The Department of Agriculture – Regional Field Office 8 (DA-RFO 8) conducted a capability building on enterprise development for local agriculture offices of Southern Leyte on October 3-5, 2022 in Macrohon, Southern Leyte.

 

The three-day activity spearheaded by the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division (AMAD) aimed to capacitate the municipal agriculturists and agricultural technicians from the different local government units inSouthern Leyte, including the Provincial Agricultural Services Office in providing technical assistance to farmers and stakeholders in terms of enterprise development.

 

Mr. Francisco D. Ocado, Supervising Agriculturist gave the overview of the activity where he highlighted that it is part of the Sagip Saka Act, which was signed into law by President Duterte in 2019 establishing the "Farmers and Fisherfolk Enterprise Development Program."

 

He added that the activity will help the local government units as frontliners in local agricultural development to be more responsive to the farmers’ needs. The activity can help them coach their farmer groups in decision making and marketing their produce, as well as in availing government financing and credit assistance.

The Agribusiness Promotion Section of the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division served as resource persons. Among the topics which were tackled include prioritization of commodity, enterprise or partner group, entrepreneurial mindsetting, marketing strategies, organizational management, business planning, among others.

 

Afterwards, a workshop was conducted to let the participants apply and assess their learnings. They were tasked to craft a business plan of a commodity which have a potential in the province. During the output presentation, AMAD provided some inputs and recommendations for the extension workers to fully familiarize the process. ###