THURSDAY, 06 OCTOBER 2011 18:59 KEITH BACONGCO / CORRESPONDENT
DAVAO CITY—Farmers here do not have to run to the City Agriculture
Office (CAO) at the heart of the city if they need assistance and updates.
Since mobile phones are available even in the most remote barangays,
agriculture technicians are now just a text away.
Leonardo Avila III, CAO chief, said this city is the first in the
country to use the short message service (SMS) called Infoboard to
assist the agriculture sector.
Avila said the implementation of the system is in partnership with Smart
Communications as part of its corporate social responsibility.
He said they are using the technology in sending advisories to farmers
such as price updates on commodities and some important notices from the
agriculture department.
Every month the CAO receives an average of 5,000 queries from farmers in
far-flung barangays, the CAO chief said.
Avila cited a case of caterpillar infestation in Calinan early this year
when a farmer sought their help through SMS.
"After we got the message, we immediately dispatched our field
technician to the field to assist the farmer in containing the
infestation. The immediate response prevented a further infestation of
other crops," he told reporters.
Green caterpillar infestation must be contained in the initial stages
because it multiplies very fast, he said.
To be able to receive advisories and get immediate response from the
CAO, Avila advised farmers to manually register their Smart mobile
phones to their field technicians.
"The registration is free; they can come to our office. The advisories
we are sending them are also free. But if they will send on inquiry to
us, it's just P1 per text message," he said, saying the city has 50
technicians who are readily available to assist the farmers.
Since not all farmers in the far-flung areas have mobile phones, Avila
said his office is still negotiating with Smart Communications to offer
cheap mobile phones to farmers.
"This system is commonly used in schools and universities today. And I
have friend at the company so I asked him if we can use the system to
the farmers," he said, adding the system was introduced to the farmers
in November last year.
Around 3,000 farmers have already subscribed in the Infoboard, Avila said.
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