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.