Dept of Agriculture’s school-on- air reaps 500 farmers-graduates

The school-on-air students from the municipality of Ragay attend their virtual graduation.

Some 500 registered rice farmers from the province of Camarines Sur graduated from the training course on ATIng Kaugnay School on-the-Air (SOA) Program on the Production of High-Quality Inbred Rice and Seeds and Farm mechanization under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) Program.

The SOA program is one of the Agricultural Training Institute’s distance learning modality to promote the complete package of rice farming technologies. It is a series of radio programs, which present the subject matter systematically and progressively.

The two-month modified SOA under RCEF ran from Aug. 4 to Sept. 24, 2020, instead of four months. It was aired every Tuesday and Thursday from 5:30-6:30 PM over DWNX 91.1 MHz FM and DWNX 16.11 kHz AM. Also, this was streamed via YouTube and Facebook Live thru ATI Bicol #SarabayChannel.

The training’s main objective is to promote the updated technologies on the production of high-quality inbred rice and seeds and farm mechanization in the region.

Participants of SOA were from 25 towns and two cities in Camarines Sur namely: Baao; Balatan; Bato; Bombon; Buhi; Bula; Cabusao; Canaman; Del Gallego; Gainza; Lagonoy; Libmanan; Lupi; Magarao; Minalabac; Nabua; Ocampo; Pamplona; Pili; Ragay; Sagñay; San Fernando; San Jose; Sipocot; Tinambac; Iriga City; and Naga City.