In celebration of the National Women’s Month, the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF) held a blended Knowledge Unloading Day (KUD) on Empowering Women through Next Gen Education and Rural Development on March 23, 2023 in Quezon City.

Nearly 150 participants joined online and onsite to learn how women and family farms can contribute in attaining national food security. Among those who attended were the Gender and Development Focal Point System (GAD-FPS) representatives from the Department of Agriculture (DA) offices and its attached agencies and bureaus, members of the the RAFC Sectoral Committee on Women, and PCAF employees.

In his opening remarks, PCAF Executive Director Nestor Domenden expressed his full support towards the National Women’s Month Celebration and the mainstreaming of GAD in all of DA’s programs and projects.

“May isa ngang kasabihan na tumatak sa akin: ‘If you teach a man to farm, his family will eat. If you teach a woman to farm, the community will eat.’ Ito ay dahil likas na talaga sa mga kababaihan ang pagiging maabilidad at mapagkalinga lalo na sa kapwa,” he said.

Gigi Morris, the President and School Director of MoCa Family Farm RLearning Center, was invited as the resource person to share her journey and learnings in starting a farm school/technical vocational institute in Batangas.

“The story of any women-led family farm is a story of triumph over bias. Kaya nga ang lagi kong sinasabi, Juana can at basta Juana, kaya!”, Moris said. 

She revealed that the initial purpose of the farm was for it to be her family’s retirement plan. But then they realized that there was no agricultural training program in their area.  Hence, they came up with the idea of developing the family farm into a next-generation learning system by offering agricultural technical and vocational education and training.

“Ang daming nagsasabi na gusto nilang mag-start ng sariling farm, pero ang common misconception ay madali daw kumita ng pera through farming,” she shared. “Wala pong madaling pera, especially in farming. So you really have to develop your competence by acquiring knowledge, to learn by doing.”

The KUD was organized by PCAF, through its Knowledge Management Section and GAD Focal Point System, as part of its efforts to empower and capacitate women, especially those in rural areas, in the agriculture and fisheries sector.

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PCAF is the policy-making arm of the DA that facilitates broad-based participatory development mechanisms and processes by conducting stakeholder consultations and participatory monitoring and tracking of DA programs and projects.