Director for Extension and Community Services

1.  Directs planning, implementation and evaluation of extension and other development programs to insure effective technology promotion and dissemination in target communities; 

2. Coordinates with other units of the College, local government units (LGUs), regional and national government organizations, non-government organizations (NGOs) and people’s organizations (POs) to bring about complementation and partnership; and 

3. In the absence of the President or VP-R&E, represents the Extension Program in appropriate bodies/offices, chairs, faculty and staff meetings and resolves conflicts based on established policies and sound management practices.

Carllos Hilado Memorial State College aims to perform one of its mandated functions that is Extension, which is promoting educational, socio-cultural, and advancement by developing collaboration, relationship, and partnership with the local communities and the nearby provinces and regions.

The College of Business Management and Accountancy, CHMSC-Fortune Towne Campus sees its role in community engagement as a partner in developing small-scale entrepreneurs to help eradicate poverty and contribute to the economic growth in the community.

This paved way for the Graduate School MBA and MPA, along with six programs namely BSBA, BSE, BSOA, BSA, BSACT under the College of Business Management and Accountancy (CBMA) of Carlos Hilado Memorial State College (CHMSC)-Fortune Towne Campus to initiate the “CBMA Pangabuhian Program” to address the gaps identified among microbusiness owners in the partner community.  CHMSC also forged linkages with other agencies, both public and private, to sufficiently address the needs of the target community.

Together with cooperating agencies/organizations such as the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Association of Negros Producers (ANP), and Food Technology Department of CHMSC-Talisay Campus, the program focused on conducting livelihood skills trainings. This is how the two (2) Pangabuhian Projects were born the : Pangabuhian Project for Brgy. Igmayaan-Pandanun, Don Salvador Benedicto (Project for Unemployed Mothers) and Pangabuhian sa Kapehan for Brgy. Mailum-ilijan, Bago City (Project for Coffee Farmers).

Pangabuhian Project for Brgy. Igmayan-Pandanun at Don Salvador Benedicto, was implemented last August 2017 and phase 1 of the project ended this June 2022.  This project is a collaborative community engagement among the different programs of the College of Business Management and Accountancy (CBMA) namely, BS in Entrepreneurship (BSE), BS in Business Administration (BSBA), BS in Accountancy (BSA), BS in Management Accounting (BSMA), BS in Information System (BSIS), BS in Office Administration (BSOA), Masters in Business Administration (MBA), and Masters in Public Administration.  The project aimed to help unemployed (or underemployed) mothers earn additional income to sustain the needs of their families. 

The outreach project was crafted based on the study “Mothers of Barangays Igmaya-an and Pandanun:  Profile, Business Preference and Training Needs” (Leaded by the Extension Coordinator, Mr. Jethru Dagunan, 2017).    The study showed that the mothers were mostly middle-aged, married and high school graduates.  Most of them fall within the income range of Php. 5,000.00 and below, which implies their need to find alternative sources of income to support their families.  They expressed the need for additional knowledge and skills especially in venturing into business.  Cooking ranked first in terms of skills they wanted to learn; hence, it was the first skills training conducted by the livelihood program.

Likewise, the planning of business was integrated in the program implementation. Simple bookkeeping, business planning followed by managing business, startup business, managing business transactions and financial reports and budgeting respectively. 

The project focused on enhancing the skills of unemployed 50 mothers of Brgy. Igmayaan, Don Salvador Benidicto, to help them have additional income to sustain needs of their family. Strategies used were, assessment and prioritization of the needs, implementation of the interventions such as capability-building, techno demonstration and community organizing, monitoring and evaluation and impact assessment.

Monitoring and evaluation results showed that the extension projects have improved the marketing strategies of small business owners. With DOST and DTI, CHMSC-FT has helped small business owners put the appropriate label and logo on their products, which increases their brand visibility. Since the seller's contact information is on the label or packaging of the product, consumers directly contact them for more orders. Some of them also tried using Facebook as their platform in selling, but most of them need to enhance their skills in online marketing because the selling of their products was affected by the pandemic.   One beneficiary said that learning simple bookkeeping from the training helped her a lot in doing business. Aside from starting a business, these women also found happiness in what they have done. One beneficiary mentioned that the training had improved her leadership skills even if she was only an elementary graduate. She was able to coordinate with different agencies as she tried to help her co-members and her family. "Attending CHMSC-FT's training is never a waste of time," one said. 

The women beneficiaries of the extension projects have become empowered small business owners. The joy of the women's faces shows gratitude to the people who shared their expertise and helped them sell quality products.

However, the beneficiaries still want to learn more and attend training. They want to participate in training on planting or gardening and anything related to becoming plant entrepreneurs. They also wish to find agencies that would provide capital and help them find packaging at a lower price. Moreover, many small business owners in Don Salvador Benedicto need help in packaging and marketing their products because their income were affected by the pandemic.

Bago City, tagged as a second-class city in the Province of Negros Occidental, Philippine, has a total area of 40,120 hectares and a population of 177, 290 people according to the 2019 census. The City is composed of 24 barangays, 23 of which are rural and agri-aquacultural areas.  Only 1 barangay comprises the urban area. The city’s geographical terrain is mainly agricultural and coastal which makes farming and fishing as the main sources of income. The City is rugged with limited infrastructure and approximately 91% or 160,988 people of the City’s population (2019 figure) live in rural areas and depend almost entirely on agriculture and aquaculture for their livelihood.

However, agriculture only accounts for 20.40% of the city’s economy and the local City’s GDP was itself just 46, 534.73 per capita in 2019 according to the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) data. The city’s economy is heavily reliant on Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) from commercial, institutional, tourism and agro-industries which are ultimately unsustainable. However, the Government has determined plans to develop the agriculture sector with a focus on cash crops, adding value and supporting local businesses. Increasing trade in important products such as coffee is a key pillar of the local government’s plan to raise household incomes in rural areas.

Coffee is one of the most important crops in the city, but only delivering an income of P785, 400 in 2019. Some 60% of this income goes directly to the growers, 86% of whom are smallholder farmers. Coffee is grown in 3 barangays in the city and provides a livelihood for 120 households. Robusta coffee grown in highland areas dominates production accounting for 96% of production in 2018-2019. Small amounts of Arabica coffee account for the remainder of production. The major production area (producing ~24.45 metric tons or higher per annum) is Barangay Ilijan. The remaining 2 barangays accounted for 15.04 metric tons of products in 2018 - 2019.

The Coffee Roadmap Industry 2017 – 2022 underlines that if there will be an investment in the coffee sector, this will benefit the majority of the rural population in the city and contribute positively to the nation’s implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

This paved way for the Graduate School along with six programs under the College of Business Management and Accountancy (CBMA) of Carlos Hilado Memorial State College (CHMSC)-Fortune Towne Campus to initiate the “Pangabuhian sa Kapehan” to address the gaps identified among coffee farmers and entrepreneurs in the Brgy. Mailum and Brgy. Ilijan, Bago City.  CHMSC also forged linkages with other agencies, both public and private, to sufficiently address the needs of the target community.

The College of Business Management and Accountancy, CHMSC-Fortune Towne Campus sees its role in community engagement as a partner in developing small-scale entrepreneurs to help eradicate poverty and contribute to the economic growth in Brgy. Mailum, and Brgy Ilijan, Bago City, Negros Occidental.

 Pangabuhian sa Kapehan which started way back in July 2019 was designed to empower coffee farmers and entrepreneurs to put up their own enterprise through livelihood skills training, business management capability building, values formation, and other forms of support.  

The primary direct beneficiaries/participants of the project are the members of the smallholder coffee growing and processing groups involved in the LGU Bago existing projects on Coffee – Cacao Industry. These are the Rafael Salas Integrated Coffee Farmers ASSOCIATION (RASICFA), Mailum Organic Village Association (MOVA) and The Friends of the Highlands Agrarian Reform Cooperative (FHARC). The members of these groups are all households involved in small-scale production of coffee, some households are involved in coffee processing but in some cases, processing has become a centralized activity of the growing and processing group.   

Together with cooperating agencies/organizations such as the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the program focused on conducting livelihood skills training to 80 coffee farmers and entrepreneurs of Bgry. Mailum, and Brgy, Ilijan, Bago City. The participants were identified in coordination with the City of Agriculturist Office of Bago City.   Of the 80 participants who participated in the training, 80% percent were able to increase their coffee production, engage in coffee business and earn additional income based on an assessment made on March 26, 2022.

For CBMA Pangabuhian Program Phase II, there are 3 new projects to be implemented this coming A.Y. 2022-2023. The focus is the expansion of the program to other barangays and the developing tourism industry of Don Salvador Benedicto and also the Entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and attitude of local microbusiness owners of the partner communities (Bago City and DSB).

Stakeholders served as one of the pillars of a successful and effective extension programs/projects in the community. Their participation in the formulation of extension agenda is very significant in coming up with a reliable, valuable and aligned priority thrust of extension services that will serve as basis in formulating extension project proposals. A conference meeting was conducted involving the attendance of the representatives of different sectors in the community. Agreement in coming up with the extension agenda was accomplish through several of suggestions and options being laid out in the body. The matters were holistically discussed and agreed based on the existing priority thrust stated in the sustainable developmental goals of the government, existing needs of the community, available resources and probable attainability of the goal.