Provincial Agriculturist Dennis C. Leopoldo of Misamis Occidental, during the SOA-SRA Orientation, the last leg of the series of orientations conducted by the Center.
EL SALAVADOR City, MIS. OR. – School on-the-Air (SOA) on Smart Rice Agriculture (SOA-SRA) or Palay Aralan sa Radyo will be heard in all the provinces of Region 10 starting May 25, 2021. This national program will be conducted by ATI-RTC 10, in collaboration with the DA- Regional Field Unit 10, PhilRice and other Government Agencies, and the Local Government Units. With more than 4,000 identified listeners, the program will be aired in nine pre-identified private and government-owned radio stations spread in the entire region.
Radio broadcasting has always been the conventional mode of transmission in delivering information. It has been proven effective in several SOA programs conducted by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the ATI in the past years. This time, the program aims to modernize agriculture by mobilizing and sharing smart rice technologies to sustain the education of smallholder farmers and local intermediaries on modern and innovative technologies and approaches on smart rice production as the critical mass in maximizing rice production for sustainability.
The SOA on rice production will talk not only about how to produce rice, but most importantly to produce rice using the new technologies. Several internet applications will be introduced that will help the farmers to be updated of the weather forecast for even months and find solutions to some rice farming problems, and learn how to use farm machineries. As what Provincial Agriculturist of Misamis Occidental Mr. Dennis C. Leopoldosaid during the SOA Orientation, “farm machineries are available, some are even distributed, but many farmers do not know where to avail of it, or how to operate or to use them. This is high time that many farmers will be informed through radio broadcast.”
The Radio Stations to broadcast the SOA-SRA are DXMU FM of CMU, DXDB of Malaybalay City, and Radyo Kilat of Quezon, all for Bukidnon; DXNE FM and LCB FM of Lanao del Norte; Savior Radio and Strong Radio for Misamis Oriental; and DXDD Ozamiz City and DXCT Tangub city for Misamis Occidental. The program will be aired until August 24, 2021 for the closing and graduation ceremony.