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Cataag Compound, San Joaquin St., Ormoc City, Leyte, Philippines 6541
Tels. 63-053-255-3516 & 63-053-560-6441; Email: [email protected]

PFI's Sustainable Agriculture Project

The last batch of farmer trainees from Brgys. Gaas and Liberty listen to LSU Prof. Vic Asio explain soil science. Asio heads the same department at the Leyte State University in Baybay, Leyte. THE Project on sustainable agriculture started on November 2005 but the trainings began in earnest only in February 11 after we were able to screen the first batch of farmer trainees. Supported by a one-year grant from the British Embassy, the project involves the training of 10 farmer-ccoperators from each of the six upland barangays in Ormoc. These are Milagro, Lake Danao, Cabingtan, Gaas, Liberty and Mahayag. The topics being discussed included such issues as farm economics, environmental impact of present farming practices, soil erosion and contour farming, organic farming, biological control of pests and farming systems. PFI's resources are selected professors of the Leyte State University (formelty ViSCA) of Baybay, Leyte. They are Profs. Efren Saz, Buenaventura Dargantes, Bimbo Mandras, Victor Asio and Alfredo Escasinas. Most of the participants in this last batch are women. When queried, the women asnwered, "But we are also farmers." The trainings involve selected farmers from the upland villages of Milagro, Lake Danao, Gaas, Liberty, Kabengtan and Mahayag. The First batch of trainees is composed of 20 participants. Half of them are selected from Brgy Milagro, Ormoc City, and the rest are from Brgy. Lake Danao Ormoc City. All participants undergo 5 sessions of Organic Farming Training. The training is scheduled every Friday. Farming is the main source of income of all the participants. After the profiling and survey of the farm of the participants, It was found out that a few of them are now practicing the organic method of farming, such as, the use of different animal manure, dried leaves, spraying with the use of hot pepper and planting of different crop varieties in one area or what we call the multi-cropping system. Others are practicing contour farming. As of now most of the participants are using inorganic fertilizer such as the 14-14-14 (complete fertilizer) and urea. They also use pesticides/Fungicides such as Wonder, Steward, Bushwack, Antracol, Karate, Biogold, etc. Taking samples of the soil in the farm and examining samples they brought from their own farms were also part of the lessons learned by the group. All three batches of trainees went through similar courses and learning experiences.

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