Rural farmers rely on radio as prime source of information
Radio once again proved its superiority and effectiveness in educating and transferring agricultural technologies among rural farmers when a total of 203 farmer-students graduated on the School-on-the-Air (SOA) on PalayCheck system in the province of Antique recently.
Mr. Teodolfo Gindap, a farmer from Barbaza, Antique said that radio farm programs especially the SOA complements the role of agricultural technicians in their area.
"I have learned to use the drum seeder in my farm where I have saved as much as four to five bags of seeds per hectare compared to direct seeding method," he added.
Mr. Gindap stressed that the use of Minus One Element Technique (MOET) and Leaf Color Chart (LCC) guided him in determining the exact amount, the right timing and the kind of fertilizer to use at different rice development stages.
Mrs. Cresilda Fermin, a woman farmer from Brgy. Egaña, Sibalom, Antique, shared that Palay Check System will have good results if consistently followed by the farmers. She pointed out the importance of good land preparation and use of quality seeds as factors to be considered for increased production.
Ms. Jinah T. Obordo, Chief, Agricultural Knowledge Management Services of Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) 6, said that the graduation exercises were just beginnings of apostolate vocation of the farmers to share, encourage and influence other farmers to follow the eight Keychecks on Palay Check System.
While Governor Sally Zaldivar-Perez encouraged the farmers to bring out their ideas, make suggestions and do innovations in farming for the attainment of provincial rice sufficiency program..
"I hope that your learnings on the PalayCheck system SA will have a trickle-down effect to other farmers and I assure you of the support of the Provincial Agriculturist in all your programs," Gov. Perez added.
Barbaza Municipal Mayor Faith Francisco challenged the farmer-graduates to put their learnings into action for them to reap the fruits of early wake-up for the SOA program. She also expects more farmers to graduate on succeeding SOAs and adopt new farming technologies to improve rice production.
The SOA on PalayCheck System was conducted by the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) in coordination with the Local Government Unit of Antique and the Department of Agriculture-RFU 6.
The three-month long SOA on PalayCheck System which started on July 2008 was aired over DYKA 801 AM - Radio Veritas-Antique from 5:30am to 6:00am and was hosted by Ms. Nikki Gallego and Mr. Tony Alacapa.
Their SOA program was complemented by a techno-demo farm in barangay Beri, Barbaza wherein SOA enrollees were able to apply their learnings directly in the fields
The farmer-graduates each received two kilograms registered seeds (NSIC 144), 2 kgs. Hybrid corn seeds (TSG-89), assorted vegetable seeds, 20 piglets from Tyo Nardo Swine Dispersal Enterprises and two piglets from the provincial veterinarian. They were also given PalayCheck T-shirts and agricultural reading materials from the DA-RAFID 6. (JEEO/RAFID 6)