BAYBAY CITY, Leyte - A total of 2, 244 farmer-enrollees were hailed graduates during the 3-month School on-the-Air on Smart Rice Agriculture (SOA-SRA) in a Virtual Mass Graduation ceremony held on November 10, 2023.
The SOA-Smart Rice Agriculture: Palay Aralan Makabagong Pagsasaka sa Himpapawid started in July 2023 and ran until September 2023. It aimed to empower farmers to become more competitive in modern rice farming techniques using radio and social media platforms. ATI-RTC 8 served as the overall coordinator of the program in collaboration with Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office 8 and the different municipalities under the LGUs in Northern Samar and Southern Leyte provinces.
This year’s overall top graduate hails from Bontoc, Southern Leyte. Mr. Alfredo B. Dolojan, through a video message, expressed his gratefulness for the people and agencies who worked together for the success of the SOA. “It was a dream for me to be a very productive rice farmer. That is why I try my best to attend activities and educate myself about anything related to rice farming to alleviate our family’s way of living.” He emphasized his learnings on the different topics such as the PalayCheck system, from seed selection up to post harvesting, and other smart agriculture technologies. He hopes that more training and related activities will be given to farmers in the future for them to increase their knowledge and apply them in their practices.
Here is the list of the Overall Top 5 graduates of this year’s Palay Aralan:
- Alfredo B. Dolojan – Bontoc, Southern Leyte
- Velma F. Salgado – Allen, Northern Samar
- Cristita B. Cabarubias – Malitbog, Southern Leyte
- Ligenard Estorba – Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte
- Rio Bitangga – Macrohon, Southern Leyte
Information Services Section Chief, Ms. Melinda Petalcorin congratulated the participants for completing the 3-month long program as well as the facilitators who have exerted their efforts in contributing to the success of the program. “Here at ATI, we really hope that a positive change will happen to the lives of our farmer graduates after the SOA.” she shared during her message. She added that the success of the activity not only lies in having funds for different programs or in the improvement of the courses or modules for the SOA. “The success of the activity lies in the thirst for knowledge of our farmers, the support from our LGUs, and the services given by the facilitators.”
The SOA-SRA aired over DYSM Catarman, Radyo Pilipinas Sogod, and DYDM Maasin.
