Central Philippines State University asserts unremitting commitment to support agriculture through responding to the most crucial challenges of rural farmers in the countryside especially in these dire times as they have been hit hard by the pandemic.
University initiatives are hinged on extension activities for farmer associations that tout viable programs with life-changing impacts for these marginal sectors of the community.
Recently, another farmer organization known as the Lukay Bantolinawon Small Farmers’ Association or LUBUSFA at Brgy. Camingawan, Kabankalan City, has benefited from the support of the University through technology-transfer and innovative agro-training and services.
With an initial total of 35 members, they were the identified participants of the Farmers’ Field School or FFS spearheaded by the College of Agriculture and Forestry (CAF) - Extension Unit entitled, “Season-long FFS on Organic Crops and Livestock Production” which had kicked-off on the first week of April, 2021. This 16-week training aims to capacitate farmers on practical, climate-suitable, and efficient crop and livestock practices to accelerate agriculture transformations in the local community.
Part of the said training was the needs assessment survey to facilitate assistance for the solution of their long-standing problem which is on the hardly accessible water supply in their area.
According to the locals, they have been dealing with this dilemma for over 50 years already wherein women and children had to traverse the treacherous 1 km path going to the river, not to mention the risks it would cost in trudging the very steep and narrow path leading to the said location. For a very long time, the river had been their source of water for domestic use, serving as their drinking water, as well as for food preparation, hygiene, and other household use, including farming needs.
This difficult condition has immensely hampered their livelihood development, and even placed their health and safety at stake.
Having learned their incessant plea for assistance in addressing this problem, the CAF team, headed by Sir Jundel Gonzaga as the trainer, conducted a training on “Solar-Powered Water Pumping System for Small Irrigation and Household Use” together with “Adopt and Grow a Tree Program” as a trade-off for the greening advocacy of the University last June 17-19, 2021. After the training, the actual installation followed.
For the community, having accessible and abundant supply of drinking water close to their homes is a huge relief and help to them especially to the women and children who had been constricted with the burden of fetching water for a long time.
The said activity was in collaboration with the Community and Extension Services Office, Gender and Development Program and the College of Engineering.
CPSU president Dr. Aladino Moraca stated that the bottom line of all these activities extended to the community is to create a food-secure and resilient farmers through sustainable inputs to provide agro-innovations and technical assistance for poverty reduction and increased productivity.
“The intervention initiatives we deliver to the community through our extension services have been in the pipeline of the University to assist local farmers for a more sustainable farming schemes to secure and further raise agriculture productivity and increase rural income,” Dr. Moraca further explained.
This, among the many other extension activities conducted by the University, aims to bring sustainable impacts to the lives of the people and serve as a significant mechanism to eliminate rural poverty in the countryside.
By: J.A. Emoy
Source: M. Pedrosa
Photo: M. Pedrosa and F. Gonzaga