On January 11, 2019, Cynthia T. Leycano, Senior Science Research Specialist of Lipa Agricultural Research and Experiment Station (LARES), taught participants about cassava cake recipe and how to prepare the same.

They also experienced planting white corn (glutinous) seeds in a 1,000-square meter area of Southern Tagalog Integrated Agricultural Research Center (STIARC) demo farm.

According to Regional Corn and Cassava Program Coordinator and concurrent LARES Superintendent Avelita M. Rosales, this training is in partnership with University of Batangas and aims to maximize the skills of the participants in the methods of food processing, possible job opportunities for them, and augment their income by putting up such livelihood project.

Rose Marasigan, a teacher and one of the participants, expressed her heartfelt appreciation to the DA CALABARZON for conducting such project with them who are mostly housewives whose daily routine is playing bingo and sending their children to school then fetching them home from school. “We learn a lot every week. And we are thankful for that…This is a great opportunity for us to put up our own business…We also want to share this within our community,” she added.

They already learned how to make pichi-pichi. For the next few weeks they will experience how to make other different cassava recipes like suman, tart, pulvoron, churros, chips, and many more.

This training with these 4Ps beneficiaries will be until April 2019. • ARC