Written by the Web Team
It’s the teachers turn to be students – in farming.
As part of the Sagot ko ang magulang ko: Isang kampanya upang hikayatin ang mga kabataang maging infomediaries, PhilRice trained more than 60 teachers of Department of Education’s Technical Vocational Unit on the infomediary module.
The infomediary module is composed of a series of modules on rice production and information hubs in Philippine agriculture. The teachers from all over the country are set to integrate the infomediary module in their curriculum for the academic year 2013-2014.
Rice production topics in the module include a primer on the Philippine rice industry, upland rice farming, morphology and major diseases of the rice plant, overview of the PalayCheck System, crop establishment, growth stages of the rice plant, biotechnology, insect pest management, and nutrient management (MOET and LCC).
Practical exercises on machine operations, and modified and wetbed methods of crop establishment were also conducted.
“I thought I was already well-equipped on rice production. The training, however, made me realize that there’s a lot more to be learned, which can be useful to the farmers in our community,” said Alejandro Iñigo, an Agronomy instructor at Floridablanca National Agricultural School in Pampanga.
The week-long training also highlighted the Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank (PRKB) and the PhilRice Text Center.
The PRKB, developed under the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture (OpAPA), is a website that contains most information an individual has to know about rice farming in the Philippines. Its offline version was also introduced to the participants since Internet access was an issue in some of the participating schools.
The PhilRice Text Center, also developed under OpAPA, is a texting platform that answers queries on rice production through text messaging.
“We will be working on transferring the information to our students. We hope that they would be able to appreciate farming,” said Corazon Pascua, Agriculture instructor at the Eastern Pangasinan Agricultural College.
The participants were also given reading materials on rice production for their school libraries, and seeds for the rice garden in their school yards.
“We will use the books and modules provided by PhilRice in teaching the students as well as the farmers about rice production,” said Joseph Maestre, an Agriculture instructor at Samar National Pilot Opportunity School of Agriculture.
