As part of the DA initiatives in enticing and assisting youth in agriculture, 40 youths were trained on cassava processing through the collaboration of the Corn Banner Program and the Regional Agricultural and Fisheries Council (RAFC).

The participants, who are members of the Young Farmers 4-H Club of Rosario, La Union actively participated in the two-day training held at Ariana Hotel in Bauang, La Union wherein they were taught topics on food safety, financial literacy, simple bookkeeping, and values orientation and mind setting.

Also, with the help of Ms. Filomena A. Bugaoan who demonstrated the hands-on processing of cassava, the participants were able to prepare bibingka, linupak, pitchi-pitchi, kutsinta, and rolls out of cassava.

Aimed at capacitating the youth on entrepreneurial and technical skills development and informing them on the investment potentials of cassava, the training also paved the way to creating livelihood and employment opportunities to address problems of joblessness, promote innovation and help promote the recovery of the economy.

During the said training, Ms. Milagros Dela Rosa, RAFC coordinator, discussed the rationale of the activity and the Adopt-A-Youth-Led concept pioneered and launched by RAFC last year. The Adopt-A-Youth-Led is a group of young people that have a common vision and commitment to engage in agriculture, fishery, and agribusiness ventures. With this initiative, a community hub will be established to serve as entrepreneurial center that offers skills training, access to finance, and displaying and selling of their own processed products.

Ms. Dela Rosa instilled that the DA will constantly assist their organization until they are ready to take off with their agri-venture as it will not only benefit their organization but more youth groups in their locality.
Providing her insight to the training, Ms. Jessa Valdez said that the training gave them ideas on how to utilize cassava now. “Dahil sa training na ‘to, nadagdagan ‘yong ideya natin na ‘yong cassava na hindi natin pinapansin ay pwede palang maconvert sa ibang produkto na gawa sa cassava” she said.

In addition to the skills acquired by the trainees, they also received interventions such as mini ovens with 2 gas burners, baking tools and equipment as their starter kits, and vegetable seeds.

Meanwhile, the Corn Banner Program of DA-RFO 1 conducts a series of trainings on Cassava Processing and Utilization to further inform and engage groups of women and youths in region 1 about the potential of cassava as an enterprise and equip them to become entrepreneurs.