Rural women of CamSur innovate squash products

By Annalyn Gallego

The Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office 5 (DA RFO 5), in collaboration with the Provincial Government of Camarines Sur, through the Office of the Provincial Agriculturists (OPA), conducted a training on Zero-Waste Squash Utilization to rural women of the province held consecutively in Sipocot, Pili, and Iriga last week.

This eco-friendly livelihood program benefitted hundreds of rural women from the different municipalities of Camarines Sur. Instead of selling their squash products for the cheapest price, they were trained other ways to process squash products and to gain more profit. Among their innovative nutritious recipes produced were squash doughnut, squash noodles, rice squash roll, squash leche flan, squash halaya, squash seeds crunch, and kutsintangkalabasa.

Prior to this, the participants were taught proper food handling, food sanitation, and the different food composition of squash and its nutrients.

The training aims to upgrade squash products, especially during peak seasons where it is usually sold at the lowest price value, to manage squash products while avoiding wastage materials, to promote the conservation of natural resources, and to gain higher value of squash.

The provincial government through its partner agencies continuously conducts trainings on livelihood programs to ensure that its constituents are provided with different sources of income. Other livelihood program to be conducted is the meat processing training on December, 2018.