To capacitate and prepare farm schools and facilitators to implement digital literacy training for farmers in their communities, the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) in MIMAROPA conducted the “Training of Trainers (TOT) on Digital Agriculture Course (DAC)” from April 2-4, 2024 at the ATI MIMAROPA, Barcenaga, Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.
Assistant Center Director Norberto C. Maur showed strong support for the TOT by gracing the opening program. In his message, he reminded the participants to learn the modules of the training by heart so that they could teach them to the farmers in their respective farming schools.
“Ang magiting na tagapagsanay ay nabubuo sa pamamagitan ng karanasan. Kapag ang paglilingkod ay nagmumula sa puso, laging masaya tayo kapag nagtuturo sa ating mga magsasaka. Subukan nating aralin ang lahat ng aplikasyon na may kaugnayan sa agrikultura upang mabilis din nating maihahatid ito sa mga magsasakang nagpapalayan,” he said.
On the first day, the participants improved their knowledge about the use of smartphones, accessing the internet, and utilizing various web-based ICT tools such as the e-learning platform, the Pinoy Rice Knowledge Bank, and agricultural helplines such as the PhilRice Text Center and Farmers Contact Center.
On the second day, they learned about advanced agricultural applications such as the Binhing Palay App, Rice Crop Manager, Minus One Element Technique, e-Damuhan, and Leaf Color Computing App. They also gained knowledge on topics related to advanced social media marketing, particularly on how to create social media content using Canva, develop a social media marketing plan, utilize e-commerce platforms such as Facebook Page, Lazada, and Shopee, and use online/digital transactions through Maya and GCash.
Besides the lecture-discussions, the 28 participants further deepened their comprehension of the lessons covered in DAC for RCEF 101 and 102 through a micro-teaching session on the third day. They also submitted an action plan to conduct the same training for rice farmers.
“Ang pinakamahalagang agri-apps para sa akin ay ang Binhing Palay App at e-Damuhan. Ito ay ituturo ko sa aking mga kasamahan sa farm school. Natuto rin ako sa mga suhestiyon ng panelist during the micro-teaching session upang maituro nang maayos ang mga ICT tools,” shared Victoria V. Almendral, Trainor from KLM Farm.
Led by the Information Services Section, Mr. Erlan D. Pasana, Information Officer II; Mr. Michael Daven T. Jugno, Technical Support Staff III; Mr. John Eric V. Arguelles, Technical Support Staff II; Ms. Alea Joy G. Gaco, Technical Support Staff I; and Ms. Diezebel M. Manalo, Technical Support Staff, served as resource speakers during the three-day TOT.
