Twenty-three Cebuano farmers have graduated from the Department of Agrarian Reform's (DAR) Farm Business School (FBS) in Cebu.
DAR Cebu FBS coordinator Marmee Padul said the graduates from Sibinga town started their program in May and lasted until November due to the pandemic.
The FBS, according to Padul, aims to develop agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) to become agricultural entrepreneurs and is designed to help farmers learn and improve their entrepreneurship and farm business management knowledge and skills.
"The FBS program is led by professional facilitators who are extension workers and farmers with years of expertise. Participants learn by doing as part of a program tailored to their own learning needs and agricultural system," said Padul.
Tubod Farmers Association President Evelyn Revilla, a representative of all her co-graduates, expressed gratitude to DAR for the opportunity that made them understand farming practices, learn various entrepreneurial skills and help them manage their farm produce.
For her part, DAR-Cebu Chief Agrarian Reform Program Officer (CARPO) for Program Beneficiaries Development Division (PBDD) Lilian B. Guanzon, emphasized the importance of farming, saying it is also business which could be profitable if managed well.
“The DAR implements FBS throughout the country, and I challenge you to follow the other graduates who made it and apply the knowledge and skills you learned from the training and transform lands awarded to you into a flourishing business,” said Guanzon.