RT ROMUALDEZ, Agusan del Norte- The Regional Technical Working Group (RTWG) of the School-On-the-Air (SOA) Program on Smart Rice Agriculture (SRA) coordinated with the provincial and municipal Farmcasters and Media Partners on February 3, 2021.

This is to harmonize activities specifically in implementing the SOA program on SRA in five provinces of Region 13.

The RTWG comprised the Department of Agriculture-Caraga as lead of the program together with the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center (ATI-RTC) 13 and Philippine Rice Research Institute- (PhilRice) Agusan Experiment Station.

Roles and responsibilities of each office was presented by Emmylou T. Presilda, Chief of the DA Caraga Regional Agriculture and Fisheries Information Section (RAFIS). She encouraged everyone to participate in the said SOA program which is to be conducted nationwide. This is along with the mandate of the DA Secretary William Dar.
Farmcasters from Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Butuan City and Bislig City participated in the said meeting. On the other hand, media partners such as Radyo Pilipinas, Hope radio station, and Philippine Information Agency (PIA) also joined in.

Several agreements were made during the meeting such as delineation of functions, roles and responsibilities, target enrollees per province and the next target schedule for the briefing with the presence of the Provincial Agriculturists.

The SOA SRA which is set to launch in April, targeted 3,000 enrollees comprising farmers, AEWs, youth and students in the region. Partnerships and collaboration with the partner agencies and media outlets specifically, community radio stations are needed to come up with the target number of participants.

Fil Victor Babanto, Information Officer III along with Ginalyn Arbutante, Information Officer II represented ATI-Caraga.

The said coordination meeting was held at Philippine Rice Research Institute-(PhilRice) Agusan Experiment Station based in Brgy. Basilisa, RT Romualdez, Agusan del Norte.