Cordillera commits 100% registration of heirloom rice areas

April 7, 2018 Community Billboard

The Department of Agriculture (DA)-Cordillera Heirloom Rice Project (HRP) in partnership with the municipal and provincial local government units (LGU) within the region committed a 100% accomplished National Farmer Registration System (NFRS).
The NFRS is designed to identify and register all farmers and farms nationwide to facilitate the planning and execution of support programs to farmers. The NFRS will serve as an information platform which will assist DA in focusing interventions where they are most needed and where resources will have greater multiplier effects.
The LGU of Kibungan, Benguet; Banaue and Hungduan, Ifugao; Pasil, Kalinga; and, Bauko and Barlig, Mt. Province promised a finished geotagging and registration of the respective municipalities’ heirloom rice production areas by the end of the year.
The registration will contain information about the farm parcel (size, location as per title). Information on the owners, farmers, tillers/tenants, leasers and others and current land use will also be collected. The data gathered will be registered and verified before the release of an official identification card of the farmer and the farmer’s field/s.
Melfer Gaspar, Agriculturist I, emphasized that heirloom rice areas have a different way of geotagging compared to commercial rice areas. Gaspar expounded that heirloom rice is planted in small parcels of fields and in terraces form “if the distance between rice terraces in height is high, geotagging per terrace is advised,” he explained.
Prior to the registration of the farmers, the heirloom rice areas per farmer will be geotagged using a global positioning system (GPS) device. At the same time, the farmer and the field will be registered following a specific questionnaire online. Also, the data gathering will be conducted onsite to have a more precise and accurate information.
The commitment was agreed during the conduct of Training Workshop on Geotagging and Mapping of Heirloom Rice Terraces in Banaue, Ifugao last March 27-28. The activity capacitated 15 agricultural extension workers (AEWs) from the said municipalities of the importance, parts, functions, and registration of geotagging and the NFRS.
As part of the training, the AEWs geotagged and registered the first farmer and field in Ifugao. Aida Paganaje and one of her fields measuring 853 m2 area were registered and geotagged. The field is purposely used for heirloom rice production and is in Bocos, Banaue, Ifugao.
Furthermore, P250,000 total worth of GPS devices were also distributed to the participants in order to geotag the heirloom rice production areas and start registering farmers and fields. JENNY M. DAYAO/PR / ABN