DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/06 April) — The city will build this year the Farmers Information Technology Services Center to provide information services to farmers and fisher folk, the City Agriculture Office said Thursday.
Roselio Tabay Jr., assistant city agriculturist, said the center is one of the 10 components of the P10-million Sustainable Agri-Fishery Development Plan for 2013 to be implemented in the city’s nine districts.
Other project components are sustainable agro-forestry development; tissue culture production; cereals production enhancement; vegetable seeds production; organic agriculture development; agricultural engineering services; and strengthening of participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation.
With a budget of P415,084, the center aims to improve efficiency of information campaign in support to the city’s agricultural programs, according to the project design.
Aside from providing the FITS center, the program will provide farmers and fisher folk access to technology information in print, audio and video, and database formats.
It will also link them to research institutions through websites and to the CAO webpage.
Production and distribution of information and education campaign materials, provision of technology promotion and feedback through newsletters, and providing venue for networking of experts and clients will also be implemented through the FITS.
The program aims to “strengthen information and technology services as well as develop, validate and promote an effective mechanism for the research and development utilization,” according to the project design.
In addition, it will “strengthen the link among technology generators, servers and adaptors and improve efficiency of information campaign in support of the city’s agricultural programs.”
All project components will be implemented from April to December this year, while quarterly reports are expected to be submitted to the CAO for monitoring and evaluation, as stated in the schedule of activities. (Lorie Ann Cascaro/MindaNews)