TWENTY Senior High School and Elementary School teachers have undergone a two-day training on School Gardening and Vegetable Production–Gulayan sa Paaralan Program (GPP) conducted by the Department of Agriculture (DA)-Zamboanga Peninsula.
The two-day training was held from Tuesday, September 28, until Wednesday, September 29 in Zamboanga City through DA-Zamboanga Peninsula’s High-Value Crops Development Program (HVCDP).
Albert Cuadra, DA-Zamboanga Peninsula HVCDP report officer, said the training aims to capacitate teachers with the appropriate knowledge on vegetable production.
In turn, they will be able to share the skills they learned with their fellow teachers, who were not able to attend the training, and also to their respective students, according to Cuadra.
He noted that because of the current situation, vegetable or backyard gardening has become a priority for every household, and “as the teachers have emphasized, it is an easy source of fresh and nutritious food that everyone can have at the tip of their hands if one will have the initiative and effort to plant.”
Cuadra provided the participants with the rationale of the training and discussed the topic of vegetable production, which covers several subtopics on how to establish a school garden.
The teacher-participants were also enlightened on other topics such as Edible Landscaping and Bio-Intensive Gardening, Pest/Diseases and its Management, Natural Farming Technology System, Vermicomposting, Urban Gardening, Crop Museum, and Seed production by resource persons Erwin Rodriguez and Daryl Cagape, both Field Operations Division staff; Marie Fe Surdiaz of DA-San Ramon Research Station; and, Jonathan Caguiat of the City Agriculturist Office.
During the closing ceremony, Arnulfo Estrada, agricultural program coordinator, challenged the teachers to uphold what they have learned from the two-day training and implement it in their respective schools.
“With all the assistance and efforts provided by DA, it is expected that a positive result on the part of the teachers will be realized in the days to come,” Estrada said.
Each of the teacher-participants received three packs of vegetable seeds, a water sprinkler, shovel, bolo, seedling tray, and molasses for their fermentation process after the training. (SunStar Zamboanga)