THE Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (Opav) in partnership with Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco) in Taiwan launched the “Vegetable Farm Season-Long Training for Cebu Farmers” in Barangay Buot, Cebu City on May 5.

The partnership between Opav and Meco aims to train farmers from the mountain barangays in Cebu City to harvest more produce so they could earn more.

Farmers from Buot-Taup, Pung-ol Sibugay, Bonbon and Babag will undergo training with the latest technology from the ministry of agriculture of Taiwan.

Present during the launching were Meco chairman and resident representative Angelito “Lito” Banayo and Opav Sec. Michael Lloyd Dino.

Banayo said he had no prior knowledge that there are farmers in Cebu City.

When he knew about it, he immediately asked Taiwan’s agriculture ministry to share its farming practices to Cebuano farmers.

A team from Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute together with their technicians will visit Cebu on June 28 to start the training.

The farmers and Meco officials decided the date of the training to make sure that there will be water supply available.

The free training, which is supported by the Office of the President, will run for six weeks and farmers will have one session per week.

Dino thanked Meco for extending its help to the farmers of Cebu City.

He said the training is a start in increasing the income of the farmers in the mountain villages. The program will be extended to the other parts in the Visayas if it is successful in Cebu City.