Third season-long rice farming training program held for extension agronomists

Participants attend a briefing on training
and field activities with Philippine farmers.

The 18-week Season-long Rice Farming Training for Extension Agronomists opened at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in Nueva Ecija, Philippines, on 17 June 2013.

The training program, now on its third year, has 21 participants from Cameroon, the Gambia, Liberia, Zambia, and the Philippines.

It seeks, through the participants, to contribute to a greater and sustainable harvest of quality rice in each country and will demonstrate that the application of up-to-date rice farming practices and farm mechanization will result in increased food security and improvement in the livelihoods of rice farmers, their families, and communities.

It includes a participatory technology demonstration (PTD) and a farmers field school (FFS), in partnership with Philippine farmers. As part of the program, IRRI, will hold follow-up meetings with participating organizations in Africa and with training participants with the intent to implement small projects by applying knowledge and skills acquired from the training in the participants’ respective countries.

The program will run until 18 October 2013, covering the 16-week rice production training at PhilRice and two-week mechanization training and planning workshop at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

It is managed by IRRI and is being jointly implemented with the Government of Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The course is led by Noel Magor, program leader and Training Center head, with Joseph Rickman, IRRI senior scientist; Eugenio Castro, Jr., project coordinator and facilitator; Takahiro Nakamura, JICA; David Shires, consultant; and Zakaria Kanyeka, training coordinator in Africa.