After 6 month of airing the School-on-the-Air Program on Crops and Livestock Technologies, 575 successful students marched at the eminent hall of Teatro Ilocandia last November 14, 2018 for the much-awaited Graduation Ceremony of the program.

This number of graduates were from the active participating local governments units in the province to include the City Government of Batac and the municipalities of Badoc, Currimao, Pasuquin, Bacarra, Sarrat, Vintar, Marcos, Nueva Era, Solsona, Banna, Piddig, Dingras, and Paoay.

This learning program on air is geared towards disseminating information and technologies to farmers and ruralfolks to improve their farming, enhance their management of their livestocks, and increase awareness on climate change.  

A public service to channel progress to rural agricultural communities, the program is a joint effort of the Mariano Marcos State University through the Extension Directorate, College of Industrial Technology (CIT), College of Agriculture, Food, and Sustainable Development (CAFSD) under the leadership of President Shirley C. Agrupis, Ilocos Agriculture, and Resources Research and Development Consortium (ILARRDEC), DOST- Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD), PhilRice, the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte, the different Local Government Units of the province, DWFB Radyo Pilipinas-Laoag, and DWCI 954 Radyo Piddig. The program served as an avenue for the dissemination of information and research breakthroughs in agriculture and the transfer of technologies to the farmers of the province in response to their requests in their continued learning on air.

Speakers of the program include faculty and researchers of the University to include Mr. Sean Vidad and Dr. Sosima Demandante of CAFSD, and Ms. Noralyn Legazpi and Dr. Dionisio Bucao of the Research Directorate, and experts from the different partner-agencies such as Dr. Lucille Abad of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI), Mr. Johnny Maloom, Dr. Reynaldo Castro, Mr. Silvestre Briones of PhilRice-Batac, Mr. Florencio Malicad of PCC, and others. Beneficiaries of the different programs and projects of the University also served as inspiration such as Mr. Lyndon Madrid of Dingras, and Mr. Edilberto John Ramos of Bacarra who shared their testimonies on their experiences with their learnings and personal experimentation with their learning from their exposures on the programs and projects of the Extension Directorate.

These information were shared to the public every 12-1 of Wednesdays and Fridays through DWFB 954 Radyo Pilipinas-Laoag, and every 6-7 of Thursdays and Saturdays through DWCI 105.1 Radyo Piddig. DWFB Radyo Pilipinas-Laoag has been a perennial partner of the University in the conduct of the SOA. And to cater more farming communities in the eastern part of the province, partnership with DWCI Radyo Piddig was forged to continue serving the farmers in the area. Initial discussion with Bangui’s Radyo Karruba was also conducted to forge partnership and cater to ruralfolks in the northern part of the province in the next SOA to be conducted. These activities are in congruence to the High Impact Extension and Outreach Program of the ACHIEVE agenda of the administration of President Shirley C. Agrupis.

Being the first SOA to be managed and implemented by the University, this program is also immensely remarkable because of the increase in the number of enrolees and the number of participating LGUs. Moreover, with the coverage of the program, the SOA is truly instrumental in making technologies reach the countryside and helping them mitigate the adverse effects of climate change such as intense drought and occurrence of flood in their farming and livestock raising.

With the radio as still the most effective and efficient medium of communication in reaching the people, the has also paved the way to reaching not only the students of the program but also those who were not enrolled yet believe that they can learn additional knowledge through the radio instrumental in helping them manage their farming better.  As such being the farmers and ruralfolks empowered with new information and technologies, a more resilient agriculture sector for a more thriving Ilocos Norte is envisioned.  

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