DA-CAR Conducts Auditing Training for Heirloom Rice Farmers

In support to the Heirloom Rice Research and Development Project, the DA-CAR conducted a Cooperative Internal Auditing Training for the members of the heirloom rice processing and marketing cooperatives at the Rajah Soliman Hotel, Baguio City on March 22-24, 2017.

Around 36 members from the Kalinga Rice Terraces Farmers Agricultural Coop (KRTFAC) in Kalinga, Mountain Province Heirloom Rice Agricultural Coop (MPHRAC) in Mountain Province and Benguet Heirloom Rice Farmers Agricultural Coop (BHRFAC) in Benguet attended the said training.

The training was undertaken through the initiative of the Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Division (AMAD) to help the heirloom rice farmers in managing their cooperatives efficiently and effectively by equipping them with the essentials of good cooperative business management.

It was identified during the training that some of the participants who are tasked to do the auditing for their cooperatives didn’t have the knowledge needed to do the job.

“That is the purpose of this training,” Henson M. Eyeg, resource speaker of the training told the participants. Auditing is an accumulation of knowledge, we improve as time pass by and as we review our errors, he said.

Eyeg discussed about the Financial Statement Audit as well as management audit and also facilitated the workshop on Internal Audit Report.

“Hopefully, you will apply what you have learned from this training and succeed”, said Jean Mayos, Agriculturist I of AMAD. The success of the department is evident in the progress of you farmers, she ended.

Meanwhile, the participants also had a meeting with the project leaders of Heirloom Rice Research and Development Project. The group agreed upon the heirloom rice by products their cooperative would want to produce using the non-marketable rice such as broken grains and rigid glutinous rice. The KRTFAC agreed to make inanjila, MPHRAC to make nilapet, suman, cookies, rice tea and the BHRFAC agreed to cookies and rice wine.

Virgie Tapat, head of the project suggested the cooperatives to adopt the existing local products and improve or modify the quality in terms of shelf life, packaging and others.

In line with this meeting, DA-CAR through the project will soon be conducting trainings on heirloom rice processing.//