DOLE holds ‘agri-preneur’ farm visit for OFWs

BAGUIO CITY -- The Dept. of Labor and Employment through its reintegration coordinator Antonette Rosario Ocon and Esmeralda Pocdihon organized a BiyahengAgri-preneur farm visit to the Lily of the Valley Organic Farms in Puguis, La Trinidad and the Benguet State University recently.

DOLE-CAR regional director Henry John S. Jalbuena said BiyahengAgri-preneur is a convergence program between the Dept. of Labor and Employment - National Reintegration Center for OFWs DOLE-NRCO) and Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Training Institute, which provides training, resource persons, and knowledge products to heighten awareness of OFWs and their families on agricultural business as part of their investment and reintegration plan to put into good use their income from abroad.

“We want our OFWs and their families to be successful here in the Cordillera Administrative Region through investments in productive and sustainable economic undertakings, such as agricultural businesses and this will give them a genuine option not to work abroad again.” Jalbuena said.

During the farm visit, 40 officers and members of the OFW Federation in the Cordilleras were introduced to farm activities such as demonstration of process of composting, transplanting vegetable seedlings propagated in the farm’s green houses, open field harvesting of vegetables and open field vegetable planting in organic plots.

Most participants expressed optimism over their experience, saying they have acquired first-hand information in handling agriculture business, experienced one on one interaction with the advocates, and it heightened their interest in starting an agricultural business even with a small capital.

The DOLE-NRCO and DA - ATI entered into partnership agreement on April for implementation of the ByahengAgripreneur, an agriculture and business development project for OFW entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs and their families.

The BiyahengAgri-preneur farm visit was made possible in cooperation the DA - Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) represented by Myrna Sta Maria; the Lily of the Valley (LOV) Organic Farms located in Puguis, La Trinidad owned by  Jefferson Laruanand DA-ATI at the BSU Vegetable and Root Crop Processing Site. -- Patrick Rillorta