SOA GRADUATES. A total of 380 farmers in Western Visayas complete the School-on-the-Air (SOA) on dairy buffalo production on Thursday (December 20, 2018). (Photo by Cindy Ferrer)
ILOILO CITY-- A total of 380 farmers in Western Visayas completed the School-on-the-Air (SOA) on dairy buffalo production.
The farmers received their certificates of completion in a graduation ceremony held at Leon National High School in Leon, Iloilo Thursday. They are from the towns of Calinog, Lambunao, Bingawan, Badiangan, Janiuay, Dueñas, Leon, all in Iloilo province; Sapian town in Capiz and island province of Guimaras.
James Ogatis, public relations officer of the Department of Agriculture 6 (Western Visayas), said the school-on-the-air program provided carabao keepers with needed knowledge covering lessons on feeding management, health management, breeding management, carabao enterprise, and technology adoption.
“We hoped that you have learned a lot from the lessons and put it in practice or even share with your fellow farmers,” he told the graduates.
Meantime, Eric Palacpac, chief of the Knowledge Management Division of DA’s Philippine Carabao Center (PCC), also shared the same encouraging words with the graduates when he delivered his keynote message.
“This is just the start of your journey for you to become successful dairy buffalo farmers. It is important that you are already prepared through the platform of school-on-the-air program that provided you with the knowledge that you need,” he said.
Palacpac said this is the first time after about 20 years that the school-on-the-air program on dairy buffalo production has been revived to help carabao keepers. The last time was conducted in Leyte way back in 1998.
The SOA program is one of the Agricultural Training Institute's distance learning on the complete package of technology of a commodity and other agriculture- and fisheries-related subject matters.
It is a series of radio programs, presenting the subject matter systematically and in a progressive manner.
In Western Visayas, DA-6 partnered with the DYFM Bombo Radyo Iloilo for the program, which airs every first and third Saturdays of the month between 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and every second and fourth Saturdays of the month from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
The SOA program on dairy buffalo production was conducted from August 4 until December 8 this year.
Of the 482 graduates, 380 graduates, 10 of them were recognized as outstanding graduates after garnering high scores in their examination given after the four-month program. As a reward, they received farm equipment from DA-6. (PNA)
