Agricultural Training Institute director Asterio Saliot said yesterday that Negros Occidental is the fourth province to implement the ladderized course for agri-entrepreneurship and to receive scholarship grants for its 40 out-of-school-youths.

Saliot was in Bacolod City for the graduation rites of student-listeners of the Eskwelahan sa Kahaninan on Organic Agriculture.

He said this is a program of ATI and the Foundation for People’s Development to help and give a chance to out of school youth to go to school and this is in partnership with a religious group in Murcia.

The group will sponsor half of the tuition fee and other expenses of the students, while the other half will be taken from the program, Saliot said.

The total cost for each student is P138,000 for the two-year course, and the student will also receive a P6,000 monthly allowance, he added.

The classes will be held at the Catholic Ming Yuan-College Technology Farm Business School at Hacienda Binitin, Murcia, Negros Occidental, he said.

The program will teach only major subjects in agriculture like aquaculture, horticulture, meat and meat product processing, vegetable and fruit processing, organic agriculture, and other agriculture-related courses, he said.

Saliot also said that every semester students spend the first month in school for lectures and theories, and later they will be deployed to local farms and apply what they have learned. The farm owners will be their teachers in the field, he added.

ATI, in return, will provide accident health insurance for the farmers and will pay for their premiums through the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation, he also said.*LTG

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