2011 Annual Report - PhilDHRRA-Mindanao

Sustainable Agriculture Technology Promotion
PhilDHRRA in Mindanao through the Intered-
Convenio with funding assistance from the
Agencia Espaňola Cooperación Internacíonal
para el Desarollo (AECID) organized Basic
Orientation on Sustainable Agriculture (BOSSA)
training for the 30 rice farmers of Villapaz
Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative (VIFAMCO)
operating in Villapaz, La Paz, Agusan del Sur.
The training aims to enhance the knowledge,
skills and practices of farmers on Sustainable
Agriculture. Apart from the theoretical inputs on
sustainable agriculture technologies, the farmers
were exposed to the technology demonstration
farms showcasing best practices on sustainable
agriculture.
Using the 50 varieties of native rice seeds, the
farmers applied the sustainable rice technology
in the Trial Farm through a “Bayanihan” or
cooperative system. The trial Farm served as a
learning site of the farmers. The farmers were
actually performing the role of a “scientist”, where
they themselves learned and discovered the
growth behavior of the select-rice varieties from
planting to harvesting. The purpose of
establishing the demo farm was to study the
agronomic performance of each rice seeds
variety, i.e. how they would adopt with the
changing climate/environment without using
farm inputs, zero weeding maintenance and in
rainfed condition.
As a result, only 2 out 50 rice varieties showed
p r o m i s i n g p o t e n t i a l s f o r m a s s
propagation. VIFAMCO started to mass produce
the chosen rice seeds varieties, and applied
different sustainable agriculture technologies to
compare, show case and determine which
agricultural technology is best for the types of
rice varieties. One of the major outcomes of the
project was the establishment of a “SEED
BANK” for the chosen rice varieties for
preservation and mass production of “organic
rice”.
In conclusion, sustaining the promotion of
sustainable agriculture technology can be best
achieved when small marginalized farmers are
provided opportunity for better understanding of
their limitations and enabling them to cope with
problems and issues in a manner that is
appropriate to their learning capacity. Farmers
learn more in actual demonstration than
theoretical inputting alone. The “discoverybased”
approach applied in this project is one
concrete example of a very good learning
method.
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PhilDHRR
MINDANAO A
MINDANAO A
MINDANAO A