66 farmers complete 5 month School-on-the-Air (SOA) on Smart Rice Agriculture, Graduation Ceremony held today
 
Sixty-six (66) farmers coming from 11 associations have successfully completed the five-month School-on-the-Air (SOA) on Smart Rice Agriculture dubbed as "Palay Aralan: Makabagong Pagsasaka sa Himpapawid". The graduation ceremony was held today, November 10,2021 1:00 pm at the LGU Complex Gymnasium, Calongay,Pilar,Sorsogon.
 
The SOA-SRA is a project of the Department of Agriculture (DA) undertaken jointly with the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) Bicol and LGU Pilar thru the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist (OMAg) headed by Mr. Victor Yee.
 

photos: OPIO

Mr. Michael Villezar, Information Officer II/SOA Coordinator from ATI Bicol commended the efforts of all the graduates who showed dedication to learn through the use of social media platforms regardless of the changes in the technologies. He undescores the importance of the program to boost the palay production to help the local farmers despite of the ongoing pandemic. Likewise, he urged the graduates to continue learning the process to later on impart their knowledge to their fellow farmers.
 
President of each associations extended their heartfelt gratitude to the departments who made the program possible and for the continous support to the farmers of Pilar especially for bringing the projects to every barangay.
 
On behalf of Hon. Mayor Carolyn C. Sy-Reyes, Hon. Councilor Emmanuel Sia congratulates the graduates as they play a big role in keeping the country's rice production sustainable for the benefit of every Filipino and the country as a whole.
 
The program on the other hand, aims to help catalyze agriculture modernization through massive and sustained education of smallholder ricefarmers and local intermediaries on modern and innovative technologies and approaches on smart rice production. The 2020 Revised PalayCheck System was used to speed up information dissemination on latest technologies on rice farming.
 
Among the highlights of the event were the awarding of certificate of completion and tool kits to the graduates.
 
sources: DA-ATI ,  OMag