This means that we will focus on our customers' needs, preferences and values to build a close and productive relationship. We will leverage digital transformation to efficiently respond to both our internal and external stakeholders, improve the productivity of our human resources, and achieve better data quality, accessibility and security. We will bring R4DE services further to the grassroots and along the margins of society.

As we enter the era of the 5th industrial revolution, we will leverage digital transformation to effectively respond to both our internal and external stakeholders, improve our human resource productivity, and improve data quality, accessibility and security.

EXPERT’S CORNER

As we transition from commodity-oriented to a customer-oriented R4DE, we will take a closer look at their needs, preferences and values to better serve them. We will integrate all our smart technologies into one system to extend the reach of our platforms and better serve our customers' needs. By promoting a more balanced working relationship between human creativity and increasingly smart technologies, we will be more strategic in our contribution to the development of the rice industry.

We will use our core competency in R4DE to advance science and technology for a greater cause.

FLORDELIZA H. BORDEY

With a vision of “Advanced Science and Technology for Thriving Rice Communities Towards Sufficient and Affordable Rice for All”, the Institute will strive for climate-smart, socially inclusive, demand-driven and partnership-based Research for Development and Extension (R4DE). These insights point the way to achieving the desired impact by focusing R4DE operations on our end customer – farmers. Together with the institute's specific programs on Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund Seed and Extension and Malusog (Golden) Rice, as well as disciplines and area projects, these flagship programs will deliver R4DE results that will bring us closer to the desired outcomes such as improved productivity and farmer income , greater consumer access to affordable, safe and nutritious rice and stable rice supply.

Through this fresh Strategic Plan, we look forward to a better PhilRice for better rice communities.

CHARISMA LOVE B. GADO-GONZALES

RSS aims to improve and ensure a sustainable and robust seed supply chain in the country and ensure that high quality seeds of priority rice varieties are produced in sufficient quantities and on time. The components of seed production that are expected to provide sufficient rice seed are inbred seed production and propagation of hybrid parents/F1 seeds; the resulting high-quality rice seeds are for distribution and use by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, the National Rice Program and other rice stakeholders in the seed value chain. Bermy's experience is a constant inspiration in incorporating R&D innovation for greater impact embedded in Scaling Modern and Adaptive Rice Technologies for Prosperous Farming Communities (SMART Farm).

This new program focuses on innovating rice farming systems through the development of the most advanced climate-resilient technologies across the value chain.

INPUTS

PROJECTS

SITE-SPECIFIC AND ADAPTIVE DEPLOYMENT AND SCALING

OUTPUTS

OUTCOMES

Improved Productivity

Efficient rice farming

Data-driven governance,

As a follow-up program, the Rice Business Innovations System (RiceBIS 2.0) aims to develop rice and rice-based businesses to meet the needs of farmers in a resilient and sustainable manner and to ensure accessible and affordable rice. The program aims to revitalize rice-based farming communities by developing an agribusiness model with improved value chain efficiency. All these efforts are expected to enable the development of investment portfolios of rice and rice-based products/services for potential investors and innovation models of small, medium-sized enterprises for different groups of farmers; strengthen partnerships in the public and private spheres to increase the competitiveness of farmers and appropriate policies to provide mechanisms to provide enabling mechanisms for our farmer-entrepreneurs.

According to Merily Ortega, the association's president, the Rice Business Innovations System (RiceBIS) Community Program taught them the technologies and skills needed to produce and market their rice, enabling them to sell at a lower price.

YOBHEL LOUISSE P. BELTRAN

FEATURE

With the traditional way of planting rice, we employed planters that cost more than P10,000. Although P5 was added to their cost of production at the mill, they were able to sell their rice higher than the farm price. With the good farming practices and entrepreneurial skills learned from RiceBIS, the SanGlad RiceBIS Farmers Association was able to sell their produce at P20 per kilo.

Information and communication technology (ICT) and digital technologies pave the way for decision making and proactive action for our policy makers, researchers, development workers and rice farmers.

HANAH HAZEL MAVI B. MANALO

It generates updated (seasonal) data on planted rice area, timing of planting, and yield and production estimates, assessing damage from typhoons, floods or drought by producing area maps. Planting and production data have been useful in assessing the synchronization of the National Rice Program's production-related activities with the actual planting situation. Data on rice growth stages are used in making a proposal to apply for additional funds to mitigate expected declines in palay production.

We will continue to use data from PRiSM for program planning as it gives us advance insight into sector performance.”

GEMS

RCMAS

The prices of necessities started to rise and they were barely able to budget their daily expenses. Determined to learn and manage their own vegetable farm, Kharen and Telma attended a Farmer Field School (FFS) on Good Agricultural Practices Vegetable Production after being contacted by a barangay councilor. For six months, FFS enrollees underwent a session once a month in which they were taught about crop diversification.

EWS-KT allocated 500 square meters to each of the participants and regularly monitored their progress in vegetable production.

CHRISTINE MAE A. NICOLAS

While most people have their careers planned out by the age of 20, Kharen Pascual and Telma Santiago are just getting started. Estrella, San Mateo, Isabela used to be an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) in Hong Kong like her husband who still works in Taiwan; this was her way of helping provide for her family's needs until the pandemic struck. Although her parents owned a farm, according to her, she never thought of growing vegetables until she realized how beneficial it could be.

This has been jointly implemented by the East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation (EWS-KT) and PhilRice since 2020.

START IT UP

But now that I am able to calculate the profit by doing this, I can feel that life is getting somewhat easier now that I am able to help my OFW husband,” she expressed her pride in herself. But now that I am able to calculate the profit by doing this, I can feel that life is getting somewhat easier now that I am able to help my OFW spouse. The face-to-face training was easier because I had some knowledge of the topics from tuning in PalayAralan,” said the rice specialist-turned-farmer.

We wouldn't have gotten here if I had stopped trying to learn when personal training stopped,” Mark recalled.

MOTIVATE

This helped Mark transition when the lockdown was lifted and training courses were held in person again. Mark was a student at a Farmer Field School (FFS) in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and their training was halted. I prefer face-to-face training because nothing beats doing real activities and experiencing the real thing, but online lectures were good enough for me because I was still learning,” said Mark.

I love what I do and I'm determined to be good at it, so I really make an effort to go.

AURA SHAZNAY P. TUMULAK

For Mark, overcoming the challenges of the pandemic was just the beginning, and there will be more to come. But Mark is safe because he knows he has the will to go through anything. I don't dwell on what ifs, I just go straight to the root of my problems and see what I can do,”.

Unlike his classmates who waited out the travel restrictions, he turned to the Internet to feed his eagerness to learn about farming.

INFOGRAPHICS: SARAH JOY N. RUIZ

It comes from his background as an IT degree holder, where he was taught to assess a situation, diagnose a problem and identify a solution. One of the legacies of Montecalvo, also known as the Action Man, is his remarkable ability to turn useless land into rich fields. In 1998, he was appointed Officer-in-Charge of PhilRice Agusan, while also serving as the coordinator of the Mindanao Island Rice Program under the Department of Agriculture from 2005 to 2010.

He later engaged in research activities at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in 1993 and served as a deputy at Misamis Oriental State College in 1995.

CORPUZ, MASBATE Deputy Executive Director IV

In 1981, he obtained a Diploma in Agricultural Administration from De La Salle Araneta University, and in 2005, he obtained a Diploma in Business Economics majoring in Food Systems Management from the University of Asia and the Pacific.

STAFF

EXTRAORDINAIRE

MINARD F. PAGADUAN

Tado's efforts in establishing the National Rice Engineering and Mechanization Center (NREMC) were instrumental in promoting research on cost-saving technologies. As REMD Division Chief, he played a key role in securing funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency to improve the mechanization of rice farming in the Philippines. Tado has received awards including the title of ASEAN Engineer by the ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organizations, Most Outstanding Official by PhilRice in 2005, and Outstanding Agricultural Engineer in the Field of Farm Power and Machinery by the Philippine Society of Agricultural Engineers (PSAE ) in 2006.

Development Communication Division has won national and international awards, most recently the Outstanding Institution for Science Journalism in the Paragala Awards from the Holy Angel University (HAU) Communicators League and the.

CHRISTINA A. FREDILES

Assuming that the rice program is religiously implemented with a sincere heart and mind, I hope that there will be enough food for everyone. I hope that the smuggling of agricultural products is brought to an end as it affects the prices of our local goods. Lowering the cost and increasing the yield and income of our farmers is the ultimate goal of DA.

We also need to cultivate the minds of our younger generation to involve them in rice farming.

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Program launched in Antique