Farmers in Region 2 now have greater access to information on crop insurance policies and programs with the first “Kaalamang Pagsasaka sa Himpapawid” or School-on-the-Air (SOA) program featuring climate-smart agriculture and rice production.

“The SOA will be conducted in the region’s major food producing provinces—Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino.  It aims to involve 10, 000 farmer-enrollees for the first season, then later to engage more rice farmers reaching up to 300,000,” Executive Director Lorenzo M. Caranguian of the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office (DA-RFO) 2 said during the program’s launch. The launch was held at the DA-Cagayan Valley Integrated Agricultural Laboratory, Regional Government Center, Tuguegarao City on February 13, 2018.

As one of the partner-agencies, PCIC Regional Office (RO) 2 was given two time slots from 5:30-6:00 in the morning every Wednesday and Friday. With these, PCIC RO 2 will discuss the Corporation’s different agricultural insurance programs and other related matters. Ms. Ma. Concepcion P. Ventura and Ms. Abigail Jacob of PCIC RO 2 are designated regular focal persons for the SOA.  Regional Manager Edna S.P. Marallag signed for PCIC RO 2 as one of the partner-agencies.

“We are happy to be a part of the School-on-the-Air initiative, especially now that there’s an urgent need to focus on climate-smart agriculture,” PCIC President Jovy C. Bernabe said. ”We’ve been experiencing strong typhoons and frequent droughts that damage our crops, thus, farmers need to be more aware of the available crop insurance programs that the government offers.”

The SOA program is an initiative of Department of Agriculture-RFO 2 in collaboration with the different government agencies, local government units, state colleges and Universities, farmers’ organization and local media organizations in Region 2. A Memorandum of Agreement and Pledge of Commitment were signed by the heads of all the collaborating/partner-agencies to ensure the successful implementation of the SOA.