PROJECT PROTOCOL

Farmer Field School on Organic Vegetables Production

I. BACKGROUND

In any program, company or activity to be undertaken, there is a need for all keyplayers to
gain a common vision and have relevant technical tools in place for the tasks at hand. Studies
show that up to one year of close apprentice liketraining is used when establishing new
extension works. Farmer Field Schools represent a significant step forward in agricultural
education and extension. Traditional top-down technology transfer systems have a role in
someaspects of agriculture development but human capacity building required for creation
ofindependent commercialized farmers and farmer organizations needs new approaches. This is
likewise the same with the approaches in implementing and disseminating organic agriculture
technologies which is now gaining more favorable response in all sectors as health and
environment quite having many popular issues.

Farmer field schools still provide specific technical skills but also organizational skills and
practice, analytical skills and practice, and basic group assets such as trust and confidence
required for joint enterprises. FFS is a cost-effective way to introduce new approaches that
require new skills to facilitators and institutions but leads to a common vision and common
methodology for moving into new areas of extension and education. The farmer field school
methods promote exploration, discovery and adaptation under local conditions. The “right way”
means not only building on good science and technological methods, but also fitting into local
ecological, social, economic and historical contexts. Finding the “right way” means that all
stakeholders need to participate and gain ownership of the process.

On the context of this specific season-long training on organic vegetables production, a

new face of participants has been selected to test the reliability of disseminating technologies to
the children which are considered as the next generation of farmers and consumers and also the
community which are vulnerable to the effects of various phenomena. Teachers of the
Department of Education will undergo this 16-week training course which they will also replicate
on the schools where they work. This is the major component of the
“OrganikongGulayansaPaaralan at Pamayanan Program” of the Provincial Government of
Occidental Mindoro thru the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Office and the Office of the Provincial
Agriculturist. In an effort to inculcate to the students and their parents thru the teachers the
importance of sustainable organic agriculture, health and environmental awareness and
protection and food safety and availability, thus this FFS has been dedicated to our teachers.

II. OBJECTIVES
a. Introduce organic vegetable production technologies to teachers,students and parents
of different schools;
b. To teach and demonstrate to teachers how to make and utilize organic fertilizers and bio-
insecticides out of plants around the environment;
c. To impart container and urban gardening;
d. To familiarize the participants various herbal plants they could utilize as cure or medicine;
e. To reduce the rate of malnutrition in the community; and
f. To provide healthy and safe foods for the children.
III. EXPECTED OUTPUT
a. Four-hundred (400) well capacitated teachers on technical and practical skills on organic
vegetables production from 11 municipalities;
 b. Organic vegetables garden established in the schools of each teacher participant;
c. Decrease in malnutrition rate of all schools participating in the training within a year after
the season-long training;
d. Communities adopting organic backyard gardening.

IV. COVERAGE

The project is to be implemented in eleven (11) municipalities of the province, each

will have one (1) FFS on Organic Vegetables Production. A total of four-hundred (400)
teachers from 400 different elementary and secondary schools will be the participants of the
trainings. There will be 50 teacher-participants from Sablayan, 40 teacher-participants from
San Jose, 40 teacher-participants from Magsaysay and 30 teacher-participants each from
Rizal, Calintaan, Sta. Cruz, Mamburao, Paluan, Abra de Ilog, Looc and Lubang.

V. IMPLEMENTING SCHEME

Cooperating Agencies/Entities Role

a. PGOM thru OPAg

- Provide funding support for the conduct of 11 FFS including supplies, materials and
PTD inputs as well as the field day and graduation.
- Coordinate the FFS in every municipalities.
- Conduct 1-day Orientation/Meeting for the facilitators.
- Conduct the launching program.
- Provide technical assistance that could provide help in the implementation of the FFS.
- Act as the over-all project coordinator and technical monitoring team.
- Conduct regular monitoring and evaluation of FFS progress and gather data in the
PTDs conducted by the participants.
- Provide awards and prizes to the best PTD area.
- Provide incentives to AEW-facilitators worth Php5,000.00/each.

b. PGOM thru Sangguniang Panlalawigan

- Provide funding for the experience-based learning activity of the participants and
facilitators at Gabutero Organic Farm/Regional 4-H Camp and DJVM Organic Farm in
Oriental Mindoro.
- Act as the over-all project coordinator and technical monitoring team.
- Provide partial funding support in the conduct of FFS Field Day and Graduation
including awards and prizes for contest winners.

c. MLGU thru OMA

- Designate at least two (2) AEWs who will act as facilitators and resource speaker in
the course of the season-long training thru a memorandum order from the Mayor.
- Provide assistance in the monitoring of school-based organic vegetable gardens in
their municipality.
- Accomplishweekly reports following the prescribed pro-forma on Appendix A which
must be submitted at the end of every month.
- Provide travelling expenses of designated facilitators.
- Provide transportation for the participants on graduation day.
- Ensure close coordination with the provincial technical team for smooth and
successful implementation.
 - Attend the one-day Orientation Meeting on September 13.
- Ensure the proper establishment of PTD and successful attainment of the study.

d. DepEd – Division of Occidental Mindoro

- Attend the launching and orientation program of
“OrganikongGulayansaPaaralansaPamayanan”.
- Submit the list of teacher-participants of every municipality.
- Provide the FFS venue and PTD site.
- Ensure the participation of the400listed teacher-participants and their complete
attendance in the season-long training.
- Provide monitoring team to check the progress of the teachers and their
establishment of school-based organic gardens.
- Ensure the participation of other schools in the conduct of field day by attending on
the activity.
- Provide legal instruction for the involved teachers to attend the FFS Training every
Friday of the week.
- Ensure the replication of learning from FFS to the students.

e. Teacher-Participants
- Attend the launching and orientation program of “OrganikongGulayansaPaaralan at
Pamayanan Program”.
- Completely attend and actively participate in the 16-week FFS Training.
- Establish Participatory Techno Demonstration (PTD) and ensure maximum core and
attention to follow the recommendations to the demonstration until fully harvest.
- Must be willing to learn from facilitators and share knowledge to co-participants.
- Must be willing to provide snacks for their group as well as some materials and tools
needed in the course of the training.
- Replicate the knowledge and skills gained from the training by teaching it to their
students.
- Establish school-based organic garden and join the contest on the “Best School-based
Organic Vegetable Garden”.
- Attend the field day, graduation and experience-based learning activity.
- Facilitate the harvest of the PTD and record yield data of each treatment and submit
conclusion of the study.

VI. METHODOLOGY

The Farmer Field School will be conducted within the duration of 16 weeks. The
modules to be utilized is designed to provide specific technical skills but also organizational
skills and practice, analytical skills and practice, and basic group assets such as trust and
confidence. Topic discussions is stipulated in the schedule of activities (Appendix B) and will
mainly tackle all technologies on organic vegetables production. Some special topics is
allowed to be discussed on every meeting depending on the request of the participants or
the prerogative of the facilitators. Experiential-base learning is one of the major component
of the training. A participatory techno demonstration will be established by the participants.
Participants will form four (4) groups and each group will conduct one (1) study/trial based
on the instructions given below:

Scope of the Participatory Techno Demonstration (PTD)

a. Duration – September 22, 2017 – January 5, 2018
b. PTD Area – Minimum of 200 square meters area, with source of water and accessible
to road and conspicuous.
c. Study/Plots – There will be 4 studies with 3 plots per study to be established.
d. Plot Measurement – 1 meter x 10 meters per plot
e. Scope of Study

Study 1. Compatibility of Eggplant to Mungbean, Sitao and Peanut (Main crop:

Eggplant)
i. Plot 1 – Eggplant and Sitao
ii. Plot 2 – Eggplant and Peanut
iii. Plot 3 – Eggplant and Mungbean

Study 2. Utilization of Live Mulch (Main crop: Tomato)

i. Plot 1 – Squash
ii. Plot 2 – Kangkong
iii. Plot 3 – Kamote

Study 3. Utilization of Pest and Diseases Control Concoctions (Main crop: Ampalaya)
i. Plot 1 – Wood Vinegar
ii. Plot 2 – Vermi-tea
iii. Plot 3 – Sili Solution

Study 4. Utilization and Effects of Insect Repellent Plants (Main crop: Okra)
i. Plot 1 – Marigold
ii. Plot 2 – Oregano
iii. Plot 3 – Lemon grass

f. Land Preparation – Prepare the land thoroughly using either animal drawn plow and
harrow, manual cultivation or mechanical. Sterilize the plot by pouring hot water or
letting it dried by the heat of the sun after cultivation.
g. Soil Media Preparation (for seedling tray) –Mix 2 kilos of vermicast to 1 kilo of garden
soil and 1 kilo carbonized rice hull. Make sure to sterilize the garden soil before
mixing.
h. Seed Sowing – Soak the seeds in clean water for 24 hours to remove chemical
residues in the seeds and break the seed coat to allow the embryo to sprout. Plant
one seed in every hole.
i. Fertilization – Study 1,2 and 3 will be applied uniformly with vermicast as base
fertilizer, wood vinegar and vermi-tea as foliar. Apply foliar early in the morning or
late in the afternoon.
- Apply 10 kilos of vermicast per plot of the study.
- Apply half kilo of vermicast per plant on transplanting. Only the main crops will be
applied with.
- Apply 1 kilo of vermicast per plant of the main crop before flowering.
- Apply 1 liter wood vinegar solution (1 liter water is to 1 bottle cap wood vinegar)
to soil before seed sowing and repeat once a week after until before
transplanting.
- Apply 1 spray load of wood vinegar solution (1 liter wood vinegar is to 16 liters of
water) to the three studies (study 1, 2 and 3) after transplanting for study 1 and
2and repeat weekly for plot 1 of study 3 only until harvest.
 - Apply1 spray load ofvermitea solution (1 liter of vermitea is to 16 liters of water)
once on vegetative period and once on reproductive period for study 1 and 2 and
apply weekly from vegetative to harvesting period on plot 2 of study 3.
- Study 4 will not be applied by organic base and foliar fertilizers that is applied to
study 1, 2 and 3.The group assigned to this study will identify their source of
organic fertilizers like animal manures and plant or kitchen waste compost.
j. Pest Control – Plot 3 of study 3 will be applied with 1 handspray load of sili solution (1
ligo can of sili solution is to 750 mL of water) weekly after transplanting up to
harvesting. Study 1 and 2 may also be applied with sili solution if necessary only.
k. Harvesting – Harvest properly and separately all plots. Weigh the harvest of each
plots separately and record it. Weigh the harvest per plant in every plot and compute
the average weight of harvest per plant. Compute the approximate harvest in 1
hectare and record it. Measure the length of the longest harvested crop per plot and
record it. Measure the diameter of the largest harvested crop per plot and record it.

Field day will be conducted separately in every municipalities. The municipal facilitators
will be in-charge in the preparation and conduct with the assistance of the teacher-participants.
The activity will showcase the result of the participatory techno demonstration to the audiences.
The best PTD will be identified by the Provincial Technical Team based on regular monitoring a

Mass FFS Graduation will be conducted on January 2018 at the Capitol Compound,
Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro. All 400 participants from 11 municipalities must attend this
activity including the facilitators. Winners for the Best Folk Media Presentation Contestwill be
given awards and prizes as well as to the Valedictorian and outstanding participants of every
municipality. The best facilitator will also be awarded with prize. Moreover, the winner school
with the Best School-based Organic Garden will be receiving an special award and special prize.
Selection of winners will be based on criteria provided.

Prepared by: Noted by:

JEHU MICHAEL Q. BARRIENTOS SOFRONIO V. BARANDA

Agriculturist II/Prov’l OA Program Focal Person APA/OIC-OPA

Recommending Approval: APPROVED:

PETER J. ALFARO MARIO GENE J. MENDIOLA

Vice-Governor Governor
Study 1. Compatibility of Eggplant to Mungbean, Sitao and Peanut (Main crop:
Eggplant)
Study 2. Utilization of Live Mulch (Main crop: Tomato)
Study 3. Utilization of Pest and Diseases Control Concoctions (Main crop: Ampalaya)
Study 4. Utilization and Effects of Insect Repellent Plants (Main crop: Okra)