TOT on Rice-Based Integrated Farming System cum Organic Agriculture, a Response to the Conventional Way of Farming

San Mateo, Isabela.  The ongoing Season-long Training of Trainers (TOT) on Rice-based Integrated Farming System cum Organic Agriculture which was started last June 4, 2012 at ATI-RTC San Mateo, Isabela is one strategy to address conventional farming system of farmers in the region.  It has 19 participants composed of agricultural extension workers from the different local government units.  The training aims to enhance the participants’ knowledge, skills and hands-on experiences on rice-based integrated farming system and technology promotions via conduct of participatory technology demonstration and farmers’ field school for one cropping season.

On its implementation, the training employed lecture and participatory-discussion of topics related to rice as the base commodity and other components of integrated farming and organic agriculture and other special topics needed by the participants.  Brainstorming, workshop and group dynamics are also utilized for each group.  Method demonstration is also utilized for topics that need actual demonstration like preparation of natural farming inputs, use of minus-one element technique and leaf color chart, effective micro-organism, among others.  Learning by doing and discovery-based learning are also employed to actually observe the processes and learnings in certain topics.
In the participatory technology demonstration (PTD), there four treatments studied like the efficiency of different nutrient management strategies like enhance modified rapid composting (EMRC), effective micro-organism (EM), natural farming inputs and recommended rate of fertilizer with LCC. 
For the FFS, there are 133 farmer-participants participating the class with participatory learning sites.  The training is expected to end on October 26, 2012 with a site visit to successful integrated farms and interaction with successful farmers.