We successfully held a two-day Training and Hands-on Workshop on Vegetable Production Anchored on Natural Farming System (NFS) in our village, Barangay Pideg, on March 16-17, 2023. The event was attended by our 50 farmer neighbors, mostly women, who actively participated in the discussions and workshop activities.
We covered a wide range of topics related to natural farming, including composting, land preparation, seed-to-seedling management, transplanting, pest control and management, cropping calendar, and marketing. The rationale and context for the workshop were the global climate crisis and the importance of reducing its impact through regenerative agriculture.
This event was a dream come true because we had been invited to other places to teach and speak about our practice of permaculture and other natural farming systems. However, this was the first time we held an event like this in our immediate farming community.
During the workshop, participants were allowed to apply their learning through hands-on activities such as creating simple no-till vegetable beds, trellising, and transplanting. They also exchanged ideas, experiences, and issues with their fellow farmers and us, the facilitators.
As a result of the workshop, we along with the rest of the participants decided to formally establish the Association of Natural Farmers of Barangay Pideg. This association aims to promote and implement sustainable and regenerative natural farming systems in our community and to provide a platform for learning and sharing among its members. The training also opened many livelihood opportunities for the farmer members.
The success of this workshop has inspired us to plan more upcoming training and activities to support further the local farming community in Barangay Pideg and the rest of our town. This was a great example of how sustainable and regenerative natural farming systems can help mitigate the impacts of climate change and improve livelihoods in farming communities.
This event was made possible with the Pollination Project, a non-profit organization that is uplifting, supporting, and seed funding a global community of 5,000 grassroots changemakers in 120 countries. For the facilitation, we partnered with the East-West Seed Philippines Knowledge Transfer, represented by Thess Floresca, Jessa Quisado, and Cathelyn Patlin. The training was duly supported by our Barangay Council and Municipal Local Government Unit through its Municipal Agriculture Office.#
