Farmers’ ‘call center’ set up

A TIE-UP between government and a telecommunications giant seeks to help farmers and fishers gain easier access to extension services via phone calls, the Internet or short messaging services at cheaper rates.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Philippine Long Distance Company (PLDT) signed last month an agreement on the Farmers’ Contact Center (FCC), a project powered by PLDT’s OnCall “managed contact center solution.”

The project will allow farmers to talk extensively with the department’s agricultural technicians to get guidance and information, without having to worry about high call rates.

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Through PLDT Toll Free, the call charge from Smart and Talk n’ Text mobile is set at P7.27 flat rate per call instead of per-minute charging.

Former agriculture secretary Arthur Yap, in a press statement, said the DA is pursuing the project through its Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), as part of the government’s program on food security, dubbed as Fields.

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Fields stands for the six areas where government support is being focused: fertilizers; irrigation and other rural infrastructure like farm-to-market roads; extension services and education for farmers; loans; dryers and other post-harvest facilities; and seeds and other genetic materials.

ATI Director Asterio Saliot said agriculture experts will be on hand to answer queries received by the FCC, which has also established direct links to the various DA offices and attached agencies, including state universities and colleges.

Farmers and fishers can ask about current prices of commodities, schedule of irrigation water releases, marketing of farm produce, and control measures for pest and disease incidents.

Sought for comment, DA 7 Director Ricardo Oblena said the project is “timely” now that most of the farmers already own cell phones. “With this, farmers and fishers can now raise their issues directly to the department’s agriculture technicians,” he said in a phone interview.

While farmers in Thailand already practice video teleconferencing, this project is a good start to extend technology to Filipino farmers, said Oblena. State colleges and universities can also use the project to enhance agricultural education, he said.

The FCC may be accessed through these hotlines: 1-800-10-982AGRI (or 1-800-10-982-2474) for provincial toll-free class using PLDT lines; 982AGRI (or 982-2474) for calls within Metro Manila; 391DA(or 391-32) for text messages using Smart and Talk & Text; 0920-946AGRI (0920-946-2474) for mobile calls and text messages using Globe, TM and Sun Cellular.

FCC may also be reached through email at info@e-extension.gov.ph and the websites www.e-extension.gov.ph and www.ati.da.gov.ph for the online discussion fora and instant messaging.