The Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Program has produced 575 new rice specialists through the Rice Specialists Training Course (RSTC) from 2019-2023 to help the rice farmers compete in the international rice market.
Lea dR. Abaoag, training component lead of the RCEF Rice Extension Services Program at Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), said the RSTC program is a comprehensive course designed to develop trainer-leaders.
From the original RSTC curriculum, new technologies were integrated to address the changing rice production environment to help the farmers become competitive. Mindsetting through the Transformational Leadership modules was embedded to strengthen their sense of mission of helping the rice farmers.
With the developments, significant increase in knowledge among participants, with an average gain of over 50% across all participants, were recorded.
From the original RSTC curriculum, new technologies were integrated to address the changing rice production environment to help the farmers become competitive. Mindsetting through the transformational leadership modules was embedded to strengthen their sense of mission of helping the rice farmers.
With the developments, significant increase in knowledge among participants, with an average gain of over 50% across all participants, was recorded.
Abaoag said that the COVID-19 pandemic has helped them recalibrate the curriculum’s training approach.
“We adopted a blended approach, so we had to make several adjustments in training delivery to ensure that the training course will produce transformed rice specialists,” she said.
They also employed strategies to enhance the capacity of the DA-PhilRice branch stations. Training teams were also mentored in implementing the blended approach.
The RCEF RESP, which is a component of Republic Act 11203 or Rice Tariffication Law, allots P10 billion fund every year for the rice farmers. Sponsored by Sen. Cynthia Villar, the program is a six-year government initiative to help the farmers compete in the international rice market. The local government units and lawmakers assist in its implementation.
