SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ, Nueva Ecija -- At least 90 agriculture teachers across the country are set to undergo a five-day rice production training for Department of Education (DepEd) agriculture teachers this month at the PhilRice Central Experiment Station here.
In collaboration with the Philippine Rice Research Institute, the DepEd through its Bureau of Curriculum Development, aims to train its agriculture teachers on rice morphology and growth stages; farm machinery operations; palay check system; nutrient, pest, water and harvest management; including hands-on practicum.
Agriculture is one of the learning areas under the Technical-Vocational Livelihood [TVL) Track that covers specializations such as agricultural crop production and organic agriculture. These are highly responsive to the increasing demand of industries for agriculture workers, aiming to breed a new blood of young farmers to replace the aging population of agriculture workers and will soon take part in the economic growth and development of the country.
As sustainable rice production remains one of the critical activities that the government is now focusing on, DepEd seeks to actively engage the agriculture teachers in developing among the young farmers with relevant skills and competencies and technology on rice farming. Further, given the right technology on rice farming, teachers shall be able to bring back the interest and love for agriculture among our students.
In recent years, a number of agriculture teachers have been the recipients of the training programs on Infomediary and Climate Smart Agriculture. These forms of interventions contributed to better teaching farming practices that led to sustainable agriculture.
The training shall be held in two clusters on November 12-16 and November 19-23, 2018. Teacher-participants include agriculture teachers with specialization either in agricultural crop production or organic agriculture from Strengthened Technical Vocational Education Program (STVEP) secondary schools. (PR)