PILI, CamSur – How to produce quality vegetables without the use of inorganic fertilizer or chemical insect repellant while at the same time preserving a healthy environment was recently the focus of specialized training of some 50 vegetable farmers from Barangay La Purisima, Pili.
Dubbed Organic Vegetable Production, the objective of the program is to train local vegetable producers on various stages of vegetable production including pests and diseases prevention and control management that would contribute immensely to a much efficient and improved growth of the vegetables as well as other high value commercial crops (HVCC) .
If there is a Farmer Field School for rice farmers, there is also a Farmer Field School for vegetable producers as what transpired at La Purisima, Pili which focused on new technology that does not use chemical repellants but utilizes indigenous materials to drive away harmful insects from the vegetable plantations.
The FFS was a combination of lectures and actual field demonstration conducted at the experimental site on what have been previously discussed in the classroom.
The said activity is fully supported by Gov. LRay Villafuerte along his thrust towards the attainment of food security and to provide the constituents an alternative income.
The activity was spearheaded by the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Unit 5(DAR-RFU5), Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) and Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) of the provincial government in cooperation with LGU- Pili.
The resource speakers of the training were the Training Management Team on High Value Commercial Crops (HVCC) of the OPA .
FFS for vegetable production will also be conducted in some other municipalities of the province to train local vegetable producers to come up with an efficient and improved growth of vegetables.
Some of the vegetables planted during the eight sessions period of training were ampalaya, squash, lettuce, pole sitao, cucumber, bell pepper, as well as watermelon. LAGavino/SNieves-MMEC
