WESVARRDEC MS featured in ABS-CBN’s “Sikat Ka, Iloilo”

By Niño S. Manaog
Regional Applied Communications
WESVARRDEC

More technologies, more mileage.

For the fifth time this year, farmer scientists or Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) of the Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (WESVARRDEC) have been featured in ABS-CBN Iloilo’s “Sikat Ka, Iloilo,” a daily news and public affairs program of ABS-CBN Iloilo hosted by anchorman, Atty. Jobert Peñaflorida.

FARMER PRODUCERS ON TV
(Clockwise from top left) In August 2009, Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) Rebecca Tubongbanua of FITS OPA Guimaras and her FITS Manager Judy Bulquiren reply to questions by ABS-CBN Iloilo anchorman Jobert Peñaflorida; MS Ramon Peñalosa and Dr. Cora Navarra share the probiotic technology in October; WESVARRDEC team introduce the consortium in July; and FITS Pavia's MS Joselito Pudadera and his media exposure in September solicited a number of queries about darag native chicken from potential raisers across Iloilo province.

This December, MS Baltazar Gumana of the Farmers Information and Technology Services Center (FITS) Center in Pavia, Iloilo will be featured for his cutflower culture.

In the previous months, three other MS were featured in the program. In August, “Sikat Ka, Iloilo” featured MS Rebecca Tubongbanua of FITS OPA Guimaras, who is a processor entrepreneur famous for her McNester mango process products.

In September, MS Joselito Pudadera who maintains a darag native chicken farm in Leganes, Iloilo also shared his native chicken production guide, which gained the feedback of potential darag raisers from Iloilo towns. Then, October featured MS Ramon Peñalosa Jr. of FITS OPA Negros Occidental who advocates organic farming and practices probiotics-based swine culture in his Victoria City farms.

According to Dr. Cora F. Navarra, RAC Coordinator, what is significant about these media appearances is the responses that it draws from viewers across the region. In various instances, a number of queries have been made with WESVARRDEC office on the MS’s respective technologies and commodities which were seen on TV. Navarra said that with such results, the purpose of the consortium’s partnership with ABS CBN is indeed gaining fruition.

In July WESVARRDEC first appeared on the program to introduce the consortium to the viewers. The team included WESVARRDEC Director Joseph Edward Idemne and Regional Techno Gabay Coordinator Ana Mae Relingo and Regional Management Information System Coordinator Nilo Araneta .

Through the coordination of its Regional Applied Communications (RAC), these media promotion initiatives are consistent with the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed between WESVARRDEC and ABS-CBN Iloilo in May this year.