Forty-Two (42) farmers from various organizations of Tabuk City successfully attended the “3-day Training on Urban Agriculture Batch 2: Training on Farm Entrepreneurship” held on May 7-9, 2024 at Tabuk City, Kalinga.
The training aimed to meet the increasing demand for skilled urban farm entrepreneurs capable of contributing to food security, environmental sustainability, and community development in urban areas. Through the provision of essential knowledge, practical skills, and valuable resources, the training endeavors to empower individuals to become catalysts for positive change within their communities, propelling forward the urban agriculture movement and fostering a more resilient and equitable food system for all.
Mr. Junefri B. Macaranas, Trade and Industry Development Specialist of DTI-Kalinga served as the sole resource person for the course. He shared, simulated, and pointed out examples on agri-entrepreneurial skills as well as insights and experiences on sustainable farming and market strategies. To be more engaging, he uses Farm Entre Games for the participants to easily grasp the topics. He imparted to the participants the following topics: Farming and Production (covering Entrepreneurship, farming as a business, personal development/life planning, planning and budgeting money and time, optimum use of resources, maintaining a positive cash flow, keeping records, farm inventories, farm productivity, and market research); Marketing and Cooperation and Packaging of Products (covering investment options, negotiating with buyers, suppliers, and neighbors, taking initiative in life, supply-demand analysis, preparing contracts, cooperative establishment and management, and credit-selling/buying on account); and Live stocks integration (covering the balance sheet, interpreting financial statements for decision making, break-even analysis, the trial balance, the income statement, and the cash flow statement).
During the closing activity, Mr. Martin O. Omeccas, thanked the Center for organizing the training. He commends the resource person’s method of instruction – through the entre-farm game, he was able to grasp and gain knowledge on entrepreneurial aspects of farming, including identifying opportunities, taking risks, and managing resources to create a successful farming business. The game is an eye-opener for him.
“The training has a fantastic approach of teaching about farming entrepreneurship. Using games and interactive activities indeed can make learning more engaging and memorable especially to us farmers. As a participant, I can say that I have gained knowledge from this activity. It taught us that thorough planning is very essential in the start of any endeavor, especially in farming entrepreneurship. With planning, we can learn from our mistakes.” Expressed Mr. Gill Gambala, member of the Bayanihan Vegetable Association of Tabuk City, Kalinga.
