PhilRice to train extension workers based in Africa

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), the country’s lead agency in rice research and development, will train extension workers based in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Starting June 20, a four-month rice production program will be conducted at PhilRice’s Central Experiment Station in Nueva Ecija to equip the 25 trainees with knowledge and skills on extension strategies and rice cultivation technologies that can be adopted in the world’s second largest and most-populous continent.

Lea dR. Abaoag, overall coordinator of the Season-long Rice Farming Training program, said the extension workers would be trained on PalayCheck and Palayamanan systems, which will be implemented come wet season in the Farmers’ Field School in six rainfed rice communities of Talugtug, Nueva Ecija.

PalayCheck is an integrated crop management system for rice while Palayamanan is a diversified rice-based farming system.

The trainees from Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya, will also be trained on organizing, writing, communicating, and documenting the extension activities they will conduct upon return to their countries.

The training agreement was formalized with the recent signing of a letter of agreement (LOA) between the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The training, funded by Japan with $4 million, is a part of the overall initiative of the Coalition for Africa Rice Development to increase rice production in Africa, where rice consumption increases by six percent a year.

Africa, however, imports nearly half of its rice consumption at a cost of $3.6 billion a year.

A working paper published by the World Bank in February read that SSA’s rice imports “could otherwise be used to finance infrastructure development.”