The Don Bosco Foundation for Sustainable Development, Inc. (DBFSDI), formerly the Don Bosco Diocesan Youth Center, Inc. (DBDYCI) has its roots in the Diocesan Youth Program of the Diocese of Kidapawan. In 1985, a program or apostolate for the youth of the Diocese of Kidapawan was launched in time of the International Year of the Youth. This was spearheaded by Ms. Maria Helenita "Betsy" L. Ruizo, a former philosophy instructor of Xavier University, Ateneo de Cagayan in Cagayan de Oro City, who was invited by Fr. Alfredo Epiz, OMI to join the Diocesan Pastoral Team of the Diocese of Kidapawan. Joining her were Nestor Gamela, Willy Flores, Dinia Laurequez and Romano "Nono" S. Laurilla.

After running the program for more than a year, the youth staff realized that the program lacked relevance in terms of concretely responding to the priority needs and problems of the youth. Consistently, in all the youth consultations conducted in 1985 through 1986, the following came out, namely (in order of priority): poverty, political insecurity/harassment, disunity/vices among youth. It was then that the youth staff resolved to address the problems concretely via socio-economic development initiatives. Value formation, conscientization, cultural and sports activities were good but not enough. Without concrete alternatives, it was like driving the youth to the hills or worse as irrelevant as when I was hungry, you gave me a bible. Thus, the concept of the Don Bosco Diocesan Youth Center evolved, a concrete response to the poverty situation of the rural out-of-school youth. The idea was supported by then bishop of Kidapawan, Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos, DD.

The project in mind was the development of a demonstration farm on organic farming where both production and research can be done on organic farming gradually developing the skills, capacity and confidence to do extension work among young farmers. The first demonstration and food production farm was established in Batasan, Makilala, Cotabato, a 2.4 hectare land donated by Betsy's family to the Diocese of Kidapawan in 1977. The farm was started in 1988 via volunteer work of the youth and a PhP 50,000.00 seed money from the Diocese of Kidapawan. In 1990 it received assistance from HEKS of Switzerland and in 1992 it was assisted by MISEREOR of Germany. A second demonstration farm in Amas, Kidapawan City was developed in 1993 with support from Conferenza Episcopale Italiana. The farm is on a 5.6 hectare land donated to the Diocese of Kidapawan by Ms. Demetria Ferrer.

With the experience gained on organic farming from these farms, the youth felt ready for extension work. It begun to train in extension work in March 1993 through monthly sessions and launched its first foray into extension in September 1993. It started with the youth by tapping the services of the part-time youth coordinators of the parishes. It started implementing 4 programs funded by DKA of Austria: Training and Extension, Integrated Research Testing and Development, Youth Camp and Demonstration Farm and Seed Banks. In 1994 June, it acquired a legal personality as a civil society organization named The Don Bosco Diocesan Youth Center, Inc. (DBDYCI). Extension work begun earnestly in 1994. A critical point was reached in 1994 when the staff realized that targeting the youth in extension was not strategically sound because the youth were not listened to and were not part of decision making in the households especially in critical matters involving farming. There was also a demand from adult farmers to be included in the program. Thus, a shift of focus from youth to whole farming families was effected. In 1993 September, we had zero (0) farmer-partners or adopters but the number gradually grew.

A turning point of the organization was when it encountered earnestly biodynamic agriculture from Mr. Nicky Perlas in 1994 October. After validating and experimenting with the new set of methods, it begun to introduce biodynamics to its farmers. Thus in 1995 and 1996, there was a significant growth of the number of farming families which became partners, from zero (0) we had grown to 168 families. In 1997-2000, the program Integrated Extension Program on Sustainable Agriculture was implemented with co-financing support from the European Commission and DKA of Austria. The target was 1,175 farming families. By the end of the project, we got more than 1,300 farming families. A second phase was implemented. This time the target was 3,000 farming families. By 2003, end of project, we had more than 3,300 farming families. The programs and services expanded during this period as concrete responses to the growing needs of the partners in the communities. Today, with the support of DKA and ADA from Austria, the organization is still at the forefront of Sustainable Agriculture initiatives specifically on the promotion of the applied science of biodynamics in agriculture targeting 5,000 farming families or at least 1% of the total agricultural croplands of the province of Cotabato by end of 2007.

Today, the Don Bosco Foundation for Sustainable Development, Inc. has been serving as a major learning center on biodynamic sustainable agriculture.