Pantawid beneficiaries get urban farmer training

CEBU, Philippines - About a hundred Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries from Cebu City barangays participated in the Kabalikat sa Kabuhayan program, an urban farmer's training program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in joint partnership with the SM Foundation Inc.

These barangays include Duljo Fatima, Mambaling, Carreta, Inayawan, Cogon Pardo, Apas, Zapatera, Suba and Busay.

The said program, according to DSWD-7 information officer Aileen Lariba, includes 12 sessions of training which will be conducted within three months. It includes planning, seed sowing, seedling nursery design, trellising and on to harvesting the fruits of their labor.

The training program modules, she added, will use the dual-tech-system-technical briefing and actual hands-on field practice for each session on various project sites identified by the SM Foundation for the beneficiaries.

Lariba reiterated that the said program is a project of the SM Foundation, Inc., and DSWD's Sustainable Livelihood Program for the Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries to have various options towards self-sufficiency.

Lariba added that the training on improved and double agriculture technology, through Harbest Agribusiness Corporation in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture (DA), is among the identified strategies of the program.

However, Lariba said that the sustainability of the program in the urban setting depends on the local government's support.

Lariba stressed that the Cebu City government was not hesitant in providing ample support to the program as they allotted a small unused area in reclamation and made it into a vegetable garden.

Lariba said that the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a social development program that aims to reduce poverty through the conditional cash transfer program. — (FREEMAN)