Cellphones now an integral part of government R&D network

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna — Cellular phones are now an integral part of the national agriculture and resources research and development network.

Now equipped with cellphones are the government’s 14 regional R&D consortia, 80 Farmers’ Information and Technology Services (FITS) centers, and 70 magsasaka-siyentista who are backstopping FITS.

A total of 174 mobile phones were provided under the "Knowledge Networking toward Enterprise Agricultural Communities (K-Agrinet)" project.

K-Agrinet is a collaborative venture of the Los Baños-based Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCARRD), the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice), the Department of Agrarian Reform, and the Development Academy of the Philippines.

It aims to utilize information technology as a tool to fast-track the dissemination of agriculture and natural resources information and technologies to farmers, upland dwellers, and rural entrepreneurs.

K-Agrinet has four components being carried out by its institutional proponents.

PCARRD handles the e-Consortia and e-Farm projects; DA-PhilRice, through its Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, the e-learning component; and DAR and DAP, the e-agriculture component.

The e-Consortia and e-Farm projects enable electronic access to information technology and other services in 80 FITS centers in strategic parts of the country in partnership with the 14 PCARRD-coordinated R&D consortia.

A FITS center is a one-stop information shop that provides farmers and other clients quick access to agricultural information services.

Dr. Bessie Burgos, director of PCARRD’s Technology Outreach Program Division, said that since the FITS project was launched in 1997, 194 centers have been set up across the country.

Backstopping the FITS are the magsasaka-siyentista, who are successful model farmers and farmer-leaders. Their farms serve as showcases of "best practices" and they share technologies and indigenous practices with other farmers through demonstration, training, and farmer-to-farmer advisory services.

A consortium is composed of government R&D agencies and other entities and state colleges and universities (SCUs) in a given region.

For instance, the Highland Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium is composed of 12 government agencies and six SCUs in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

The other consortia cover the Ilocos region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Western Mindanao, Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao, Central Mindanao, and Caraga.

The e-learning component, led by DA-PhilRice’s OAPA, focuses on e-extension and distance learning for agricultural extension workers.

The e-agriculture component, led by DAR and DAP, mobilizes agrarian reform communities into the program.

Noting that cellphones have become the widely used communication tool in the country today, PCARRD, through K-Agrinet, has developed a system that could facilitate quick information dispatch in the agriculture, forestry, and natural resources sectors through the Short Messaging Service (SMS) technology.

With PCARRD’s SMS system, clients can send queries via text messages from a mobile phone or a computer and get quick replies.