Some 25 members of the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) community in Brgy. Rizal Sur, Tapaz, Capiz were trained on Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) by the technical resource persons from the Department of Agriculture-Western Visayas from July 12 to 13.
The two-day hands-on field training is part of the DA’s Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran ng Kababayang Katutubo (4Ks) program implementation which aims to regenerate the denuded upland areas into arable soil for crops and vegetable production.
Aside from creating a barrier that traps sediments and transforms the sloping areas to terraced land, the SALT training focused on lecture and actual demonstration from clearing, lay-outing of “A” frames up to planting of various crops and rearing poultry and livestock.
DA-Western Visayas alternate IP Desk Officer Janene Belarmino, DA Sigma Research Outreach Station Agriculturist II Cyril Grace Quanico and Science Research Technician I Gerwin Maximo discussed the guidelines of the project, soil conservation and SALT farming system to IP participants.
“Nabuhi ang amun nga paglaum sa sini nga proyekto tungod pigado guid ang amun pangabuhi diri,” said Nestor Bluma, IP of Brgy. Rizal Sur council of elders.
Likewise, the members of the IPs community received livelihood interventions of assorted vegetable seeds, rootcrop cuttings, fruit trees, garden tools, organic fertilizer, two rolls of net, 30 heads of native chicken and 15 heads of goat.
Aside from the land area, labor and maintenance of the project were the counterpart of the IP beneficiaries. Their association must be a duly registered Indigenous People’s Organizations with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or any accrediting agencies, and must be certified by the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) Region 6.
The SALT project for the IPs of Brgy. Rizal Sur is the offshoot of the need assessment and validation workshop conducted and in consonance with the Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan for agriculture by the DA, NCIP and local government unit of Tapaz. (DA-6 photo)
