Written by the Web Team
Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija – Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala, together with Africans, Koreans, and Filipino farmers will converge at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) Central Experiment Station here for this year’s second Farmers’ Field Day and Forum on Sept. 20.
The bi-annual event will highlight the latest developments in rice science such as improved rice cultivars from Korea and the success of a demonstration farm using PalayCheck, an integrated system for managing rice crops managed by African trainees.
“This field day is more special than the previous field days we conducted because our technologies are presented to international clienteles,” Celia G. Abadilla of the Technology Management and Services Division and chair of the activity said.
Korea, a first class agro-industrialized economy that averages 7.3 t/ha in rice yield, is sharing its technologies through the Korean Project for International Agriculture Center (KOPIA) to assist the Philippines become rice self-sufficient by 2013.
At the same time, 25 extension workers from Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya are learning the PalayCheck System at PhilRice since June to increase rice production in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The African trainees in PhilRice are also acquiring knowledge and skills on extension strategies and rice cultivation technologies that can be adapted in the world`s second largest and most populous continent.
More than 1,500 farmers from PhilRice’s location-specific technology development project sites in Luzon are also expected to attend the half-day activity, while micro-finance organizations such as the Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Inc. and the Tulay sa Pag-unlad, Inc will learn about PhilRice’s relevant technologies to their project sites.