ROSARIO, La Union — Students here recently gained hands-on experience in rice farming while helping create La Union’s first rice paddy art in Barangay Tabtabungao, which serves as a learning site and agricultural display.
Twenty-seven senior high school trainees from Bersamin Agro-Industrial High School planted rice on a 1,380-sqm plot using NSIC Rc 506, an inbred variety known for its high yield of up to 10 t/ha, and IR 1552, a traditional purple rice variety.
Guided by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in Batac, Ilocos Norte, and farm owner Rolando Rocapor, the students followed a planting pattern that formed the image of Mayor Bellarmin A. Flores II.
Rocapor said the design was chosen to recognize the mayor’s support for agriculture in the municipality including initiatives to boost rice production such as the distribution of farm inputs.
Rocapor’s Farm, an accredited farm school of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and a designated agriculture learning site, regularly hosts trainees to connect classroom lessons with modern rice farming practices that are more progressive, productive, and efficient.
“The activity shows how experiential learning can help students develop technical farming skills while contributing to local efforts such as improving the municipality’s agricultural tourism,” Engr. John Mark Bumanglag of PhilRice Batac said.
