Tanay, Rizal - July 29, 2024—Farmers and agriculture extension workers from Rizal Province collaborated with International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) researchers to enhance agricultural practices and technology adoption among local farmers.
A diverse group of participants, including farmers and agriculture extension officers from the municipalities of Baras and Morong, attended a Human-Centered Design (HCD) workshop conducted by IRRI. HCD is a qualitative research method that helps groups of stakeholders solve problems and seek solutions that prioritize end-user needs.
The workshop was geared towards co-designing the user interface for the cluster-level Rice Crop Manager (RCM) recommendations for developing a new module of the Rice Crop Manager Advisory Service (RCMAS).
Cluster-level crop and nutrient recommendations are needed to optimize yields and profit at scale. RCM recommendations are provided to farmers through a one-page printout and texts to improve and guide crop management. The system also enables extension workers to use a computer or smartphone to provide farmers with crop management recommendations matching their field conditions.
"We learned how to operate the RCM," said Evan Velgado, president of the Lumang Ilog 1&2 Farmers Association in Baras, Rizal. "In this workshop, we learned how to think through and find appropriate solutions to the problem of encouraging our fellow farmers to manage fertilizers properly."
Mr. Velgado also presented their groups' proposed solutions to problems that hinder other farmers from adopting better nutrient management practices.
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| Mr. Evan Velgado presents their group outputs on solutions to identified problems under the context of encouraging fellow farmers to adapt to better nutrient management. |
Other attendees included staff from the Philippine Rice Research Institute and the Agricultural Training Institute, the Regional Field Office Research Division, and the Farmer and Fisherfolk Clustering and Consolidation (F2C2) Program of the Department of Agriculture in Region IV-A.
This initiative is part of Leveraging Farmer Groups: Accelerating Reach and Uptake of Better Nutrient Management by Farmers at Cluster Levels (CLeveR) Project. CLeveR aims to optimize the efficiency of the RCMAS interview process by creating customized nutrient management recommendations for clusters of farmers with similar field characteristics and farming practices and by leveraging organized farmer clusters within the F2C2 program.
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