Diffun Saranay and Development Cooperative (DISADECO) in Andres Bonifacio, Diffun, Quirino became the pilot site for the Digital Farmers Program for Farm Clusters (F2C2) with 25 farmer-members and youth participating in the training. This was conducted on June 17-20, 2025.
Different from the farm rollouts that were already being conducted by the Agricultural Training Institute-Regional Training Center 02 in the past years, DFP partnered with the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office No. 2 under their Farm and Fisheries Clustering and Consolidation (F2C2) Program to cater to farm clusters across the region. With nine farm cluster sites identified, DISADECO participated in the first batch.
In this training, DFP 103 for Rice topics were added to the DFP 101 and 102 modules. Here, participants learn more about the basic and advanced digital agriculture tools and social media marketing that are available today. In addition, DFP 103 focused on smart agriculture technologies such as the agricultural drone technology discussion and demonstration.
One of the unique strategies of this program is its partnership with the youth. The training invited youth participants as partners of farmers in the training to help assist in teaching them about the use of smartphone and agriculture ICT tools included in the three modules. More importantly, it aims to encourage the young generation to appreciate agriculture.
“To be realistic, most youths today do not see farming as worth getting into. Mga kabataan ngayon, sa ML [Mobile Legends] na lang marunong mag-“farm”. Madalas iniisip natin na it’s tiring, old-fashioned, or something only our parents do, but after seeing what’s possible through technology, I realized that farming does not have to stay in the past. We have the power to bring new life into agriculture,” said Mark Daniel S. Senica, one of the youth participants who also received a special award as Best Youth Partner during the training.
After the training, participants are expected to cascade the learnings to their fellow cooperative farmer members using the Package of Technology which was awarded to them through a Memorandum of Agreement. The cooperative also created their re-entry plan and 6-month workplan to properly plot their digital literacy activities.