A group of 23 farmers from Cebu are now ready to run their own agribusiness after graduating from the Farm Business School of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Farmer-members of the Tubod Farmers’ Association (TUFA) gained new skills, both in farming and knowledge on basic agricultural business like management and basic accounting, after the training initiated by DAR-Cebu.
DAR-Cebu Chief Agrarian Reform Program Officer (CARPO) for Program Beneficiaries Development Division (PBDD) Lilian B. Guanzon said farming is also a business because they need to manage it to make it profitable and market-driven.
“The DAR implements FBS [farm business school] 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 to the graduates of Barangay Tubod in Sibonga town.
FBS aims to develop agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) to become agricultural entrepreneurs, and it is designed to help farmers learn and improve their knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship and farm business management.
Jona Oro, who is now TUFA’s bookkeeper, said through FBS, they learned the importance of recording all their farm activities so that they could create their farm business plan. She added that with new learning on basic business concepts, she sees the improvement they would have on their farming practices in handling and marketing their farm products.
Evelyn Revilla, one of the graduates and president of the TUFA, said that on behalf of her fellow graduates they would like to thank the DAR for giving them the opportunity to learn about various entrepreneurial skills.
“We will share these new learning with our fellow farmers,” she said.
Among others who attended the graduation ceremony were Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer Liza Toroy, Development Facilitator Serviliano Del Mar of DAR Carcar Cluster, DAR Cebu FBS coordinator Marmee Padul, and other DAR personnel.
