screening, Matching Person with the Project, Marketing/Production/Negotiation/ Management, Collaborative Strategies and Competition, Introduction and Components of Business Plan.
On the third day of the training, each participant was able to defend their project proposal with the resource persons together with the Partnership and Accreditation Services Section Commodity Focal in the person of Dr. Cristine B. Esnara, HVCDP Focal and Ms. Maribeth Laduan, Livestock Focal as the panel of experts. Participants were encouraged to impart their comments, observations, and suggestions.
Impressions of participants by batch were drawn as follows:
“For me as a starter, 3-days to prepare a proposal is not enough. Yet, I have learned a lot in preparing one. I realized how important it is to know what the project is all about and what the problem is all about” from Catrina Pachico – Luna, Apayao of batch 1.
“Thank you for this opportunity because my knowledge of making project/training proposals was enhanced. I learned that we could include tagline words on the training or project proposal title to easily attract and catch the attention of the sponsors and target participants. Also, I’ve learned that a concept note is important because it summarizes the content of the project proposal. For the resource speakers and co-participants, thank you so much for the knowledge and insights that you have shared.” From Ms. Adeline, Tindaan, Lagawe, Ifugao of batch 2.
“I am really thankful that we are included in this training. For me, I really don’t have experience yet in preparing a project proposal. I am also just a new entrant of LGU-Tineg and I believe there are lots still for me that I have to learn. Hence, this training is very vital for me and I have learned a lot from the discussion and sharing of ideas. Thank you very much.” Queenlet Ortega, AT-Tineg, Abra of batch 3.
This training is the third phase of training courses under the Training Program on Extension Delivery Service Enhancement. Prior to this, the AEWs have undergone the course on Extension Delivery Systems for them to capacitate on the world of extension – which is the first phase. The second phase is the Community Needs Assessment which capacitated them on the tools and skills of conducting needs assessment and enable them to come up with a bottoms-up identification of needs as a basis for extension interventions. The fourth phase concerns the delivery of topics thus they need to be capacitated on Resource Person Development Course and be able to conduct a training activity thus they need to be capacitated on the world of training – The Training Management Course which is the last phase.
