Teachers undergo school gardening, vegetable production training

 By Rene V. Carbayas

 

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Oct 5 (PIA) – Teachers trained on gardening and vegetable production to help train others, too.

 

Because of the present situation, the Department of Agriculture (DA)-9 believes that vegetable or backyard gardening has become a priority for every household, and as the teachers have emphasized it is an easy source of fresh and nutritious food that everyone can have at the tip of their hands if one will have the initiative and effort to plant.

 

Twenty Senior High School and Elementary School teachers benefitted from the DA-9 two-day training on School Gardening and Vegetable Production–Gulayan sa Paaralan Program (GPP) through its High-Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP) on September 28-29, 2021.

 

The training aims to capacitate teachers with the appropriate knowledge on vegetable production, so they, in turn, will be able to share these learned skills with their fellow teachers who were not able to attend the training, and also to their respective students.

 

Albert Cuadra, DA9-HVCDP Report Officer, provided the participants with the rationale of the training and discussed the topic of Vegetable Production which covers several subtopics on how to establish a school garden.

 

The teachers were also enlightened on other topics such as Edible Landscaping and Bio-Intensive Gardening, Pest/Diseases and its Management, Natural Farming Technology System, Vermicomposting, Urban Gardening, Crop Museum, and Seed production by resource persons FOD staff Erwin Rodriguez, FOD staff Daryl Cagape, Marie Fe Surdiaz of DA San Ramon Research Station, and Jonathan Caguiat from the City Agriculturist Office.

 

In his closing message, APCO Arnulfo Estrada posed the challenge to the teachers to uphold what they have learned from the two-day training and implement it in their respective schools.

 

"With all the assistance and efforts provided by DA, it is expected that a positive result on the part of the teachers will be realized in the days to come," Estrada said.

 

After the training, each teacher-participant received three packs of vegetable seeds, a water sprinkler, shovel, bolo, seedling tray, and molasses for their fermentation process. (NBE/RVC/PIA9 with reports from ESN/DA-RFO IX, RAFIS)