A TOTAL of 116 women from the town of Arakan, North Cotabato, have completed training on weaving rags as part of a skills-training program of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
DAR Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer Marion Abella said the project is one of the DAR’s skills-training program under the Program Beneficiaries Development, which seeks to enhance the capability of the women’s organizations of Barangays Allab and Kuran in Arakan.
The program beneficiaries are into farming but through the training, the DAR hopes to provide them additional income by teaching them to weave rags.
“We want to capacitate and help empower woman-farmers by grooming them into entrepreneurs. That is why we are providing them with the necessary skills to give them options in generating income for their family,” Abella said.
In the rag-weaving entrepreneurial project, the women are taught to weave rags into doormats and potholders. A doormat fetches a price of P25 per piece, while a potholder sells for P7 a piece.
“Our market study shows that selling these items can earn them as much as P3,000 per month. This is a big addition to every farming family’s income. The women can sell these in hospitals, schools, hotels, business establishments and households,” Abella said.
In addition to the skills training, the DAR also provided the start-up materials for each of the women’s organization that included 60 kilos of rags, 10 doormat frames and two potholder frames.
Abella stressed that the DAR is also committed in linking agrarian-reform beneficiary organizations to various markets through its Marketing Assistance Program (MAP).
“The MAP aims to hasten the development and establishment of enterprises in agrarian-reform communities. This is carried out by building and sustaining links between and among farmer-entrepreneurs, cooperative producers, processors, agribusiness firms, other institutional buyers and service providers,” Abella said.
“The DAR also partnered with line agencies like the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Science and Technology to train agrarian beneficiaries in product development and entrepreneurship,” he added.