The Rice Crop Manager (RCM), a comprehensive decision support tool for increasing yields and income of farmers invaded the rice areas in Central Visayas covering the provinces of Bohol, Siquijor, Cebu and Negros Oriental.

A total of 111 rice technicians and local farmer technicians (LFTs) from the four (4) provinces in Region 7 trained under the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office-7 (DA-RFO7) and the Agricultural Training Institute – Region 7 (ATI-R7) on the basic use of the ICT-based tool to capacitate them on providing fertilizer management, seed rate, weed management, and crop health management to rice farmers.

During the training, selected DA-LGU staff, particularly rice technicians were coached to handle the RCM and generation of its recommendation. Operate RCM in both online and offline mode using a laptop, tablet, or smartphone; Print the one-page RCM recommendation from a laptop, tablet, or smartphone; and Explain RCM questions and recommendations generated from a farmer interview.

The regional training team include RCM Regional Focal Gracelen C. Dagala, RCM Operations Focal Jonathan Pierre Limocon, RCM-Bohol Focal Ma. Corazon Palileo, and ATI-R7 RCM Focal Ma. Gracia Soliva-Pungay.

After the training, the rice technicians were deployed in their respective areas to interview rice farmers and provide fertilizer recommendation. Through the RCM, the farmers will have easy access to updated information for managing their rice crop every season to help increase their yield and income.

With this tool, farmers are encouraged to follow the recommendation provided by the RCM to optimize the farmers’ yield. If recommendations will be followed, the country will have additional production of 20,000 metric tons of milled rice for each 100,000 hectares of rice cultivation per season.