Likened to a flower that bloomed showing somehow its gratitude for being well taken cared of, the Department of Agriculture Pangasinan Research & Experiment Center in Sual, Pangasinan bloomed colorfully with beautiful landscape of different flowers, luscious array of organic vegetables and seedlings, rice on techno-demo field, indigenous fruit bearing plants, and other crops including livestock as it hosted the Hands on Training on Organic Agriculture Technologies cum Field Day on December 3, 2020.
Intent on luring more farmers in the region to adopt organic farming, the DA-RFO I thru its Organic Agriculture (OA) program staged the two-day activity that aims to showcase various technologies on organic agriculture production.
In his message to the participants, DA-RFO I OIC-Regional Executive Director Nestor D. Domenden thanked the farmer-participants for showing their passion and interest to learn and have a better understanding about organic farming.
” I encourage each and everyone of you to campaign for more actors of organic farming because this is now the trend. We want to live longer, we want to live healthy, we want to live strong.”, he said.
Other than lectures on organic farming and hands-on training on producing concoctions and other organic inputs, the field day also highlighted several developments in the station centered on organic agriculture production.
The new project areas that were showcased in the station include the greenhouse project planted with Japanese cucumber variety which offers a “pick and pay” scheme for visitors. Alongside is the seedling production area where the station propagates vegetable seedlings being distributed to interested beneficiaries in Pangasinan.
The vermi-composting area provides an all year round supply of fertilizer and substrates for the vegetable seedlings in the station to lower down production cost on vegetable and ornamental plant gardening.
On a path towards the techno-demo area was the newly built duck shed that houses organic ducks (in three different breeds) in support to the duck production project of the station.
Providing a breathtaking view for the visitors is the techno-demo area for ornamental plants where “plantitos” and “plantitas” draw inspiration on landscaping of ornamentals, herbs, spices, and salad vegetables such as lettuce, amaranth, basil, etc.
Several structures that houses the native pigs, chickens and other ducks are also established in the area utilizing all available organic agriculture technologies to improve production and ensure a healthy environment for the animals raised.
Maximizing available land for crop production is the SCOPSA or the Sustainable Corn Production on Sloping Area project where techno-demo on lowland vegetables as well as cassava production is showcased.
As an integrated endeavor, the station also allocated an area for rice production paralleled with a small pond intended for tilapia raising.
Other lectures provided to the field day participants include the native chicken and muscovy duck production, organic open pollinated variety vegetable production, vermicomposting, different concoction production as well as wine and vinegar production. The hands on training on herbal soap production was also conducted in partnership with Gabriel Guillao, an organic practitioner in Burgos, Pangasinan.
As a goodwill and token of appreciation for their active participation to the event, fruit tree seedlings such as tamarind, kamias, duhat, langka, kasoy, guyabano, and atis, among others including organic rice were given free to the participants.
The laudable transformation of PREC-Sual is not only a showcase of successful efforts toward the promotion of organic agriculture program of DA in the region but likewise, a testimony of a dynamic leadership by its station Chief, Dr. Mary Jane Alcedo, with guidance from OIC-Regional Executive Director Nestor D. Domenden and with the support of the Research & Development Division and the Organic Agriculture program of DA-RFO I.
It’s a teamwork at its best!
