MASMIN UPDATES

Youth Apprenticeship Program and Internship Program

MASIPAG-Mindanao accepted the new batch of youth farmers for their Youth Apprenticeship Program last Mayo 2006. Youth apprentice from Sarangani, Agusan del Sur, Zamboanga del Sur and Bukidnon will stay in the biodiversity center for 6 months and are expected to learn techniques and understand farming issues. They will also be oriented about MASIPAG as alternative and will be training on sustainable agriculture practices.

The MASIPAG Biodiversity Center will be their home and school for six months. They will learn and practice rice and corn production, rice breeding, bio-intensive gardening, aqua culture, nursery management and livestock care. On October 2006, they are expected by their respective organizations to practice and share what they have learned from MBC.

Six students also successfully finished their On the Job training in MASIPAG Mindanao. The student Internship program started last January 2006 where 3 undergraduate students from Central Mindanao University pursuing Bachelor of science in Agribusiness Management participated. Part of the training of the students were exposure to MBC and partners of MASIPAG like METSA and HEED Foundation. They were also exposed to the different PO members and partners of MASIPAG like TSAFO and POs in BDSI (MONSARBCO, BAFAO and NESFA).

The second batch of interns started last April to May 2006. It was participated by 2 students from Central Mindanao University pursuing BS in Agribusiness Management and 1 from Xavier University pursuing BS in Agriculture. They were also exposed to MASIPAG partners and MBC.

This program serves as venue for students to learn the alternatives for conventional agriculture and open-up new perspective of farmer empowerment.

BOSFOR and On-farm Experimentation

Five Basic Orientation Seminar on Farmers On-farm Research were conducted in Mindanao, included in the training is the scientific method applied in farmer researches. As an output of this activity, 8 experimentation were designed from different POs across Mindanao, 6 were completed, 1 is on-going and 1 is yet to be establish this July. Six among these were inline with agri-product and herbal processing and 2 are in-lined with the crop production.