ILOILO CITY -- A total of 482 farmers in Western Visayas on Tuesday completed the School-on-the-Air (SOA) program of the regional office of the Department of Agriculture (DA-6).
These graduates are composed of farmers from Passi City, Oton, New Lucena, Cabatuan, Maasin, San Enrique, Banate, Dingle, Concepcion, Sta. Barbara, Tigbauan and Mina in Iloilo and the towns of Nueva Valencia, Sibunag and San Lorenzo in Guimaras.
James Ogatis, DA-6 public relations officer, said the school-on-the-air program provided farmers with needed knowledge and skills on how to produce cassava.
Ogatis said the course on cassava production covered topics from land preparation to selection of the quality of cassava, either for commercial purposes or for personal consumption, as well as the marketing of their produce.
The SOA program is one of the Agricultural Training Institute's distance learning on the complete package of technology of a commodity and other agriculture- and fisheries-related subject matters.
It is a series of radio programs, presenting the subject matter systematically and in a progressive manner.
In Western Visayas, DA-6 partnered with the Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) in Iloilo for the program, which airs Tuesday to Thursday, 3:45 a.m. to 4:15 a.m.
The SOA program on cassava production was held from June until September this year.
Of the 482 graduates, 11 were recognized as outstanding graduates after garnering high scores in their examination given after the four-month program. As a reward, they received farm equipment from DA-6.
Vicente Lagradante, 63, a farmer from Banate, Iloilo stressed the importance of the school-on-the-air program in helping farmers acquire more knowledge on how to produce cassava.
“The knowledge we got are really beneficial. Although we are not yet venturing on cassava, at least we already have ideas on production. We are already ready if ever we decide to venture into it and do business out of it,” he said.
According to Lagradante, this is not the first time that he joined the program. He also completed SOA courses on chicken production and organic farming, among others.
While the 482 farmers already completed their course on cassava production, Ogatis said another batch of 350 farmers in Negros Occidental is undergoing a SOA course on hybrid rice production, which began last August and is expected to be completed in January. (PNA) NOVEMBER 2017
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