“This training is very rich in information, specifically on how to appreciate social media platforms in agribusiness and inspire farmers to produce quality farm products and sell online. “, said Charlotte Ytang. Ms. Ytang is one of the graduates who completed the Digital Farmer Program (DFP) 102 course conducted by the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center X via online platform from September 13-16, 2021 at 8:00 AM- 12:00 PM.

DFP 102 is the second level of the ladderized DFP course. DFP aims to strengthen digital transformation in the farming communities through producing digitally-confident and inspired farmers; bridge the gap between agriculture and the digital technology; and encourage youth participation in farming.

There were 11 pairs of farmer-youth tandem graduated the online training. Majority of the participants were graduates of the first batch of DFP 101 course in 2019 and in 2020 while four are Non-DFP 101 graduate. Participants were from the different parts of Lanao del Norte, Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon.

DFP 102 focused on advance social media applications and smartphone operation, introduced more agri-related applications, e-commerce apps, mobile money platforms and introduce easy-to-use online editing tool to help farmers create engaging social media contents for their online business pages.

After discussions, workshops and return-demos were conducted. Participants were able to create their own Facebook business pages, and their own social media marketing plan which they sent via FB messenger group chat created only for the batch.

Participants were very appreciative of the activity despite the limits and some setbacks of distance learning .

“The topics are very useful, and it can help engage our farming business into online [selling]. It could help us reach out to more customers online and promote our business, especially now that we are in a pandemic.
We have to lessen the face-to-face transaction; so we have to make online transactions possible.”, Kinnah Bermoy , one of the youth participants of the training said.

She added that her Father was even so interested about the introduced digital media platforms, “Age really doesn’t matter in learning new things,”she added.
Ms. Bermoy is the daughter of the owner of the Ferberg Integrated Organic Farm, a learning site in Region 10.

DFP uses the collaborative learning approach through the farmer-youth partnership where youth’s expertise in the digital technology is maximized and shared to the farmer and boosting his confidence in using digital media. DFP is a program of ATI in partnership with Smart Communications which was launched in 2019 which pilot batches were conducted in the region.

The second and third batch of the training will be conducted on October 4-5, 2021 and October 6-7, 2021 respectively.