ATI Compound, El Salvador City---Being the second regional training center to mount a campaign drive and implementation of the Digital Farmers Program (DFP), the ATI-RTC X joins the Information Services Division (ISD) of the ATI-Central Office and Smart Communications Incorporated in the widespread promotion and implementation of DFP in the region.

Dubbed as “Digital Farmers Program 101”, this ATI-SMART initiative intends to bridge the digital divide and promote complementation between the highly IT-literate youth and today’s aging farmers, the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) in close coordination and partnership with Smart Communications, Inc. along with Probe Media Foundation, Inc. came up with the said initiative.

OIC-Center Director Maria Lydia A. Echavez welcomed the participants and event partners and further said “We are the second region to be provided with this kind of training, right after a successful run in Region-4A. It was an honor to be invited during the MOA signing between ATI and SMART last June and the output delivered by Region-4A were good so why not Region-X? And right now, with our farmer and youth tandem approach, we are off to a great start!”.

DFP is aimed at advancing the local agricultural industry's adoption of more innovative forms of technology in farming which would complement the next generation of farmers and the more experienced ones. The farming knowledge, wisdom and experience of the more experienced farmers would definitely benefit the country’s future farmers while equipping the farmers of today with the necessary skills requiring the use of internet and sophisticated technologies. The program initiative is to keep abreast with the changing times and cope with the alarming decline of farmers in the country.

The program scheme is to partner the next generation farmers, who also happen to be internet-savvy and ICT-literate with their farmer parents in a mentoring and coaching session regarding smartphone basics, social media, messaging and file sharing applications, as well as mobile photography and videography, among others. Consequently, the DFP aims to produce various agriculture-related content which will be developed by these farmer-youth pairs and will be uploaded and shared in different ICT platforms.

“Aside from training you the basics of DFP, you will be taught to create content which with your best farming practices and technologies, you can share them on social media to other farmers in order to generate discussions or to attract the youth and for them to appreciate agriculture.” ISD Chief Antonieta J. Arceo said in her interaction with the participants.

TV5 Public Affairs Head Jay Orense shared to the participants effective content development and how creating quality stories can change lives even by using mobile phones. While Information Officer II Honeylou C. Bastasa demonstrated a step-by-step guide on how to access and enroll online ATI's online courses through www.e-extension.gov.ph.

ATI Northern Mindanao officially started implementing the program this Ocotober 2019 in a series of trainings such as DFP 101, DFP 102, and DFP 103 with its first stop at the center then transpiring with two batches later at Jaya Secret Garden. (co-written by Vic Thor A. Palarca, Media Production Specialist II and Honeylou C. Bastasa, Information Officer II))