FARMER-SCIENTISTS RDE TRAINING PROGRAM for Urban Vegetable-Based Gardening & Marketing System
PHASE I
RESEARCH EXPOSURE, VALUES FORMATION AND TECHNICAL EMPOWERMENT
This involves series of experiments to test different methods of planting vegetables such as growing in pots, sacks, containers on hanging position and on above ground soils. It also includes trials of different vegetable crops and fer
tilizers. In addition, value formation for love of God, country and people is emphasized. There will be classes once a week with lectures on different topics related to land preparation, planting, harvesting and marketing of surplus vegetable products. The participants will be divided into groups and are assigned to each experiment to gather data on germination, plant growth, yield and observe occurrence of pests and diseases. They will give weekly reports during the meeting on their observation of the plants
Phase I ends after harvesting the crops. They will graduate with a Certificate of COMPLETION signed by the Dean of the College of Agriculture, UP Los Banos, the Director of DOST Region VII, the FSTP Program Leader,and the Barangay Captain. The graduates (the farmer-scientists) will have to proceed to Phase II. PHASE II
VERIFICATION AND ADOPTION AT HOME OF THEIR DEVELOPED/DISCOVERED TECHONOLOGIES FROM PHASE I EXPERIMENTS
Those who graduated from Phase I will proceed to Phase II, that is, verification and adoption of developed technologies in their own backyards at home or on any space they can try to grow vegetables and other food crops to determine which methods of growing, that is, in pots, containers, sacks in hanging or on the ground soils are adoptable at home. They will make observations on plant growth and records the yield every harvest. They will meet as an association only once a month to make reports on the progress of their individual experiments at home. The phase II ends after harvesting their crops and the yield data to be presented for graduation. PHASE III
SHARING OF TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE TO THEIR NEIGHBORS OR FRIENDS
Those farmer-scientists who graduated from Phase II will become teachers to their neighbors and friends who are interested to learn in growing vegetables and other food crops using the technologies/knowledge they learned from Phase I and Phase II. However, before going into the teaching work, they will be given a 2-day refresher course on how to teach with their assigned lecture topics including the conduct of experiments as they did in Phase I. They will graduate with a Certificate of RECOGNATION.
