Israeli gov’t offers agricultural training for Palaweños

The government of Israel is offering Palaweño students an 11-month agricultural training in the Middle East.

Ambassador Rafael Harpaz said Tuesday that the Philippines is facing a lot of problems in agriculture just like Israel in the past that is why they are offering the training.

“We are sharing our knowledge with Filipino. Israel and the Philippines are countries that are friends. What we will do is to train more than 600 Filipinos every year and they will come back here and implement all their achievements [and what they’ve learned],” Harpaz told local media on Tuesday.

Harfaz said Israel had faced water shortage and traffic but its government was able to resolve the two problems through technology.

In Palawan, he said the scholarship offer was made to students of the Western Philippines University (WPU) who are taking up courses on agriculture.

“We have 150 lucky students [from the Philippines], including 26 from WPU. We need to share knowledge particularly in post-harvest, dairy, irrigation and water management,” he said.

Harpaz said there are around 26 agriculture students in Israel this year from WPU. Their training includes four days on-the-job-training and one day class in a week with students also receiving allowances.

The Israeli government is willing to provide assistance to Filipinos in terms of agriculture and technology.

“We are willing to share our knowledge and it depends on what you need. We will help whatever we can do. We want to help as many Filipinos to go to Israel every year aside from the caregivers,” Harpaz said.

He added that the Philippines and Israel have a strong relationship.

Harpaz said his government is willing to strengthen and deepen the relationship through different forms of assistance.

Meanwhile, Harpaz also expressed his appreciation of the beauty of Palawan and Puerto Princesa City.

“I’ve been here two times but I’m still in love with the beauty of Palawan even in the taste of mango and cashew. Next time I will go for just a vacation,” he said.

He also invited all Filipinos to also visit Israel that offers visa-free travel.

Harpaz paid courtesy calls to Palawan local officials and also visited the underground river in Sitio Sabang, Barangay Cabayugan, Puerto Princesa City.