Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) conducted a Training of Trainers (TOT) on crop improvement to deepen farmers' understanding of genetic and hereditary concepts and enhance their skills in breeding and selecting important crops from September 23-27, 2024.
In partnership with Central Philippines State University, the TOT was held at different indoor and outdoor venues in the university and participated by representatives of fifteen (15) farmer associations from the cities of Bago and Kabankalan, Negros Occidental, accompanied by their LGU’s agriculture office representatives.
The resource persons for the five-day training were crop improvement experts, Mr. Eddie Sasi and Mr. Guiller Domingo from SEARICE Mindanao, who gave inputs on methods and techniques for plant breeding and the development of their priority crop varieties through lectures, demonstrations, and fieldwork.
"I am a graduate of Agriculture (major in Plant Breeding and Genetics, minor in Horticulture), so my desire and passion are to help farmers by sharing my knowledge—capacitating and empowering them to be independent of commercialized products. We are not only focusing on the crops mentioned, but we are also advocating for Agroecology to diversify sustainable methods at the disposal of our local farmers and fisherfolks as what we aim to teach ranges from agriculture to aquaculture using resources that are adaptable to their locality,” said Mr. Domingo.
The event commenced with an opening program at the Accreditation Center with the presence of the University President, Dr. Aladino C. Moraca, SEARICE executive director, Normita G. Ignacio, and CPSU Production and Enterprise Development Office Director, Dr. Maryvic P. Pedrosa.
"One of the notable objectives met during this training is that farmers now recognize harmful and beneficial insects found in their fields through the agroecosystem analysis we conducted with them. They were also able to appreciate the use of organic farming methods and abstinence from harmful chemicals in farming to protect beneficial insects that naturally help in our agricultural activities and to ensure that our agricultural products are safe for consumption.
CPSU College of Agriculture and Forestry faculty member, Ms. Jundel Gonzaga also conducted a lecture on alternative animal feeds using locally sourced materials and indigenous plants to produce cost-efficient and nutrient-packed pellets for domesticated farm animal consumption.
SEARICE and CPSU also organized demonstrations and field exercises on data gathering, pollination of priority crops, mass selection, seed rehabilitation, breeding methods, seed handling for storing as plant genetic material, and alternative animal feed creation.
Lastly, the farmers visited the Camingawan-Tagukon Farmers Association (CATAFA) headquarters and farmlands for benchmarking.