By Katrina Gracia Consebido
A total of 25,494 rice farmers benefited from the training program offered by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
TESDA Officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Rosanna Urdaneta said she is hopeful the training, under the agency’s Rice Extension Services Program (RESP), will contribute to the country’s “food security and sufficiency.”
“We’ve always made the agriculture sector a priority in our scholarship programs. We’ll continue to work with government agencies and the private sector for the provision of skills training and livelihood opportunities for our rice farmers,” Urdaneta noted.
“TESDA trains rice farmers in line with the implementation of Republic Act 11203, or the Rice Liberalization Act. The implementing guidelines were issued in September 2019 on RESP activities to be carried out by the Agency through its regional and provincial offices,” she added.
Meanwhile, Deputy Director General for TESDA Operations Aniceto Bertiz III said there are over 50,000 scholarships under RESP that are up for grabs.
Citing TESDA data, Bertiz said a total of 64,421 rice farmers nationwide, including the 25,904 rice farmers in 2020 and 38,517 rice farmers in 2021 finished their training.
TESDA offers agriculture-related courses such as Farm Field School on Production of High-Quality Inbred Rice and Seed Certification and Farm Mechanization; Rice Machinery Operations; Drying and Milling Plant Servicing NC III; Agro-entrepreneurship NC II; Pest and Nutrients Management; and Digital Agriculture Course in the Farm Field School (FFS) nationwide.
There are a total of 299 public and private FFS established to provide agricultural technologies to help the farmers in modernizing farming. – gb
