Supportive to the Philippine Development Plan (2023-2028), where key transformation strategies for the economic and production sector that include modernization, revitalization, and digitalization of agriculture, the Regional Training Center of the Agricultural Training Institute in the Cordillera Administrative Region conducted the Training on the Application and Functionalities of Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) in Agriculture for AEWs of CAR held at the Aspulan Hall, ATI-RTC-CAR, BSU Compd., La Trinidad, Benguet with a total of 30 participants.
During the opening activity, Mr. Charlie C. Sagudan, the Training Center Director challenged the participants to complete the training activity since this is a very good input especially so that we are now in the digital world. He cited examples such as in New Zealand, one farmer can identify his herds of 100 cows that can produce milk and who were to be culled. Precision agriculture involving drone technology is also being used. Digitization is the name of the game. He encouraged the participants to complete the 4.5 day training for them to be equipped with this kind of technology.
The said training activity is in collaboration with the Geoinformatics Department of the Benguet State University headed by Dr. Roscinto Ian C. Lumbres. Mr. Lumbres served as the main Resource Person together with his team composed of 5 faculty members. As the training involved procedural techniques, eight students assisted the team so the participants could easily catch up. This is also to facilitate the smooth transfer of knowledge.
A total of 17 exercises were prepared for the participants to complete, these were: Exploring QGIS and some of its functionalities; Exporting Tabular Data to QGIS and Converting it as Points; GeoReferencing a Raster Data in QGIS; Digitizing – Converting Raster Data to Vector Data; Joining Tables; Map Projection, Area Determination and Symbology Editing; Map Lay-outing; Creation of Sampling Points; GeoProcessing Tools; Field Calculator and Hyperlink; Spatial Data Collection Using GPS Receiver; Adding GPS data to QGIS; Tracking GPS Receiver; Geo-Tagging Using Android Phone; Working with Digital Elevation Model (DEM); Free GIS Data Source and 3D Modeling; and Working with Satellite Images in QGIS.
Geotagging of the Existing LSAs in their respective municipalities was the action plan of the participants.
A short briefing on the use of the UNEXSYS or Unified Extension System was also administered. The Unified Extension System Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Information System (UnExSys), is designed to aid in the effective data management of the agency’s agri-fishery extension services.
