Supporting the Abad Santos Farmers Association (ASFA) in expanding their agricultural production projects, the Department of Agriculture’s Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program in Caraga conducted a specialized training on sweet potato production and management for the SAAD Phase 2 FY 2024 implementation.

The two-day training from June 18-19, 2024 was held in Brgy. Abad Santos, Sta. Monica, Surigao del Norte where Mr. Mark Anthony L. Doligol, Farm Manager of the Provincial Integrated Demo-Farm and Training Center in Cancohoy, Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte was invited as the Resource Speaker.

On the training’s first session, Doligol highlighted to the FA members the importance of choosing the right variety of Sweet Potato that would suit their land area’s soil type and how they plan to sell or process it, given that the FA shared their plans on processing their yields to sell camote fries and camote chips in the future.

Stressing the importance of land preparation, he said that “After cleaning the land area, pulverizing the bed is essential to enable the roots of the stem cuttings to properly penetrate the soil.”

“Proper planting distance and planting depth of the stem cuttings are important to meet its optimal and equal growth along with the aid of the fertilizer,” added Doligol, reminding the farmers of the importance of a balanced distribution of nutrients as it affects the tubers’ sizes.

The second session of the training featured a techno-demo activity at the FA’s land area that tested the farmers to apply the technical and practical learning they have acquired during the first session of the training. The techno-demo was a crucial activity to prepare the farmers as they are expected to receive the SAAD sweet potato project in July 2024.

More About ASFA

In FY 2023 SAAD implementation, ASFA joined the Program and was capacitated with the knowledge on pineapple production and management and received their pineapple planting materials along with fertilizer and hand held farm tools.

Currently, after almost a year of planting, their pineapples are now in the reproductive stage wherein they are starting to bear fruits. Moving forward, when the pineapples reached its maturity, ASFA plans on selling within and outside their barangay, as well as processing these to manufacture dried pineapples in the future.

Pineapple and sweet potato production of ASFA are both identified high on the possible projects list based on the Beneficiary Needs Assessment (BNA) for ASFA during the FY 2023 implementation of the program.

Moreover, to realize the aim of the FA to plant multiple crops, the group identified and allotted suitable land areas for the pineapple production project, sweet potato production project, and for the future drying facility of the pineapples. ###

Writer: Sean D. Belen, SAAD Caraga Regional Information Officer