Highlighting the importance of healthy foods in this time of pandemic, the ATI MIMAROPA led the joint kick-off ceremony of National Rice Awareness Month (NRAM) and 7th National Organic Agriculture Month (NOAM) at ATI Compound, Barcenaga, Naujan, Oriental Mindoro on November 8, 2021.
With NRAM’s theme “Be Riceponsibly Healthy”, the public is encouraged to consume healthier rice that are locally produced by Filipino farmers; while the theme of NOAM “Organikong Pagsasaka, Sagot Sa Pandemya” focuses on addressing the needs of people in accessing healthy and safe and food especially during this pandemic.
The kickoff ceremony was done via facebook live streaming the line-up activities for the celebration this November. Among the anticipated activities for the NRAM celebration are their Rice TikTok Challenge, Rice Photography Contest, Webinar on Rice Traditional Varieties and Rice Online Quiz Bee. Moreover, ATI MIMAROPA Organic Agriculture Program will have AgriSerye, a series of webinars on Organic Production of Large Ruminant, Beekeeping and Botanical Pesticides. Moreover, they will be having Kabataan OA Quiz Bee for the Senior High Schools to further encourage the youth to engage into agriculture, particularly in organic agriculture.
After the virtual kickoff, a face-to-face Rice Quiz Bee for ATI staff was held. Staff from Information Services Section, Partnership and Accreditation Services Section (PASS), Career and Development Services Section, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Section and Administrative Unit competed. At the end, PASS was hailed as winner of the said quiz bee.
During the awarding ceremony, Mr. Pat Andrew B. Barrientos, Center Director of ATI MIMAROPA reminded the staff that this kind of celebration is not only for the promotion of rice and organic agriculture in the country as mandated to ATI but more so, it is ATI’s social and moral obligation to the people to continue promoting, bridging and transferring technologies to stakeholders through different modalities which may help them uplift their standard of living, and change their lives for the better.
“ATI as an apex agency for technology transfer takes part in transferring appropriate knowledge, technologies and skills to our stakeholders to increase their production and income. As such, we should always think outside the box and promote innovative modalities to help our countrymen especially our farmers to increase their production and income, while our consumer be provided with healthier food especially during this time of pandemic,” Mr. Barrientos said.
For more information and details, visit the official facebook page of ATI MIMAROPA at https://www.facebook.com/atimimaropa4b or ATI MIMAROPA’ website https://ati.da.gov.ph/ati-4b.
The month of November of every year was proclaimed as National Rice Awareness Month and National Organic Agriculture Month pursuant to Proclamation No. 524, series of 2004 and Proclamation No. 1030, series of 2015, respectively.
