BRIEFING. Kapangan, Benguet Mayor Manny Fermin (right), briefs viewers about his town during the "Laging Handa" virtual briefing hosted by Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar (left). Fermin said the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) will set up the provincial training center focused on providing technical training to farmers from the town and its adjacent municipalities -- Atok, Kibungan, Bokod and Tublay. (Screengrabbed during Laging Handa briefing)
BAGUIO CITY – Residents of Kapangan town in Benguet are expected to benefit from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) farm training that is in the pipeline.
Mayor Manny Fermin, during the “Laging Handa” virtual briefing hosted by Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar on Tuesday, said they are establishing a provincial training center in the town.
The training facility which is being made possible with the help of TESDA and Benguet caretaker Rep. Eric Yap, will focus on equipping farmers with technical skills on agricultural production.
The mayor said 80 percent of residents are farmers, which will make the facility very important in the area and adjacent towns.
Kapangan is geographically located beside the towns of Kibungan, Atok, Bokod and Tublay. The facility will also accommodate farmers from the said municipalities which are also farming areas.
Atok is the second-largest producer of assorted highland vegetables in Benguet while Bokod’s primary agricultural product is tilapia and other freshwater fish with the Ambuklao Dam located in the municipality. They also have limited fruit and vegetable products.
Tublay is also a vegetable producing town with most of its production is sayote while Kibungan produces a variety of vegetables.
According to the Department of Agriculture (DA), Benguet province is the source of 80 to 85 percent of highland vegetables which are brought to the different regions all over the country.
Fermin said Kapangan has started to go into organic vegetable production with their produce being brought to SM Baguio, parts of Laguna and food chain Jollibee.
He said they want holistic assistance for the farmers, not limiting the training to producing quality vegetables but also marketing and trading.
“So, ‘yun ang mga programa dito, we have to be sure na tulungan natin ang mga farmers (that is our program here, we have to be sure that we are helping the farmers),” he said.
Fermin also said most of the scholars of the provincial training center are young parents and out-of-school youths (OSY).
“That is a chance for the people in our town to persevere and study at TESDA,” he said.
He told Andanar of the coffee production in his town, which is still small and they are marketing it locally to allow residents to be the first to taste their own produce.
“Malakas magkape ang mga kababayan ko (my town mates are coffee drinkers),” he said.
He said there is high elevation area in Kapangan that is fit for coffee production.
Fermin said with the help of the DA that provided planting materials and the allocation from the municipal local government, they have established an area where the coffee produced are sold and made available to the locals. (PNA)
