Through the Information Services Section (ISS), a briefing on Rice Crop Manager Advisory Services (RCMAS) was conducted at the Barangay Hall, Dagupan, Luna, Apayao on May 14, 2024.
The activity aimed to assist the AEWs in the MLGUs in raising the awareness of rice farmers on the RCMAS, and in registering rice farmers in the RCMAS farmers database.
The activity was hosted by the Municipal Agriculture Office of the Local Government Unit of Luna, Apayao wherein the team was joined by OMAG staff Ms. Jane dela Rosa and Ms. Ermalyn Quintana.
Mr. Maximino Aromin Jr, OIC TCS I and Chief of the ISS in his opening remarks, briefly mentioned about DA-ATI and one of its programs is the Rice Crop Manager (RCM). This program nevertheless is not new to the participants since the DA-ATI-CAR already conducted similar activity in the area way back. Β Accordingly, RCM is a result of research conducted by PhilRice and IRRI that aims to provide nutrient management by giving fertilizer recommendations based on the farmerβs practices and of production area. He added that the RCM was further developed to become RCM Advisory Services (RCMAS) with some salient features added like the measurement of area (GPX). He encouraged as well the participants to provide the right information when interviewed especially on the farm measurement to get the right RCM recommendations. In addition, Mr. Aromin mentioned the expansion of the RCEF services to other provinces of CAR.
Mr. Adrian Chris P. Velasco gave an overview of the activity at the same time about what is RCMAS. As presented, RCMAS is an optimized digital agriculture app that provides farmers nutrient management recommendations and advisories to improve their farm productivity and profitability; An App to improve crop data management for our farmers and AEWs and an Upgraded version of the Nutrient Manager for Rice.
Mr. Velasco mentioned the evolution of the program from Nutrient Rice Manager to RCM to RCMAS. He then shared the RCM implementation status of Luna, Apayao. He also explained that the interview would cover the farmer and farm lot registration while the actual farm lot measurement through GPS would be implemented by the LGU Municipal Agriculture Office. Finally, the farmers were informed that the farm lot measurement will also be used in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of interventions be it coming from the DA or the LGU.
Before the one-on-one interview, Mr. Velasco oriented the group about the Consent form and other forms to be filled out by the participants.
Meanwhile, Ms. dela Rosa, Agriculturist of MLGU Luna, Apayao reiterated that the participants should provide the right information during the interview so that the RCM recommendations to be generated would also be based on facts.
A total of 32 farmer participants were successfully interviewed.
