Success Stories

STA. BARBARA, Pangasinan - The Cabitnongan Sampaguita 4H Club, San Nicolas, Pangasinan is one of the recipients of livelihood project on a roll over scheme through the Department of Agriculture Agricultural Training Institute – Regional Training Center I (DA-ATI-RTC I) purposely for Broiler Production.

She has a Facebook account and uses the Yahoo Messenger to communicate with her fellow farmers. She goes around her 10-hectare cornfield and stops to share with her farm workers what she has learned from a recent training or seminar she has attended abroad. But the truth is that Rosalie Ellasus has no background in farming.

Rosalie Ellasus has dabbled in many different fields. From working in medical technology, to becoming an OFW, then a farmer, and finally a leader and speaker giving testimonials on her success, Ellasus has truly crossed many boundaries and hurdled many obstacles to become what she is today.

If it's hard to get your kids to eat malunggay (moringa), then give them ice cream blended with the nutritious leaves.

Fe Majia-Vidal started her now popular CBN Bonuan Boneless Bangus products 14 years ago with only 20 pieces of bangus (milkfish) and P500 capital. CBN are the initials of the name of her three children.

Lito Arenas finished a nursing course several decades ago, but he decided instead to pursue a path that he had grown familiar with in Manaoag, Pangasinan: raising mangoes.

He did not regret his decision one bit. He is now one of the biggest suppliers of mangoes in the Philippines.

Lito’s story has become a favorite anecdote of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap who often relates it whenever he is among aspiring entrepreneurs and students.

Six years in the company of farmers has already given him surburnt skin, thick roughened palms, wrinkled forehead and calloused feet.

"Why did he quit his good paying job as restaurant manager in London and opted to labor as a farmer here?" comes as a standard, handy query whenever one comes to know Punong Barangay Manuel Cabrera of Malabago, Mangaldan, Pangasinan.

I.  PROBLEM

The increasing recognition of the nutritional value of vegetables and the ever growing population pose a great demand for higher crop production.  Tomato is one of the important vegetables, not only because of its high nutritional value but  also of its exigency in the different dishes prepared by the Ilocanos like the “pinakbet”.