Zacess Story

Mr. Zac Sarian, Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, multi awarded journalist, Editor for Agriculture of Manila Bulletin... We enjoy the pleasure of being able to join him in farm visits and interviews with successful farmers.

In Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura every Sunday over DWWW, he has a segment called Zacess Stories. There, he talks about success stories...its not the magnitude, it is in the manner of how people have uplifted themselves. I like listening to him tell those stories.

The program isn't scripted so no one knows what comes up in one's segment. Not too long ago, we were all surprised when it was Toto Barcelona of Harbest Seed Company, who was the Zacess Story. He is a regular at the radio program so we were all pleased :) His age was mentioned and I said to Toto, " I hope in 8yrs, when I get to your age, I will be featured too".

Today was not the usual Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura day for me. I never stand from my seat from start to finish. I am an obedient member. I keep quiet and still until 7:30am. This morning at 6:30am I left the booth and stayed out and mingled with the visitors for Agrikapihan forum.

Listening to Zacess Stories had been a habit so when Zac's segment came up, I and Doc Rey kept quiet. It started with something vaguely about Sunshine Chicken....well...ok....so maybe he started the segment in jest, looking for us inside the booth?

Hmmmmm...oh no....we were his Zacess Story! Am so excited, pleased and awed...I run inside the office, right outside the technician's booth so I can listen. There is a PA outside, but there were people outside to entertain and you can't concentrate.

I joked Zac after that, he made no mention about profits gained, unlike his other Zacess Stories. Wahahahahhahha....Yes of course, the success story being portrayed is the hard work and perseverance in simple, earnest duties.

I thought I was the only one who wanted to shut off and listen....just found out now that Doc Rey himself went inside the car to listen to the radio :)

Landslide

Sounds like how you'd describe the outpouring of emotions or how the results will be :)

I may always talk in figures and ironies...but this is literally a landslide. I don't know how to save pics from mms sent to my phone but its on the news....a portion of Caranglan in between San Jose in Nueva Ecija and Sta Fe in Nueva Vizacaya, was closed to traffic because the can't clear the landslide. Four (4) hours of work is erased, or rather surmounted by 10mins of rain :(

Doc Rey left Santiago after lunch so he has time to rest in Manila before proceeding to Cavite for a seminar in the Capitol. Getting a call in the afternoon about closed traffic sounded like a delay. It was good...I was out with friends for the evening!

By 3am, the traffic was not moving...it spelled YIKES. It meant that I, yes moi....was to give the talk for Sunshines. Never did this happen. Give me a cooking demo even if I didn't know really how to cook. BUT to have technical questions thrown your way................can't say NO WAY and not show up.

Armed with a power point that was the scratch work of the present one...good it was even left in my laptop....,I introduced myself and came upfront with the prospects of listening to me. Wehehehehe, took out my nervousness as I already told them of my situation. I was the marketing person...shoot me later with questions about where and how to market. But for technicals, may we set that for Doc Rey?

I sit in during seminars, so going through the power point was easy. The participants were great. Attentive and put me at ease from the first minute. You know from the start if you are OK with your audience.

At the end, I knew I made the right decision to go on with the 3hr trip...more like 4 as I was getting lost..maybe wanting to get lost as an alibi for not showing up! Maybe I didn't satisfy their questions, but they sure understood that we are very open to going back to Cavite again :)

Thank you to Harbest for hooking us up with their projects.

FREE To Harbest Sunshines

There are some people who are easy to work with and whom we look forward to collaborations....one of which is Toto of Harbest Seed Company.

Harbest is hosting us and has scheduled FREE seminars for Raising Sunshine Chicken:

WHERE: Harbest Demo Farm - Carmen, Rosales (200m from SM Rosales)
WHEN: 4th Saturday of June, June 27, 8am
WHO: Doc Rey

WHERE: Trece Martirez Provincial Capitol Compound, Farmers Hall
Office of the Provincial Agriculturist
WHEN: 1st Friday of August, August 07, 8am
WHO: Doc Rey

Thank you to Toto :)

Weekend Seminars In Batangas

We had a post recently on our visit to Talon Family Farm School in Talon, Tuy, Batangas.

That trip was exploratory, alliance, brainstorming and recreational all at the same time.

If you recognize the people in the photos, aside from the group behind the Talon Family Farm School, the others were from DA, Harbest, AANI and Solraya.

Weeklong and weekend seminars, stay-in, hands-on are being formulated now. The group wants to see to it that it is not just a learning experience. The participant goes home having a doable and workable entrepreneur project.

During last Sunday's Kaunlaran sa Agrikultura over DWWW774, this project had been discussed already.

Open to all. Great summer activity for families and students too.

Weekend modules are at PHP3500 per person. Includes board and lodging.

We will post full details as we go along.

Formosa Watermelons

Those of you who recognize the people in the agriculture world, will ask... "What are they up to"?

Well, those small watermelons were sort of the 2nd string in the the harvest but we were treated to really sweet tasting one. They are called Formosa Watermelons from Harbest Seed Company. Farmgate price was at php20/kilo. I bought 20kilos.

Did you think we'd all group together, travel that far for watermelons?

The real reason will be a topic for another posting.