THE Department of Agriculture-Special Area for Agricultural Development (DA-Saad) program has conducted a technical training on coffee production and free-range native chicken raising to capacitate members of a farmers association on proper management on coffee and native chicken.
The one-day training was held Wednesday, November 25, 2020, and the participants are the 60 members of Nacibac Mountainside Farmers Association in Nacibac village, Leon Postigo, Zamboanga del Norte.
Saad Local Area Coordinator Marisol Opinio said the training is aimed to equip farmers with knowledge on proper management on coffee and native chicken, “so as to ably sustain their livelihood projects for income and job generation.”
George Vallente, high-value crop development program expert, who served as resource speaker, discussed related topics on Coffee Production Management, such as the coffee plantation establishment, plantation care and maintenance and harvest and post-harvest operations.
Danilo Busca, municipal livestock technician, presented a lecture on native chicken raising and management.
Opinio said the association was supposed to receive a swine-raising project, however, because of the increasing concerns of African Swine Fever (ASF), they decided to provide free-range native chicken raising project instead.
The Nacibac Mountainside Farmers Association is one of the beneficiaries of the DA-Saad program since 2017 and have benefited from livelihood projects on upland rice pproduction, white and yellow corn production, swine raising and vegetable production.
This year, they received 6,666 coffee seedlings and 60 bags of complete fertilizer for their communal project.
The farmers association is also scheduled to receive 170 heads of male and 16 heads of female native chickens, as well as 35 bags of poultry feeds on December 4. (SunStar Zamboanga)