Varied innovations bared in PCARRD techno writeshop

By Niño Manaog and Cora Navarra
Regional Applied Communications Group
WESVARRDEC

Quality pellets for ordinary farm folk, a bioreactor using algae freely available in nature and noodles made from fish bones and squash were only some of the technology ideas disclosed during the Intellectual Property Management Training cum Writeshop on Technology Disclosure and Claim Drafting held Oct. 14–16, 2009 in Plazoleta Gay at Hotel del Rio in Iloilo City

The second leg to be held in the country following the Mindanao batch, the Visayas-wide writeshop sponsored by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) featured a wide array of significant lectures for would-be innovators and inventors in the Visayas Island.

The team featured lectures by two science research specialists (SRS) from PCARRD, Mr. Ricardo Argana and Mr. Noel Catibog. Argana discussed intellectual property management and the innovation process while Catibog covered prior art search and disclosure of tangible and technical properties.

Ms. Rosa M. Fernandez, assistant head for Field Operations Unit of the Intellectual Property Philippines lectured on claim drafting. According to lead mentor Fernandez, their group looks forward to witnessing unique and improved technologies that are beneficial to society.
In three days, the participants underwent a full process of disclosure workshop starting with evaluation of submitted disclosures by the panel of mentors and claim drafting. Afterwards, the panel of mentors led by Fernandez evaluated the claims using IPO sample. In the final day, participants presented their completed disclosures and patent claims.

Among others, Prof. Naomi G. Petronio, assistant professor at the Visayas State University in Tolosa, Leyte presented a claim on noodles made from fish bones and squash. While their process claimed was deemed unoriginal by the panel, co-author Petronio’s innovation rests on the promotion of Vitamin A as precursor to calcium absorption. In an interview with WESVARRDEC’s Regional Applied Communications Group (RACG), Petronio said their innovation is largely hinged on social responsibility. Their noodles research benefits DepEd’s feeding program for children, DOLE’s livelihood mechanism for women as supported by the local government unit. While it currently generates income for VSU’s Tolosa campus, Petronio confides in this legacy they wish to leave in the said school.

Meanwhile, Dr. Danilo B. Largo, research director of University of San Carlos in Cebu shared a research paper on developing a bioreactor using algae. Largo claimed that the technology virtually takes advantage of Nature. According to Largo, they need to develop the bioreactor first before any project can commence.

Engr. Aries Roda D. Romallosa, RMIS representative of Central Philippine University, a partner member agency of WESVARRDEC was optimistic in her village-level feed production because it will allow ordinary farmers to produce quality pellets as feeds for their poultry and livestock. Romallosa claimed that this technology will make ordinary farming less dependent on commercial pellets.

In all, the writeshop solicited sizable participation from the three regions—Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas and Central Visayas. The participants signed a Manifestation of Commitment and Support for a Progressive Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources (AFNR) Sectors through Meaningful Intellectual Creations. They also signed a confidentiality agreement to protect and safeguard the technologies presented in the same.

The three-day exposure to intellectual property (IP) also allowed participants to test their knowledge on IP through the pre- and post-diagnostic tests given by Ms. Yolanda Tanyag of PCARRD.

Prospects for Iloilo bamboo

By Niño Manaog
RAC Staff

Led by the Iloilo Bamboo Producers for Development, Inc. (IBPD) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Iloilo, the Bamboo Development Symposium held October 08, 2009 at Hotel del Rio featured a good number of speakers who rendered valuable insights for participants which included extension workers and bamboo enthusiasts.

Under the leadership of Wilhelm Malones, DTI provincial director, the Bamboo Development Symposium opened doors for people to take seriously the issues concerning bamboo in Iloilo.

Among others, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)’s Conrado “Butch” Marquez, himself a partner member of the Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research Development Consortium (WESVARRDEC), provided the essential information on bamboo and propagation, zeroing in on how it can be possibly grown in one’s own backyard.

Various bamboo products sold and
consigned at FITS Center in Maasin, Iloilo

Then Dr. Rico Cabangon’s lecture on bamboo processing technologies enjoined bamboo producers to dig deeper into what more can be done for bamboo aside from basically using it as material for handicrafts. Representing the Forest Products Research Institute (FPRDI) under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Cabangon provided an incisive look at treating the raw material in order to produce high-quality bamboo raw materials and products. Cabangon also enjoined bamboo farmers to seek help from their office. FPRDI is willing to assist enthusiasts on bamboo processing technologies including lamination, bleaching, dyeing and special effects finishing.

Interestingly, Mr. Franklin Bunoan, director of Cottage Industry Technology Center based in Marikina City, opened a discussion forum on Kalikasan, Kabuhayan, Kawayan: OPLAN: 124K Silyang Kawayan,” an initiative coursed through his office in an effort to provide a good market for bamboo producers. They project to provide 124, 000 school desks made of bamboo for the elementary schools across the country.

Zeroing in on the mathematics of this project, Bunoan went on to say that in all, the project will require 300 desks per month to meet the deadline. And this would mean they would need 79, 200 slats per month. Bunoan said not all areas identified for sources can supply such demand, saying “We can’t do it if we just sit idly.”

Yet, in essence it provided the fact that bamboo farmers, at least here in Iloilo, have something to hope for with this kind of project that will surely occupy their time. Perhaps this can be a good way for bamboo farmers to earn in these dire times. Ms. Glenda Dagdag president of Iloilo Bamboo Producers for Development, Inc. (IBPD) reported a situationer of the status of bamboo in Iloilo. Dagdag claimed that the data included in her presentation needed more input from bamboo stakeholders themselves, enjoining the participants to beef up the province’s bamboo profile.

Moreover, as part of the Bamboo Market Week initiated by DTI, our very own Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) Norberto Ceballos, the LGU of Maasin famed for its quality bamboo along with many other exhibitors, displayed their bamboo novelty items, products and handicrafts in a one week exhibit at the SM City Mandurriao.

RAC reps tour cutflower farm

by Jethro B. Dagunan,RAC Representative, CHMSC
and Niño Manaog, RAC Staff, WESVARRDEC

“Let’s go out and learn”—this was the theme of the third quarter meeting and MS farm tour of the Regional Applied Communication (RAC) experts of the Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (WESVARRDEC) held October 13, 2009 in Balabag, Pavia, Iloilo and its environs.

Formerly Regional Applied Communications Group (RACG) and Regional Applied Communication Office (RACO), the RAC delegation headed by RACE coordinator, Dr. Cora Navarra toured the farm of MS Baltazar Gumana, who maintains a cutflower garden in Pavia Garden Center and his own farm in Balabag planted to different species of flowering plants including desert rose (Adenium obesum), cacti and a whole lot of other flowering plants.

The tour meeting gave some fresh air for the participants, thanks to the splendid baye- baye, a specially milled rice cake which preoccupied the RAC representatives the rest of the morning tour. The famous delicacy of the town was served twice—once at FITS Manager Homer Hubag’s office and then at the Balabag farm of MS Baltazar Gumana.

After visiting Gumana’s varieties, the group also toured the pottery village in the nearby barangay of Pandak, where they saw the step-by-step rudiments in pottery making.

In the middle of a thundering afternoon weather, RACE Coordinator assisted by staff Niño Manaog, spearheaded the meeting at the Myrna’s Garden Resto in Mali-ao, Pavia, Iloilo, yielding a number of resolutions for the experts group.

According to Dr. Cora Navarra, the tour-meeting was purposely set to initiate the closeness with Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) for openness and idea sharing and also to help RAC representatives function sensibly in their respective MS Your browser may not support display of this image.and FITS centers.

The tour meeting gained a number of good feedback from the participants. Mr. Ricky Becodo of the West Visayas State University (WVSU) valued its contribution, saying that the trip gave him the opportunity to see how rich and promising the technologies that can be shared to the consortium's stakeholders. "This inspired and put more meaning to the the RAC experts pool," Becodo said.

Connecting More with Less

A Cost-Saving ICT Practice by WESVARRDEC
By Nicolas Banquero and Niño Manaog

Composed of six provinces scattered in three islands—Negros Occidental, Guimaras, Capiz, Aklan, Antique and Iloilo—Western Visayas is considerably a big archipelagic region. From its regional hub in Iloilo City, it takes some three to five hours to travel to the other peripheral areas.

However, despite such limiting geographical composition, the Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (WESVARRDEC) has significantly established a good number of Farmers Information & Technology Services (FITS) Centers, which implements the needed projects and programs throughout the region.

In Aklan, farmers’ centers are found in the towns of Banga, Ibajay and Nabas. In Antique, considered the center of muscovado industry in the region, the consortium has established six centers in Sibalom, Barbaza, Tobias Fornier, Anini-y, Libertad and the booming municipality of San Jose. In the inner Panay province of Capiz, the FITS center established in Capiz State University (CapSU) in the poblacion of Mambusao focuses on coconuts. In Iloilo, eleven FITS Centers have been extending services to farmers in Pavia, Oton, Batad, Lemery, Maasin, Tubungan, Barotac Viejo, Dumangas, Bingawan, Igbaras and WVCST (Western Visayas College of Science and Technology) campus situated in the municipality of Leon.

Meanwhile, Negros Occidental has an entirely varied concentration on organic and agricultural production. While the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) in La Granja focuses on carabao milk production, the OPA based in Bacolod City leads in organic agriculture. Based on this, Bacoleños seem self-sufficient as the other farmers’ centers in their province promote high-value vegetables (Escalante City) and rice (Cadiz City). Also, under the leadership of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA), the FITS Center established in Guimaras promotes the whole year production of mangoes.

Table 1. Number of FITS Centers per Province

The same geographical distance between the agencies posed a preventing factor for the consortium’s Regional Techno Gabay Program. For one, it has encountered difficulties in coordinating activities with its partner member agencies. This includes sending out communication and documents to pertinent offices that will help deliver the needed assistance.

To bridge this communication gap, the Philippine Council for Agriculture Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) and its Technology Outreach and Promotion Division (TOPD) conducted a Partner Member Agency (PMA) consultation at the Aklan State University in Banga, Aklan in January 2008.

The purpose is to enhance the link of the extension programs of the consortium member agencies with the FITS Centers and reduce the Regional Techno Gabay Program Office (RTGPO)’s workload in terms of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of various FITS Centers. The PMA scheme has been set not only to level off the expectations of PCARRD-WESVARRDEC-PMA in the monitoring of FITS Centers but also to provide technical support as partner of FITS Center and assist in its day-to-day operations. One salient feature of this scheme requires that to effectively monitor and evaluate the progress and activities in the FITS Center , it should be at least within 50 kilometer reach of the PMA.

In case of Western Visayas, FITS Centers have been strategically assigned to the partner member agencies most proximate to them. See table below.

Table 2. WESVARRDEC’s PMA FITS Assignments


After the PMA scheme consultation, the Techno Gabay (TG) leader of each PMA was tasked to serve as the focal person for the FITS Center who then monitors for FITS report for submission to the RTGPO. The representative does not only chair WESVARRDEC committee, he also takes the lead in the implementation of the Science and Technology-Based Farm.

Although the establishment of PMA scheme unloads some of the work of RTGPO in terms of coordinating the 26 FITS Centers in the region, the geographical location still has posed a problem at the regional level to the FITS Centers, Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) and the PMA.

Given this challenging situation, WESVARRDEC decided to create an e-group account. E-group is where people with a shared interest meet, get to know each other, and stay informed. Like other Internet mechanisms, the e-group gives members instant access to shared message archives, photos and photo albums and group event calendars. Not only that they benefit from the member polls and shared links and archives information, the e-group account is also accessed and freely availed.

At present, the e-group feeds pertinent information and updates to some there are 12 members composed of FITS Centers under K-AgriNet, PMA TG team leaders, and PCARRD personnel. As administrator, WESVARRDEC and RTGPO maintains constant link to the PCARRD TG Coordinator for these concerns.

Linked to the PCARRD secretariat, the e-group is so designed to facilitate communication between the consortium, member agencies and FITS Center . Such mechanism reduces communication cost the telephone bills, providing easy access to the Techno Gabay file.

Making use of the equipment and facilities so designed for this purpose by the K-AgriNet program, the consortium’s RTGP reduced the workload in sending out communication because it involved one-time posting of announcements while notifying all members concerned. The personnel’s constant use of this Internet feature to communicate has allowed for the consortium to get fast, immediate responses on the announcements posted online.

In the past, it would take one to two weeks before the consortium personnel gets responses and feedback on the posted communication from the other member agencies. With the use of e-groups in the Internet, persons connected respond promptly to immediate concerns. Otherwise, stored offline messages usually facilitate overnight or next-day response.

As shown in the representation below, this seemingly simple ICT intervention has significantly lowered the consortium’s printing cost, paper consumption and monthly telephone bills. With these, paper works and sending of communication thru fax has also been reduced.

Table 3. Communication Cost

Using the e-group mechanism, a total communication cost of Php3,157.50 per transaction was reduced to Php1,957.50. Here, it is also important to note how interaction and exchange of SMS has made impact to the FITS Center and to the consortium. It also communication gap and even hastened the information dissemination. In having taken advantage of such mechanism, the consortium has substantially recognized the value of ICT innovation through the K-AgriNet program.

Banga BroadKasting, Inc.

Witnessing One Good ICT Practice in FITS Banga K-Agrinet Center
By Gelly Maypa, Sally Villasis and Neniveh Ron, FITS Banga
and Niño Manaog, RAC Staff, WESVARRDEC

Since its establishment in 2005, the Farmers’ Information and Technology Services (FITS) Center in Banga, Aklan has been frequented by farmers and agriculture enthusiasts from Banga and the surrounding municipalities of Aklan. This required the Center to reach out to more farmers by using the fastest way with the minimum cost. After all, to provide quality and timely information and technology services to farmers is its mandate.

In order to serve the increasing number of clients, FITS Banga has maintained a one-hour daily radio program devoted to agriculture. This is the “Techno Pinoy Farm Watch.” Aired from 6 to 7 A.M. on Tuesdays and Thursdays over DYMT-FM, a community radio based at Aklan State University (ASU) in Banga, Aklan, “Techno Pinoy Farm Watch” features news and varied information on agriculture taken from different information sources.


BROADCASTING WITH BESSIE
Techno Pinoy Farm Watch Program Host Gelly Maypa interviews PCARRD TOPD Director Bessie Burgos who sheds light on the K-Agrinet program initiated by PCARRD. The program features live guests interview thereby registering listeners. The firsthand information on K-Agrinet’s endeavors where farmers can participate and from which they can benefit.

Radio Programming
Since the involvement of K-Agrinet in radio programming, ICT interventions have been widely used in the procedures of radio programming, with the maximum use of facilities and equipment awarded through Knowledge Networking towards Enterprising Agricultural Communities (K-AgriNet), a Techno Gabay Program initiative authored by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

To prepare for the radio program, FITS Banga Manager Gelly Maypa invites scheduled resource speakers via cellular phone calls or short messaging service (SMS), the process made available through the K-Agrinet facilities and equipment.

She downloads bits of information on whatever topics set for the particular airing. Using the computer awarded by K-Agrinet to the FITS Center, she accesses the PCARRD website from which she downloads agri-news and updates.

She also draws information on agri-technology needed for her radio programming from a number of materials—including the monthly PCARRD Monitor sent to FITS Center respectively, PCARRD fact sheets and product catalogs, Agriculture,- a monthly magazine published by the Manila Bulletin, and the worldwide web, among others.

In order to have a smooth flow of the radio program, she instructs the radio technician to format through a radio-production software (OTS AV) the sequence of segments needed to be aired for the particular day. This radio software orders the items to be aired on that day.

During the actual programming, the computer that facilitates the sequence is backed up by an analog system, so that no information is lost just in case the computer bogs down. However, during power interruptions, the radio program is cut off because there is no alternative power source. In such cases, if the topics covered are not finished, the segment is repeated in the next programming.

Throughout the program, the computer operating the programming is connected online. This way, Internet access is ensured should the need arise for both the host and the listeners to interact.

Each program is recorded, played back and aired via the radio software. After which, the soft or digital files are archived for reference.

More importantly, the use of sophisticated software reduces the costs incurred in radio production, hastens the delivery of information and allows real-time contact between the listeners and the speakers.

Given the many possibilities in programming afforded by the sophisticated software technology, “Techno Pinoy Farm Watch” features varied programs to maximize the technology available. Among others, Natural Farming System (NFS) occupied the Banga community airwaves for some time. This opportunity came along through the initiative brought by the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) in the conduct of the Natural Farming Systems (NFS) Training.

The Natural Farming System (NFS) Training
Launched in September 2003, the Natural Farming System (NFS) Training funded by FITS Banga and LGU Banga benefited some 100 participants and encouraged some 40 individual farmer adaptors. This number represents the constituents in eight barangays in Banga alone. Even after the training launch, other farmer integrators surfaced from the surrounding municipalities reached by DYMT-FM’s signal.

ICT intervention proved indispensable to the program launch in a number of ways. Using the software provided in the computer, the FITS Banga staff prepared a video production on natural farming systems on crops and livestock. The use of K-Agrinet-awarded equipment significantly facilitated the presentations. Likewise the camera, cellphone and computer were employed to the maximum in preparing, facilitating and covering the entire training.

After the three-day orientation and a two-day participatory technology demonstration (PTD), the NFS Training was then followed-through via a monitoring scheme which required the radio program to monitor the progress of the participants every week. Participants were required to listen to specific time slots because the training scheme follows specific modules aired on particular episodes to guide the participants on natural farming practices. For example, in the four-month period devoted to NFS Training, a farmer participant would keep track by listening to the module on planting crops during the actual planting dates or season itself.


GELLY’S CONCOCTIONS
FITS Banga Manager Gelly Maypa performs before NFS Training participants the procedures in preparing indigenous microorganisms (IMO) concoctions during the NFS Training in 2007. These and other similar technological practices are well packaged by the FITS K-Agrinet Center made available to farmers anytime.

Sometimes, farmers’ inquiries and clarifications in the form of text messages about information and technologies being aired require instant responses and explanations from experts and resource persons. In many instances, the radio program hosts would answer and supply the information on-the-spot. They virtually source out these technologies and other similar information from the K-Agrinet database maintained in the FITS Center.

After having completed the four-month training, the NFS participants enjoy the privilege of follow-through, enhancing activities, eventually becoming regular clients of the FITS Center. Consequently, it requires the FITS Center to rely on K-Agrinet resources—human resource and equipment—to effectively respond to the needs and demands of the farmers.

During techno clinics, farmers get clarifications and pointers from the FITS Technology Service Specialist (TSS) on their queries in order to maximize the technology taught to them. Then, the FITS Information Service Specialist (ISS) assists by printing a hard copy of data and information needed by the farmer. All farmers served are noted and their activities in the Center documented by the FITS Center staff. The FITS Banga airs then these activities over the radio program to encourage them and other farmers to further avail themselves of their services.

To meet the rising demand of the increasing number of farmer clients, FITS Manager Gelly Maypa employed additional K-Agrinet personnel. She hired one TSS Coordinator whom she tasked to monitor the farmers’ progress following the training. She also hired one ISS Coordinator to back up the existing personnel in encoding the information in the K-Agrinet database used to render services to the farmer clients.

Consequently, the training and knowledge sharing initiated by FITS Banga has achieved prominence and popularity in the area. This has been indicated in the number of listeners respondents in the survey submitted by the mother consortium WESVARRDEC early 2007.

The NFS Training proved to be a successful endeavor mediated by the K-Agrinet mechanisms employed in FITS Banga. The FITS Center interacted with and facilitated for the encouraged radio listeners who substantially adopted the natural farming practice promoted over the program.

Such impact can be felt in the testimonies of four integrators NFS. Hector Inamarga, a regular radio listener from Barangay Tabayon adopted an integrated farming system consisting of 60 darag breeders, tilapia culture, piggery and fruit trees. Aware of the advantage in using interconnectivity, Nong Hector contacts and updates the FITS Center especially on his involvement as officer of the Darag Native Chicken Raisers Association in the whole province of Aklan.

Having heard of the FITS over the radio, Charlene Yecla eventually became a K-Agrinet client at the FITS Center, now granted a regular access to the Internet from which she sources and updates information to help her manage some 500 heads of broilers in her farm in Barangay Mambog. Charlene is also a registered subscriber of PCARRD SMS.

No less than the former vice-governor, Atty. Liberato Ibadlit of Aklan was also lured to the radio program as he later applied in his 50-breeder Badiangan piggery that is expected to yield 200 fattened heads. FITS Banga extends assistance to this private investor who has applied this natural farming technology in his 15-hectare fruit tree plantation. Also, former mariner Jennis Morales practices vermicomposting while raising some 800 chicken layers in his small farm in Barangay Pagsanghan.

Valuable data are made available because of the FITS Center’s maximum use of ICT facilities. Through the regular use of K-Agrinet ICT facilities, FITS Banga has made it a point to maintain contact and keep track of these satisfactory practices. In effect, useful data backing up NFS’s impact on the farmer integrators and cooperators are found at the K-Agrinet database and other materials produced in digital formats. This growing number of agriculture and technology materials makes the FITS Center simply fit to serve the equally growing need of the farmers in Banga and the neighboring places. To this, the indispensable radio program pans out to continuously broadcast to the farms the knowledge, information and technology needed in farming activities.


LOLO AT LANZONES
Making use of K-Agrinet database facilities in the FITS Center in Banga, Aklan, WESVARRDEC Regional Techno Gabay (RTG) Staff Nick Banquero assists farmer Emiliano Rentillo in accessing information on Longkong lanzones production.

From Listener to Resource Speaker
As part of its programming, “Techno Pinoy Farm Watch” updates farmers and listeners on FITS schedules and its other activities, a mechanism that supplies the farmers’ need for information on agriculture and related technologies. Utilizing modern means of communication—radio softwares, SMS, etc.—and Internet, the radio program brings information on agriculture closer to the farmers and agriculture enthusiasts.
Take the case of Rene Ingalla, a 45-year-old farmer who was a former listener of the radio program but is now a member of the pool of resource speakers who share their experience-based farming expertise. Nong Rene begins his day listening to “Farm Watch Techno Pinoy,” an agriculture-oriented radio program aired over DYMT-FM. He spends his day tending to his fruit trees and making organic fertilizers which he sells to his fellow farmers.

From his first visit to the FITS in 2004 up to the present, Nong Rene has not used synthetic fertilizers in his farms which are planted to rambutan, rice, banana and dalanghita in a one-hectare land in Barangay Sibalew, a hilly area some 16 kilometers from the Banga town proper. An advocate of natural farming system (NFS), Nong Rene has developed his know-how on NFS concoctions, or organic foliar fertilizers which are prepared using indigenous materials.

Determined to explore new possibilities based on what he learns, Nong Rene innovates the use of fertilizers and tries out different variations of indigenous microorganisms (IMOs) by applying knowledge he has gained after long years of being a full-time farmer. In fact, Nong Rene experimented and developed the Sampaliya [wild ampalaya breed] concoction, which is now considered an herbal medicine proven best for diabetics and women with myoma, among others.

As barangay kagawad, Nong Rene also makes use of his access to people in sharing his knowledge. Such political privilege gives him more access and advantage to reach out to more farmers. Because of the popularity gained among his folks and fellow farmers whom he has been helping through knowledge sharing, he realized the need to have a cellphone through which he can further share with others the technology he learned. For a number of times since 2005, he has been participating and leading the discussions about his practice in growing calamansi over the radio and in most farmers’ gatherings in Aklan.

Testimonials by farmers and listeners made through letters, phone calls and text messages, including those from the constituents in Banga attest that they were convinced of and therefore adopted the natural farming practices because these have produced good results. In one way or another, others have expressed gratitude after they have been helped by the information provided via the program.

All information provided in the preceding report can be accessed and double checked through a variety of sources of objectively verifiable indicators (OVI) including a Record of Distributed IEC Materials, Record of Available IECs and K-Agrinet Banga Visitors’ Logbooks. They can also be made available through the K-Agrinet laptop entrusted to the FITS Banga Manager and the computer Files and tapes of “Techno Pinoy Farm Watch” records. All other information can also be accessed through the three K-Agrinet desktop computers maintained in the FITS Center in Banga, Aklan

Attesting further on how the ICT mechanism has worked well between and among its stakeholders, Nong Rene’s story is one among the many stories that prove the effectiveness of the mechanism. Their stories are documented in the FITS Banga 2005 Annual Narrative Report, the Programming Records Archives (tapes and computer files) and the WESVARRDEC Impact Assessment Form conducted by the consortium from October 2006–January 2007 sought to identify and quantify the impact of this intervention.


References Consulted
FITS Banga. 2006. 2005 Annual Narrative Report. Banga, Aklan.
FITS Banga. 2007. “Natural Farming System for Corn.” PowerPoint. Banga, Aklan.
WESVARRDEC. 2007. “The NFS and IFS Package of Technology.” Iloilo City.