The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has recently inked partnership with Costales Nature Farms for the introduction of organic agriculture to the beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program in the CALABARZON Region. This is through the DSWD’s Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP).

The Costales Nature Farms, located in Majayjay town in Laguna Province, is an agro-tourism business that promotes sustainable agriculture and healthy lifestyle through organic farming.

The Memorandum of Agreement between the two parties entails the provision of training on organic farming to beneficiaries. This will include a two-day technical training and a one-day farm immersion. Further, the Costales Nature Farms will provide the participants a starter kit, which includes a piglet and feeds for the first cycle.

According to DSWD IV-A Regional Director Leticia T. Diokno, this partnership is one way of providing DSWD beneficiaries with sustainable livelihood opportunities to help them improve their current living condition.

Mr. Ronald Costales, owner of the Costales Nature Farms, expressed his gratitude to the DSWD for giving them an opportunity to share their organic farming technology and later help provide better income opportunities for the beneficiaries.

In the said partnership, the Costales Nature Farms will conduct trainings in a per batch basis composing of 50 beneficiaries per batch. The first batch of training, which will include 50 beneficiaries from Laguna Province, will start this August 2015.

The partnership will also be extended to beneficiaries from other provinces in the region.

The SLP is one of the core poverty reduction programs implemented by the DSWD that seeks to improve the socio-economic status of beneficiaries through community-based capacity building for micro-enterprise development or employment facilitation.# with reports from JOCuya