CARMEN, BOHOL – The Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center 7 (ATI-) conducted a one-day Digital Farmers Program (DFP)-101 to ten pairs of youth and farmers of the Samahanag Nayon Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CSNMPC) at Marbezen Inn, this town last August 11, 2021.
As a background, the Digital Farmers Program (DFP) is a project between the Agricultural Training Institute (DA-ATI) and SMART Communications, Inc. which consists of a ladderized approach in teaching small-scale farmers nationwide with basic digital tools and technologies, particularly social media.
Moreover, the project aims to be a precursor to the Government’s goal of advancing the local industry’s adoption to more advanced forms of technology in farming such as---the use of drones, analytics, precision farming, artificial intelligence (A.I.), climate and weather monitoring, Information Technology (I.T.) solutions, digital apps, e-money, blockchain, and other multi-layer platforms---that would necessitate basic knowledge of emerging technologies and deeper comprehension of its potential by its end-users.
The DFP-101 for CSNMPC members is a product of a meeting with ATI in Central Office, SMART, and PAKISAMA Visayas through their Coordinator, Mr. Hal Atienza, in late November of 2020 wherein the latter’s group in Bohol is interested to undergo the Training on DFP 101 since they have a program to provide loans to their members for gadgets (smartphones and tablets). Hence, they would like their members to have training on DFP so that they will be capacitated on how to use this, especially for their farming activities.
The original schedule of the training was last April 20, 2021, but due to the rising cases of COVID-19 and through the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF’s) advisory to ceased gathering a crowd of 20, thus, the DFP was temporarily canceled until further notice. It was on August 11, 2021, which the activity was conducted successfully.
The pool of trainers during the activity was Merrian Piquero Soliva, PhD., Media Production Specialist II at the same time the Project Officer with Doris Isabel J. Racho, Information Officer II of ATI-7 with the support of CNMPC Staff, Virginia Amoncio, Manager, and Jocelyn Lorete, Project Officer.
Gracing during the activity was Mr. Hal Atienza, PAKISAMA-Visayas Coordinator via google meet with Arlene Cabusao, Municipal Agriculturist of the Local Government Unit of Carmen, Bohol, and CSNMPC Chairman, Eufemio O. Abaniel, MPA.