Sunday, May 04, 2008 Enhancing agri through farmer-led extension program By Robert Domoguen
CAN farmers do extension work and help government enhance agricultural development?
Answers to this question are as relevant to the quest of food security in a country like the Philippines. Some would dismiss the idea outright, but in Cagayan Valley Region, it is now acknowledged that trained farmers can be more effective if not better situated to do agricultural extension work than their professional counterparts.
A brainchild of Dr. Gumersindo Lasam, Regional Executive Director of the Department of Agriculture, Regional Field Unit-02 (DA-RFU-02), a farmer-led extension program (Flep), which aims to fast track training of farmers as partners in the implementation of government's agricultural programs and projects is beneficial to the nation's food production drive. Through this program, the DA reaches out to potential farmer-leaders in the countryside in order to provide them with technical knowledge while at the same time enhancing their social and leadership skills to do extension work.
A principle in agricultural extension work dictates the agricultural extension worker must stay and if possible, live where the farmers are. "In Cagayan Valley Region, we are quite successful in pursuing a farmer-led extension program over the last three years which puts into operation this elusive principle of extension work in the Philippines with the farmers as key actors," reported Edito Banares, Supervising Agriculturist and Chief of the Regional Agricultural and Fisheries Information Division, DA-RFU-02.
In Cagayan Valley Region, an agricultural technician (AT) or extension worker must attend to at least 500 farmers or a ratio of 1:500. Obviously, the extension worker cannot fully support or effectively attend to such a large number of clientele, according to Valentino Perdido, Assistant Regional Director and Regional Coordinator of the GMA Rice Program.
This highlighted the need, for us, to pursue the Flep. This problem is true to all regions of the country. It is worst in the Cordillera region where a survey undertaken by the Agricultural Training Institute revealed some municipalities have only one or two ATs.
Under the rice program, Perdido said in pursuing the Flep, knowledgeable, progressive and technically equipped farmers were able to encourage and influence their fellow farmers as adopters of new technologies and dedicated cooperators of the GMA-Rice Program in the region.
In pursuing the Flep, the GMA-Rice Program trained farmer extensionists together with the local government unit (LGU) extension workers assigned in the area with production enhancing technologies and other program protocols designed to make the rice farmers successful in their livelihood. After the training, both farmer and extension worker develop a plan where the rice field of the farmer extension worker is developed as a "model farm", and future site for the training of at least 25 neighboring farmers. Ideally, the location of the farm of the farmer extension worker should be near or within the farms of the other participating farmers. This is formalized through a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by the DA-RFU-02 represented by the Regional Executive Director, the concerned farmer and the municipal LGU represented by the municipal mayor.
The training of the succeeding Flep second line beneficiaries is spearheaded by the LGU professional extension worker and the farmer leader extension worker.
Banares explained the success of the Flep program is ensured by a team of experts from the town, provincial and regional levels who regularly monitor its implementation.
Monitoring is based on monthly reports submitted by the farmer and LGU extension worker. The report tracks planting schedule, stages of the crop, problems being encountered and management interventions.
"The Flep," he said, "allows us to anticipate problems, make timely recommendations and focus our limited resources where intervention is very necessary."
Now on its third year, the Flep has already trained 7,000 farmer leaders as extension workers in Cagayan Valley Region.
"We are positive about its impact in empowering them to become more involved in our programs. In this way, it becomes another effective tool in bringing the government closer to our constituents," he said.
