By Shen Maglinte | Deputy Director
It's been a couple of months back this 2014 when SIBAT started to prepare the affected communities for post food relief situation by training members of the 15 barangays of Tolosa Leyte to produce their own food and sustain their potable water systems through renewable Energy. The 15 focus barangays are Burak, Capangihan, San Vicente, Malbog, Cantawiris, Olot, Burak, Quilao, Tanghas, Telegrafo, Opong, Canmogsay, Olot,San Roque and Poblacion proper.
From June to September, intensive trainings were conducted for production of two main crops, namely, rice growing and diversified vegetable production. A total of 198 trainees took the trainings, 92 are regular farmers and 86 are secondary cultivators being barangay officials, health workers, nutritionists and teachers. The latter group were tasked to integrate the sustanable food production know how into their respective constitutencies as part of continuing restoration work in agriculture and food sufficiency while rebuilding work progresses. These are done through establishment of a common production-demonstration farm collectively managed by the comnunity members and through individual farmer cooperators adopting the production technologies as models in their respective farms.
The Integrated SustainableRice Production (ISORP) were introduced to revive back rice farming for the 11 rice growing barangays under a non-chemical farming system. To date 44 farmers from these barangays adopted ISORP that features organic fertilization of the soil, use of improved rice varieties instead of hybrids, intermittent irrigtion and straight line method of planting to optimize sunlight.
Vegetable Food Production were pursued and formalized by two barangays through formation of vegetable growers association, a first in the history of the farming community. These are the Vegetable Growers Association (VGA)of Brgy. San Roque with 43 members and the Quilao Organic Farmers Association in Brgy. Quilao (QOFA) with 17 members. For the 12 barangays, tools were distibuted with a set each or rotary weeders, rice harrowers ad rice hull carbonizers.
With the efforts, the families were able to provide and have access to vegetable food supplements, revival of soil health and seed improvement. Potable water through photo voltaic or gravity-applied distribution system is still a work in progress with the limited resource for full rehabilitation work.
Monitoring, technical advisories in continually building the community through their farmers association is a regular task undertaken to sustain and improve initial efforts
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