BUTUAN CITY – To empower farmers and the Agricultural Extension Workers (AEWs) to embrace the role of information and communication technology in maximizing the digital tools available nowadays, the Agricultural Training Institute – Regional Training Center (ATI-RTC) XIII conducted the Digital Agriculture Course (DAC) for RCEF Training of Trainers Batch 4 on April 3-5, 2024 at Charlie’s Dormitel and Events Place.

There were a total of 18 individuals who joined the three-day training composed of Learning Site for Agriculture (LSA) cooperators and AEWs from the provinces of Agusan del Sur and Agusan del Norte.

“We are already far behind other countries when it comes to digitalization in agriculture. And this training longs to help promote to our farmers to make use of the available resources offered by new technologies today,” said ATI-RTC XIII OIC-Center Director Jessie V. Beldia during his opening message.

Participants were introduced to social media primarily the use of Facebook, climate and weather monitoring applications, agri applications on rice such as the Rice Crop Manager, AgriDOC app, Binhing Palay, Rice Doctor, and Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank, e-commerce, and online payment options. Participants from the LSA farms were expected to conduct a farmer-level DAC for RCEF training in coordination with TESDA.

Sharon A. Honor, one of the participants and also co-owner of SEGLO Integrated Farm in Trento, Agusan del Sur said that, “This training is a very big help for me that I acquired additional knowledge and skills. I will share this learning to our dear farmers to our respective communities, helping them uplift their way of farming from conventional to digitalized farming system by using our smartphones.”

Further, the said program is implemented in partnership with Smart Communications.